202 THE HOG. 



from all unpleasant smell. And well do we remember the pleasure 

 with which we used to view the pigs and sties of an old friend of 

 ours, now no more. A door leading out of his beautiful flower- 

 garden brought us to those equally well-tended objects of his pride. 

 The sties were always kept whitened on the inside ; the sloping floor 

 carried off all moisture to a deep gutter running between the sty 

 and the square-paved yard, each of which inclined towards it ; a 

 trough ever stood with water clear as crystal for them to drink, and 

 the animals themselves were, by washing, curry combing, and perfect 

 cleanliness about them, as neat and sleek as a lady's lap dog. They 

 were, in fact, pet pigs. Nor are we without pleasurable reminis- 

 cences of delicate spare ribs, loins, and legs of pork, and delicious 

 sucking-pigs. 



Washings, combings, and brushings, are valuable adjuncts in the 

 treatment of swine ; the energies of the skin are thus roused and the 

 pores opened, consequently the healthful functions are aided, and that 

 inertness so likely to be engendered by the lazy life of a fattening 

 pig counteracted. We cannot close this chapter without quoting the 

 following account of the mode of keeping pigs in Mexico : 



" Fine breeds of these useful animals are kept by many persons 

 of wealth, as an article of trade, in the city of Mexico ; and the care 

 and attention paid to their cleanliness and comfort so far exceed any 

 thing I have seen elsewhere, that a short account may be useful by 

 furnishing hints to our farmers, brewers, distillers, &c., by whom 

 large numbers of these valuable animals could be and are conveni- 

 ently kept. The premises where the business is carried on are ex- 

 tensive, consisting in general of a good dwelling-house, with a shop, 

 slaughter-house, and places for singeing the pigs, large bowls for 

 rendering the lard, salting and drying-rooms, and lard-rooms, with 

 wooden bins for containing the rendered fat, which is an article of 

 great consumption in Spanish cookery, being used as a substitute for 

 butter. There is also a soap manufactory, in which the oflfal fat is 

 manufactured, and apartments where the blood is made into a kind 

 of black-pudding, and sold to the poor. Behind all these are the 

 sties for the hogs, generally from eight hundred to one thousand in 

 number, which occupy a considerable range of well-built sheds about 

 thirty feet deep, with the roofs descending very low, and having the 

 entrance through low arches, before which is an open space the whole 

 length of the yard, and about twenty-four feet wide, in the centre 

 of which is a kind of aqueduct built of stone, and filled with clear 

 water supplied from a well at the end of the premises. The hogs 

 can only put their noses into this water through holes in the wall, 

 which prevents their dirtying it, as it passes through the whole 

 division of the yard. This is the only liquid given them, and their 

 food is maize or Indian corn, slightly moistened, and scattered at 



