AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 173 



should be kept in their pens, for the animals to eat as their 

 appetites or instincts may direct. It has been supposed, 

 likewise, that swine thrive the better when they can obtain 

 fresh earth, which they are often observed to swallow with 

 gi'eediness. Charcoal, it is said by some, will answer as 

 good, if not a more valuable purpose ; and that if swine can 

 obtain charcoal, they will not only greedily devour a portion 

 of that substance, but will be but little inclined to rooting, 

 and remain quiet in their pens. 



It is an object of much consequence to obtain the best 

 breed of swine, not only as regards the saving of food, but 

 producing the best qualities of flesh. The Hon. Oliver Fiske, 

 of Worcester, as before observed, has rendered great service 

 to the community by introducing to the notice of farmers in 

 this country a variety of this animal called the Bedford 

 Breed. This breed has been highly recommended by many 

 who have ascertained their merits by trial. His excellency 

 Levi Lincoln, late governor of Massachusetts, and president 

 of the Worcester Agricultural society, has given his opinion 

 of this variety, in a letter, from which the following are 

 extracts : 



' I have great pleasure in voluntarily offering myself as 

 your compurgator in the representations with which you 

 have recently favored the public, of the Bedford breed of 

 swine. The care and perseverance which have marked your 

 attention to the prospects and value of these animals, and 

 the success which has followed your exertions to introduce 

 them to the favor of practical farmers, require, at least, an 

 acknowledgment of obligation from all those who have been 

 particularly benefited by your liberality, and from no one 

 more than from myself. This breed of swine has taken the 

 place of a long-legged, long-nosed, flat-sided, thriftless race, 

 called by some the Irish breed, by others the Russian, which 

 would barely pay by their weight for ordinary keeping, and 

 never for one-half the expense of fattening, if, indeed, grain 

 would make them fat.' 



' I had three pigs butchered from the same litter, precisely 

 seven and a half months old. Their weights, when dressed, 

 were two hundred and thirty, two hundred thirty-five, and 

 two hundred and thirty-eight and a half pounds. One sold 

 in Boston for six and one -fourth cents per pound ; the others 

 were put up here for family use. The expense of keeping 

 and fattening these pigs, I am satisfied, was less than with 

 any other breed I ever raised, and the proportion of bone and 

 15=^ 



