FATTENING ARTICLES. 195 



Various articles for FATTENING swine. Skimmed 

 milk, and pea, oat, or barley meal, rank first in point 

 of excellence with respect to the quality of flesh, milk- 

 fed pork being superior to any other description, not 

 only in delicacy of flavour, but in substance and 

 weight, none weighing so heavy in proportion as the 

 milk-fed animal. Hence the bacon of the dairy coun- 

 ties is superior. Milk will fatten pigs entirely, without 

 the aid of any other food, a practice sometimes in the 

 dairies; which, however, as I have been lately in- 

 formed by Mr. Chappell, has been long discontinued 

 in Beds, and the best dairy counties, where a quantity 

 of corn is always allowed with the milk, rendering the 

 pork more substantial, and of superior flavour. 



CORN-FED pork is next in value, PEAS, OATS, and 

 BARLEY being the best adapted grain. BEAN-FED 

 pork is hard, ill-flavoured, and indigestible ; being 

 potatoe fed, it is loose, insipid, weighs light, and 

 wastes much in cookery. A similar character is 

 given of pork fed on maize or Indian corn, by an 

 experimental feeder in Warwickshire. To mix po- 

 tatoes in the food of fattening pigs, is deceptious, 

 deteriorating the pork in exact proportion. Hence 

 the ordinary Irish pork and bacon are generally 

 inferior to the English, and the market price so in 

 proportion. This inferiority has lately been stated 

 to me, by the estimation of Mr. Charles Cotterill, 

 an eminent dealer in Irish provisions, at three ounces 

 per Ib. upwards. CLOVER-FED pork is yellow, un- 

 substantial, and ill-tasted : fattened on ACORNS, it is 

 hard, light, and unwholesome ; on OIL-CAKE, SEEDS or 

 CHANDLERS' GRAVES, it becomes loose, greasy, and 

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