186 ALL-FAT CRACKLIN BREEDING. 



the hinder loins, at any rate of the species under 

 consideration. The little flesh, too, yielded by such 

 pork, is of an inferior greasy quality, and insipid 

 flavour, perhaps necessarily, from being so tho- 

 roughly saturated with the fatty material: and 

 should pigs of this description be slaughtered before 

 they have become ripe or fat, their pork will be or- 

 dinary, and their weight very short of the profitable 

 standard. On such considerations, the western pigs, 

 chiefly those of Berks, Oxford, Beds, and Bucks, 

 possess a decided superiority over the eastern, of 

 Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk ; not to forget another 

 qualification in the former, at which some readers 

 may smile, namely, a thickness of the skin, whence 

 the craMin of the roasted pork is a fine gelatinous 

 substance which may easily be masticated ; whilst the 

 cracklin of the thin-skinned breeds is roasted into 

 good block tin, the reduction of which would almost 

 require teeth of iron. The western porking breeds 

 make handsome sides of delicate bacon and hams, 

 for superior family use. The eastern pork is how- 

 ever smaller, and perhaps apparently more delicate, 

 than that here described as in reality far superior. 

 The eastern are also the quickest feeders. 



BREEDING. 



The DURATION of LIFE in the swine, is said by 

 naturalists, to extend to twenty or thirty years, who 

 report that the BOAR continues to grow to the end 

 of the term. Swine are ready for procreation at the 

 age of seven months, but the male is unprofitable 

 for that purpose until twelve months old, and is in 



