22 THE 'MEW PIG 



is 'interested,' to use the city phrase, in pigs, whether 

 he be squire, parson, farmer, labourer, gardener, police- 

 man, or postman (I believe the village schoolmasters 

 are the only class who scorn to keep a pig), the methods 

 of the Calne factories ought to be more widely known 

 than they are. The animals, in lots of not less than 

 ten, can be sent by rail directly to the factory without 

 extra charge, if the paid distance be less than 100 miles. 

 There they are weighed and classified, and the price 

 calculated directly, with a bonus of two shillings and 

 sixpence on each pig which comes up to a certain 

 standard of merit. This canon of perfection was 

 evolved at Calne, the result of a wide experience of 

 the needs of the curers, and the shortcomings of 

 1 fashionable ' pigs. Since then it has become a standard 

 the rule of Pigdom to which all its members must 

 conform, or become pork instead of bacon, and end 

 their lives as failures. 



Mr. Spencer suggests one further interesting question 

 in connection with his subject, but he does not pursue 

 it. ' When wages are lower, the price of pigs is higher/ 

 he remarks, * because the farm-labourers and artisans 

 consume a greater quantity of pork, and less beef and 

 mutton/ What would Cobbett, who saw the maximum 

 of a labourer's well-being in a plentiful supply of pork, 

 bread, and beer, say to this advance, by which that 

 sound, and then all too scarce, fare now takes the 



