186 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



Rent in arrear too and oftentimes there was no help 

 for such arrears could only be met by the sale of a 

 portion of pork : so that it often happened after deduc- 

 tions which were a first charge, so to speak, upon the 

 living bond that nothing was left to the poor families 

 for all their anxious care and trouble : and should disease 

 come upon the animal, as in the instance just referred 

 to, the cruel loss would come with overwhelming severity 

 upon the poor toiler. Such a catastrophe could only 

 find a parallel in the breaking of a penny bank. 



But looking at the bright side of the pig investment 

 it is not so roseate as it has sometimes been represented 

 to be, as the following extract may serve to show : 



" Putting things at their best, it is a happy thing for 

 the labourer when, besides satisfying the tradesman, paying 

 his rent, and saving a little piece of bacon for his own use, 

 he can get money enough from the sale of the pig to enable 

 him to purchase another ' suckling ' or rather one just 

 past that interesting stage of pig existence to start another 

 ' live ' savings bank. We will suppose that when ready 

 to kill, the average weight of a pig, fattened by an agricul- 

 tural labourer, is, say, eight ' score.' That, reckoned at 

 fifteen shillings per score, would realise six pounds. Deduct 

 from that the twenty-six shillings paid for the pigling 

 and it would be a very small one that could be got for 

 that price and the balance is four pounds fourteen. 

 Deduct from that the ' cost of maintenance ' and the 

 ' back rent/ and then let us judge whether pigland, the 

 rustic arcadia of poets and descriptive writers, is so 

 enviable a place as it is represented to be. The labourer's 

 pig, however, is in fact a kind of surety with the petty 

 village tradesman. The peasant would get no ' credit ' 

 if he had not some such security as a pig affords. It is a 

 fleshy bond, due execution of which is not unfrequently 

 exacted to the disadvantage of the labourer. There is 

 this advantage, however, about the pig system. It is the 

 one ambition of the peasant to keep a pig. It is some- 

 thing for him to look upon with pride. It acts as an 

 inducement for him to save. He delights in his pig ; for 

 he regards him, or her, as the case may be, with emotional 

 feelings which only an agricultural labourer can under- 

 stand. But it must be remembered that it is not every 

 poor labourer very far from it who possesses a pig ; 

 and those who do, are not, as we think we have shown, 

 the lucky beings which they are represented to be." x 



1 " Peasant Life in the West of England." 



