96 Next to the Ground 



have to look to either the Lord er the county 

 for more. 



Beech-mast makes the finest pork in the 

 world — not quite so firm as grain-fed meat, 

 but sweeter and more delicate. Sweet mast 

 — that is to say, butternuts, small hickory- 

 nuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, white oak and 

 post oak acorns, give good, fairly firm fat, 

 and an agreeable game flavor. Bitter mast — 

 pignuts, buckeyes, red-oak acorns, and those 

 of the Spanish oak, the black-jack, water- 

 oak, turkey oak, and over-cup oak, make flesh 

 that is oily, somewhat rank, slightly bitter, 

 with yellow fat instead of white. Still, bushel 

 for bushel, it makes more fat than any except 

 pure beech-mast. The yield is also more 

 plenty, and very much more certain. The 

 flat-woods mast was nearly all bitter, but old 

 man Shack was rather glad of it. He called 

 hogs every morning, and gave them grudging 

 handfuls of shattered corn — just enough, as 

 he explained, to ha'nt 'em home against 

 killin' time. Hogs fed even scantily at reg- 

 ular intervals, will come to the feeding-place 

 without calling at the feeding time, often per- 

 sisting for weeks after feeding has ceased. 



The instinct is turned to account against 

 wild hogs. With a wide stretch of woods, 

 and mast in plenty, there are always adven- 

 turous individuals to stray into the wooded 



