No, 149.] 215 



Mutton as food, in the long-wooled slieep it is apt to be coarse 

 grained, but easily fatted. In the smaller breed, with short wool, 

 the flesh is fine grained and very high flavored, particularly if 

 the animals are fed upon proper food. You cannot have a large 

 and fine yield of wool and delicious mutton from the same ani- 

 mal, for the reason that the management favorable to the cultiva- 

 tion of long wool is not favorable to the production of fine 

 mutton. The flesh of the ram is strong, tough, and has a dis- 

 agreeable flavor. The ewe Is fine when less than two years old ; 

 after that age, the meat becomes tough and coarse grained. The 

 flesh of tlie wether is much sought after. In sheep, the mutton is 

 not considered in perfection until the animal is at least five years 

 old; younger than this, it is not so good. We generally kill 

 them at three years old ; two years is too soon for superior and 

 highly flavored meat. Mutton, to be good, should be dark in 

 color ; this is effected by permitting it to hang up as long as pos- 

 sible without taint. Lamb, as food, is not so exciting as mutton j 

 but if fatted on grass, and permitted to suck, it is more tender 

 and milder. There is a breed of sheep in Asia Minor and in 

 Southern Africa, remarkable for their immense, fat tails, which 

 consist of a mass of marrow and fat, which is used for cooking, 

 and in the place of butter; these tails sometimes weigh 45 

 pounds. In order to prevent the possibility of injury to this 

 great luxury, the shepherds fasten thin boards under the tail to 

 sustain it, and frequently attach small cars to the sheep to support 

 it. The hog, as food : the hog is partly carnivorous and partly 

 herbivorous; he is one of the most useful of all domestic qua- 

 drupeds, and forms the principal animal food among our labor- 

 ing population. The fat of the hog differs from that of all other 

 animals; in its consistence, quality, and distribution over the 

 animal's body, the horse and the dog have no such, and the fat 

 is equally mixed with the meat. Whereas, the fat of the hog 

 covers the animal nearly all over, forming a thick layer between 

 the skin and the flesh. Cooks divide hogs' flesh into ham, bacon, 

 fresh and pickled pork, and roasting pig. They are almost uni- 

 formly employed in one of the ways mentioned as food for man. 

 Swine are sold under different names in the market; until six 

 weeks old, they are called pigs; six months old, porkers; two 

 years old, bacon hogs, or simply hogs. The flesh of the hog was^ 

 highly esteemed bj the ancient Romans; held in abhorrence by 



