and venereous, that to prevent mischief, orders were 

 given for his tusks to be broken off. No sooner had 

 the beast suffered this injury than his powers forsook 

 him, and he neglected those females to whom before 

 he was passionately attached, and from whom no 

 fences could restrain him. 



LETTER LXXV. 



To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 



The natural term of a hog's life is little known, 

 and the reason is plain — because it is neither profit- 

 able nor convenient to keep that turbulent animal 

 to the full extent of its time : however, my neigh- 

 bour, a man of substance, who had no occasion to 

 study every little advantage to a nicety, kept a half- 

 bred Bantam sow, who was as thick as she was long, 

 and whose belly swept on the ground, till she was 

 advanced to her seventeenth year, at which period 

 she showed some tokens of age by the decay of her 

 teeth and the decline of her fertility. 



For about ten years this prolific mother produced 

 two litters in the year of about ten at a time, and 

 once above twenty at a litter ; but as there were 

 near double the number of pigs to that of teats, 

 many died. From long experience in the world this 

 female was grown very sagacious and artful ; — when 



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