78] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



By this proportion, 168lbs. of potatoes weekly should add of pork, .. 6 Ibs. 

 28 Ibs. of bean-meal ditto, 4 



Growth per week 10 Ibs. 



But in the above case the owner believed his pig grew 14 Ibs. per 

 week. These particulars seem sufficient to prove that hogs will 

 pay well for feeding on potatoes and bean-meal, when those articles 

 are at a moderate price, and that a farmer may profitably grow 

 them with that view, and thereby greatly increase his manure. 



The coarser and more productive kind of potatoes, will, when 

 boiled and mashed with meal, be equal in hog feeding, to the more 

 delicate flavoured sorts, which are less productive, and should there- 

 fore be reserved for human food. Of the former 12|tons. per acre 

 have been grown (Mr. Curwen) : these boiled and mashed with 2 

 tons of bean-meal, which may be grown upon two acres, would 

 produce at the lowest estimate as above, from the potatoes 1000 Ibs. 

 of pork, and from the beans 640 Ibs. total 1640 Ibs. from three acres, 

 or 546 2-3ds Ibs. per acre. An acre of potatoes is thus proved 

 superior in nutriment to either man or beast, to an acre of the best 

 grain or pulse in the proportion of at least 3 to 1, but no prepara- 

 tion of potatoes alone is good enough for the staple food of man- 

 kind ; nor will potatoes alone, in any form, answer for fattening 

 hogs, without additions from grains, pulse, or the dairy. 



Hogs are fattened by millers witli pollard, with inferior grain 

 and pulse ground down, and by butchers with the refuse and offal 

 of slaughtered animals. A medical gentleman has suggested, that 

 in his opinion, tallow or rough fat boiled away in water, and made 

 into a stir-pudding with ground oats, barley, or other meal, or with 

 pollard, merits trial. Bacon and pork are articles of considerable 

 consumption in this county, and it is supplied in part from Shrop- 

 shire, Cheshire, and North Wales. 



Rabbits are but little attended to, except in warrens on waste 

 land. They may be kept to some advantage in sandy or rocky 

 precipices, impracticable to the plough, which may at the same 

 time be planted ; and, when properly fenced in, and thus stocked, 

 such land seems to be in the highest state of improvement of which 

 it is capable. Rabbits are well known to be extremely prolific, 

 breeding almost every month. Some tame ones are kept, and some 

 persons occupying land have bought the young ones to turn down, 

 and hunt with dogs for amusement, and for sale when grown. 



Poultry. The profits of these are of but little consideration in 



or near the populous parts of Staffordshire, from the risk of their 



