64 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



cutlets in which the muscular material shall not be 

 utterly overlaid and lost in fatty adipose matter, I 

 should counsel the sleek Berkshire. Or if, uniting the 

 two, he should desire a delicate limbed, well-rounded, 

 contented little animal, that shall browse with equa- 

 namity upon the purslane and the spare beet-tops 

 from his garden, I know none safer to commend than 

 the Suffolks. Nor is it essential that he be thorough 

 bred, since the tokens of pur sang are a red baldness, 

 and a possible twisting away of the beast's own tail, 

 which do not contribute to good looks.* 



All this is but preparatory to my reply to Lack- 

 land, who writes to me : " We have voted to have a 

 pig and a cow ; what kinds shall I get, and how shall 

 I keep them, and what shall I do with them ? " 



And I wrote back to him : " Buy what the dealers 

 will sell you for a Suffolk ; if he lack somewhat in 

 purity of blood (as he probably will), don't be punc- 

 tilious in the matter. Let his sleeping and eating 

 quarters be high and dry ; and if you can manage 

 beyond this a little forage ground for him to disport 

 himself in, and wallow (if he will) on wet days so 

 much the better. The forage, if you keep him sup- 



* I must drop, in a note, commendatory mention of the Earl of 

 Sefton Stock, of which a few animals have latterly found their way 

 to this country a. trim, sound, long-bodied breed, easy keepers, and 

 giving, with proper care, delicious rashers of bacon. 



