608 



Pigs for Pork. 



[Oct., 



PIGS FOR PORK. 



Sanders Spencer. 



During the past half century great improvements have been 

 made in our farm animals, but probably no class of stock 

 shows a greater advance than the humble pig, which has 

 become quite popular beyond the ranks of the mere agricul- 

 turist. The change in public opinion has been marked, as 

 within the memory of the present writer, extending, alas, 

 over more than sixty years, the pig was deemed to be a mere 

 necessary nuisance on the farm and was tolerated on account 

 of its utility in converting inferior farm produce into that pork 

 which formed a large portion of the meat diet of those con- 

 nected with the land. 



In the middle of last century the life of the pig was divided 

 into three parts; the first continuing for some two months, 

 was a fairly happy one, as the dam from whom it received the 

 major portion of its sustenance was looked upon for that limited 

 period as worthy of some food and attention in order that it 

 might be enabled to perform its maternal duties successfully. 

 This attention might in some cases have been continued for a 

 short time after the separation of piglings and their dam, but 

 in comparatively early life the store or growing pig had to fend 

 for itself and to search for and even to steal the limited quantity 

 of food which fell to its share for several months, frequently at 

 least twelve months, or until the harvest of the year had been 

 stored and a portion of it threshed, when in place of a spare 

 and irregular diet the fatting pig lived for a few months in ease 

 and idleness beside a continually well-filled trough. 



In the olden times, which are still nick-named good, the 

 fat pig of the period was usually one which had arrived at the 

 mature age of eighteen months. It was a large pig of no 

 particular type or form, whilst there was great variation in its 

 colour, this last being controlled generally by the fancies of the 

 residents in the various districts in which the fattened pig had 

 been bred and fattened. This fancy for a fat pig of a particular 

 colour was general and very marked, a belief existing in some 

 parts of the country that the pork from a pig of a light colour 

 was of far finer flavour than that furnished by a pig of a dark 

 colour, whilst exactlv the opposite opinion was ns firmly held 

 and acted upon in an adjoining district. As there existed very 

 little difference in the form and character of the pigs common 



