OF SELBORNE. 305 



prevent mischief, orders were given for his tusks to be 

 broken off. No sooner had the beast suffered this 

 injury than his powers forsook him, and he neglected 

 those females to whom before he was passionately 

 attached, and from whom no fences could restrain 

 him. 



LETTER XXXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



THE natural term of a hog's life is little known, and 

 the reason is plain because it is neither profitable nor 

 convenient to keep that turbulent animal to the full 

 extent of its time : however, my neighbour, a man of 

 substance, who had no occasion to study every little 

 advantage to a nicety, kept a half-bred Bantam sow, 

 who was as thick as she was long, and whose belly 

 swept on the ground, till she was advanced to her 

 seventeenth year; at which period she showed some 

 tokens of age by the decay of her teeth and the decline 

 of her fertility. 



For about ten years this prolific mother produced 

 two litters in the year, of about ten at a time, and 

 once above twenty at a litter ; but, as there were near 

 double the number of pigs to that of teats, many died. 

 From long experience in the world this female was 

 grown very sagacious and artful : when she found occa- 

 sion to converse with a boar she used to open all the 

 intervening gates, and march, by herself, up to a dis- 

 tant farm where one was kept ; and when her purpose 

 was served would return by the same means. At the 

 age of about fifteen her litters began to be reduced to 

 four or five ; and such a litter she exhibited when in her 

 fatting pen. She proved when fat, good bacon, juicy, 

 and tender; the rind, or sward, was remarkably thin. 



x 



