170 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



puts a stop to the growth of those parts or appendages that 

 are looked upon as it's insignia. But the ingenious Mr. Lisle, 

 in his book on husbandry, carries it much farther ; for he says 

 that the loss of those insignia alone has sometimes a strange 

 effect on the ability itself: he had a boar so fierce 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 XXXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



The natural term of an hog's life is little known, and the reason 

 is plain — because it is neither profitable nor convenient to keep 

 that turbulent animal to the full extent of it's time : however, 

 my neighbour, a man of substance, who had no occasion to study 

 every little advantage to a nicety, kept an 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 shewed 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 she found 

 occasion to converse with a boar she used to open all the inter- 

 vening gates, and march, by herself, up to a distant farm where 

 one was kept ; and when her purpose was served would return 

 by the same means. At the age of about fifteen her litters 

 began to be reduced to four or five ; and such a litter she ex- 

 hibited when in her fatting-pen. She proved, when fat, good 

 bacon, juicy, and tender ; the rind, or sward, was remarkably 

 thin. At a moderate computation she was allowed to have been 

 the fruitful parent of three hundred pigs : a prodigious instance 

 of fecundity in so large a quadruped ! She was killed in spring 

 1773. 



I am, &c. 



