468 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap, xxiii, 



together with their cost price, and the skim- 

 milk of a couple of small cows, they stand 

 me, in all, at about hd. per lb." 



This our relation calls " no great bargain;" 

 though he had four capital flitches of bacon, 

 and admits that a butcher offered him 11. for 

 the pair, and that he probably could not buy 

 such meat for less than ^d. a pound. To 

 which should be added, the value of the head, 

 feet, and entrails, of which country people 

 make so many homely delicacies ; besides the 

 pleasure of having pork of one's own feeding. 

 On which, should any one cast a sneer, let it 

 be known that home-fed pork forms a frequent 

 and prominent dish at the Royal Table. 



On the subject of bacon we shall speak 

 hereafter : but where a sow is not kept, and 

 that pigs are fed and killed young, as deli- 

 cacies for the table, they can only be reared 

 for that purpose, when taken from the sow, 

 upon milk and meal alone ; which is the 

 mode always employed in producing real 

 "dairy-fed pork;" and if any coarser food 

 be given, it will injure the flesh. In proof of 

 this we, as an experiment, some years ago, 

 took two young pigs of equal weight from the 



