THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



left she stood at the bars, gazing after him until he 

 was out of sight. 



It is from the economic standpoint that I like to 

 approach this question. It does not pay to make 

 anything unhappy; it pays to make everything 

 about us as comfortable as possible. I have no 

 liking for swine, yet in a small country homestead 

 they can often be kept as profitably as hens. The 

 object is to have some way of disposing of the house 

 waste and garden surplus. Some of this can go to 

 the cow , and often a horse likes nothing better than 

 a pail of nicely prepared stuff from the kitchen. A 

 laborer's family, without a horse, will probably 

 keep a pig — and wisely. As generally treated, 

 these are vile companions, housed in filth. Allowed 

 the run of the orchard, they are far from offen- 

 sive, and are at the same time valuable in the way of 

 destroying grubs in the soil and in wormy apples. 

 Such pigs make healthy meat, while those bred in 

 filth do not. Prof. Shaler, of Harvard University, 

 says, "It is commonly supposed that our pigs are 

 among the least intelligent of the creatures which 

 man has turned to his use. This is due to the fact 

 that the condition in which these animals are kept 

 insures their degradation, by cutting them off from 



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