128 AGRICULTURE. 



means of doing it. The flesh of the pure Merino 

 is neither so abundant nor so well flavoured as that 

 of the mixed races, and, when brought to the great- 

 est perfection, the quantity of his wool is less. His 

 carcass, when prepared for market, does not exceed 

 10 pounds a quarter, and the average weight of his 

 fleece will not rise above four pounds ; whereas the 

 best English races give 25 pounds the quarter, and 

 fleeces weighing 7 and 8 pounds each. 



V. Of the Hog. 



The wild boar is considered the type of this spe- 

 cies, of which there are several varieties. The most 

 distinguished of these are the Asiatic or Chinese hog, 

 the European hog, with long, broad, and pendant ears, 

 and the Solipede, or horse-hoofed hog of Sweden.* 

 As this animal is principally useful as food, the im- 

 provers of the species have aimed only at forming 

 a race which, with the least expense and in the 

 shortest time, should acquire the greatest bulk and 

 the highest degree of fatness. It is on this princi- 

 ple that the Chinese hog, which fats promptly and 

 easily, but which attains only to a small size, is with 

 great propriety mixed with the hog of Europe, which 

 acquires a much greater bulk, but is proportionably 

 slow and difficult of fattening. The result of this 

 mixture has been many improved races, at the head 

 of which stands the hog of Parma, and those known 

 in England by the names of the Bakewell and By- 

 field breeds. f 



The weight of the hog at eighteen months or two 

 years of age (taking for granted a regular and suf- 

 ficient nourishment), varies from two to four hun- 

 dred pounds. Buffon mentions a hog killed in Eng- 



* This is the Sus angula indivisa of Linnaeus. Aristotle was 

 the first to mention this species, and, after him, Pliny. Linnaeus 

 says, it is common in IJpsal and other cantons of Sweden. 

 Amenitat. A cad., tome v., page 450. 



t The Berkshire has since come into notice, and has obtained 

 a decided preference over other varieties. J. B. 



