OF LIVE STOCK. 149 



oats ; or on beans from fallows, being a meliorating crop, 

 or if the partial use of oxen were adopted. 



4. HOGS. The breeding of hogs was formerly but little 

 attended to in Scotland. In the counties bordering with 

 England, however, and in all the more improved districts 

 in Scotland, the prejudices which were formerly entertain- 

 ed against this species of stock, have in a great measure died 

 away. One farmer in Roxburghshire states, that he keeps 

 six or seven breeding swine ; and in Dumfries-shire, and 

 the western counties, a considerable number of hogs is kept, 

 by which the quantity of Westmoreland hams, so celebrated 

 in the London market, is said to be considerably augment- 

 ed. On the whole, it may be accounted one of the defects 

 in Scottish agriculture, that so profitable an animal as the 

 hog, which thrives upon refuse which no other animal 

 would consume, and the value of which is in a manner all 

 clear gain, should not be more attended to. 



I am informed by a farmer, that he keeps from five to 

 seven breeding swine, and disposes of most of their produce, 

 when from six weeks to three months old ; considering this 

 system fully as profitable as fattening them for sale. He 

 generally has a good demand for them at these ages, as 

 many people, such as tradesmen, villagers, Sic. wish to fat- 

 ten a pig or pigs, who could not conveniently keep a breed- 

 ing sow. Having this advantage, there is scarcely a cottager 

 or weaver's family in the neighbourhood, who have not 

 their fat pig killed, after being fed on the refuse of their po- 

 tatoes, and the offals of their kitchen, to the weight of from 

 eight to twelve stone. 



Another correspondent states, that on a small farm, of 

 twenty-two Scotch acres, he has often fed from six to ten 

 hogs, besides rearing a number of pigs, which he annually 

 disposes of. In addition to the profit thence to be derived, 



