CHAP. XXIV. 



FARMING FOR LADIES. 481 



ever, the cartilage gives way, and the ope- 

 ration must be performed again ; in conse- 

 quence of which either the gristle of the 

 snout is pared, or the two strong tendons 

 which it contains are severed, and this, it has 

 been affirmed, without occasioning the animal 

 any pain ; on which, however, a writer in the 

 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' gravely remarks, 

 " that so far as he can credit the testimony 

 of the pig, it seems to think otherwise, and 

 seldom refrains from expressing its dissent in 

 a very unequivocal manner." 



It is, as we have already said, quite imma- 

 terial upon what pigs may have been fed as 

 stores, provided they have been kept in good 

 plight; but when put up to he fattened for ba- 

 con they must then be fed upon a better sort of 

 food than that already usually given to them : 

 this being for the purpose of hardening the 

 fat and rendering the flesh of that mellow 

 firmness and flavour which constitute the es- 

 sential properties of fine hams and bacon. 

 Potatoes, therefore, though largely used in 

 Ireland for the sustenance of stores, and fre- 

 quently employed, when steamed, by farmers 

 in conjunction with tail barley and oats, or 



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