23G 
Farming of Oxfordshire. 
30s. to AOs. each they are put in a sty, and fed with boiled 
roots and a little meal. The quantity of meal is increased till 
it amounts to a bushel a week. In about ten weeks the pig is 
ready to be killed. The meal is composed of barley, peas, and 
seconds wheat. The roots now used are carrots and swedes in 
the winter, with mangolds in the spring. Potatoes were for- 
merly the staple food, and were always steamed ; and these are 
much better food than any other root ; one peck of meal with 
potatoes will go as far as a bushel with swedes. Pigs do not 
thrive well with all swedes, and this is particularly the case 
with young pigs. The roots are all washed, cut with Moody's or 
Gardner's machine, and well boiled : they are then, by a mill, 
reduced to a pulp and mixed with milk and meal, and pressed 
into a cistern. The boiling is repeated every other day, and 
the food is always given warm. In many instances where roots 
are not plentiful, the meal and milk are simply mixed together. 
During the summer it is customary to give pigs whole beans, 
to allow them to run in a grass field, and supply them with milk 
in a sty. The large hogs are killed for bacon, and weigh from 
12 to 14 score. The hair is always burned off, and the pigs 
are mostly killed on the farm, weighed, and taken by the pur- 
chaser to Oxford or the nearest country town. There is a very 
considerable bacon trade carried on at Oxford, from 200 to 300 
large hogs being taken tliither every week during tlie six winter 
months of the year. The little pigs, mostly wliite ones, when 
killed are scalded and sent to London. From 60 to 60 lbs. is 
considered a nice weight for a porker. 
Except some fine specimens of Aylesbury ducks, the pjoultry 
possess no particular feature worthy of commendation. The 
Cochin China fowls have come rapidly into fashion, and seem as 
rapidly going out ; they have only the recommendation of being 
prolific layers to compensate for their frightful appearance, 
unsaleable make, voracious appetite, and tardy maturity. They 
may become useful as a cross with the common barn-door fowl, 
which throughout the country is decidedly small. 
{To he concluded in the next Part f the Journal.) 
