A PIG'S FAT SAVES ITS LIFE. 83 



and turns what he eats very quickly into in- 

 creasing the weight and size of its body. 



Some careful experiments have been made, and 

 they prove that out of every 100 Ibs. of food 

 that a bullock digests, 23 Ibs. of it go to increase 

 the size of its body. That out of every 100 Ibs. 

 that a sheep digests 26 Ibs. of it go to increase 

 the size of its body. 



But that out of every 100 Ibs. that a pig 

 digests 46 Ibs. of it go to increase the size of its 

 body. 



These facts show us that a pig can get fat in a 

 shorter space of time than any other farm animal. 



Let us return to the wild pig. He has had 

 during the late summer and early autumn a 

 good time of it and got very fat ; but now the 

 days begin to shorten, the air gets colder, the 

 leaves have dropped from the trees, all the acorns 

 and beech nuts and fallen fruit that the pig can 

 find have been eaten up. Again he has to work 

 hard with his snout to find his root food. 



Then a little later, not only does food become 

 scarce, but the frost hardens the ground, so that 

 even his powerful snout cannot get beneath the 

 soil for the roots that he requires. 



Then it is that his terrible trial begins. Not 

 only is all the surface food gone, and the ground 

 hard, so that he can dig with difficulty, or not at 

 all, but his enemies, the bears, have consumed all 



