84 A COUNTRY READER. 



their summer food, and the cold weather makes 

 them long for a dinner of pig flesh. And so the 

 poor pig is constantly on the move, and is always 

 fearful and on his guard against its destroyers. 



You can well understand that under such 

 conditions as these, many pigs would die of starv- 

 ation or be eaten by their enemies, and only those 

 pigs could survive who, in the happy days of 

 abundance during the late summer and autumn, 

 have become very strong and have stored up 

 a plentiful supply of fat. For when the winter 

 days of scant food were upon them, the pigs had 

 to live partially on their reserve of fat, and only 

 those pigs could survive that had the largest 

 reserve to fall back upon. Therefore, what we 

 term nature has only preserved those pigs that 

 in the few days of plenty could store up the 

 greatest quantity of fat. 



The farmer by his experience has noticed the 

 natural tendency on the part of the pig to fatten 

 quickly on a small amount of food, and has 

 turned that natural tendency to his advantage 

 by domesticating the pig, confining it in a sty, 

 and feeding it for the requirements of man. 



A pig will consume and do well on much 

 that would otherwise be wasted. The whey from 

 cheese; the buttermilk from the churn; the 

 parings from the potato ; the odds and ends left 

 from the table; small roots, and potatoes, that 



