THE HOG. 205 



In several counties of England great attention has 

 been given to breeding pigs, but the inland, north-west, 

 and north-east districts have generally had the largest 

 swine. The woods of the New Forest afford excellent 

 food for hogs, which are led in autumn into many parts 

 of the forest to fatten on mast. The method of treating 

 them at this season, and especially of reducing them to 

 order and obedience, is not a little curious. The swine- 

 herd first chooses some closely sheltered spot, having 

 water and plenty of oak or beech-mast, but the former, 

 if sufficiently abundant, he considers preferable ; and 

 then finds some spreading tree, round the bole of which 

 he wattles a slight circular fence, and covering it 

 roughly with boughs and sods, he fills it plentifully 

 with straw or fern. 



He now collects his colony among the farmers, 

 which amounts perhaps to five or six hundred hogs ; 

 drives them to their habitation, gives them a plentiful 

 supper of acorns or beech-mast, which he had provided, 

 and sounds his horn during the repast. He then turns 

 them into the litter, where, after a long journey and a 

 hearty meal, they sleep soundly, The next morning 

 he lets them look a little about, shows them the pool or 

 the stream where they may occasionally drink, leaves 

 them to pick up the remains of the last night's meal, 



