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PORK-BACON-HAM.—NO. 1. 
PORK—BACON—HAM—No. 1. 
From a Prize Essay, an exceedingly interest¬ 
ing paper, on the “ Breeding and Management 
of Pigs,” lately published in the Journal of the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England, by Mr. 
Thomas Rowlandson, we condense the fol¬ 
lowing and succeeding articles on the respec¬ 
tive merits of conversion into fresh meat, pick- 
led pork, bacon, and ham, with the modes of 
preparing the same:— 
In choosing a pig for any of the purposes 
above enumerated, or, in fact, for any purpose, 
or of any breed, there are certain points which 
should be looked for in all, namely, the skin 
should be soft, and thin, of a bright pink color; 
the neck short, the chest wide (which denotes 
strength of constitution) ; broad, straight back, 
short head, and fine snout; small legs and 
hoofs; the snout should be slightly curved up¬ 
wards, and, in a large breed, it not unfrequently 
happens that there exists a pretty prominent 
swelling on the snout between the nasal and 
frontal bones; the sow should have at least 
twelve teats. If properly supplied with food, 
the pig can be profitably sent to the butcher 
from the age of one month to four-and-twenty; 
it would, therefore, be improper to pass over in 
this place, the relative merits of the various 
breeds in profitably rearing those luxuries 
ycleped sucking pigs, which the late Charles 
Lamb declares to be, “ Of all the delicacies of 
the whole mundus edibilis I will maintain this 
to be the most delicate. I speak not of your 
grown porkers—things between pig and pork, 
those hobble-de-hoys—but a young and tender 
suckling, under a moon old, &c.” 
It is known that the large English breed are 
prolific and good mothers; that the Chinese have 
an early aptitude to fatten, are prolific, but bad 
nurses; if, therefore, the object in breeding is 
to get quit of the progeny, about or soon after 
they have arrived at lunar maturity, we should 
put a Chinese boar to the large English sow; 
if we want the hobble-de-hoys of eighteen or a 
score pounds’ weight, we must breed the Nea¬ 
politan cross already noticed, but which I shall 
in future define by the term improved Essex 
breed. No description of breed will raise suck¬ 
ing pigs to the same size at six weeks old as 
the cross just noticed ; they also form excellent 
porkers, speedily attaining a weight of 48 to 56 
lbs. (the favorite size for porkers); if allowed 
to grow much larger, it will be found to pay 
better to treat them as stores until they are 10 
or 12 months old, and then put them up to fat¬ 
ten; in this way, however, they are not so profi¬ 
table as the improved Essex, neither do they 
make such fine bacon as the improved Berk¬ 
shire. For the purpose of obtaining moderately, 
or even large-sized hams and bacon, no breed 
stands so high as the improved Berkshire, which 
may be considered the most generally useful to 
a farmer who desires a sort generally profitable 
in any stage of its growth. The improved 
Berkshire sow will suckle ten to a dozen 
sucking pigs within a moderate period, es¬ 
pecially if they are assisted by artificial means 
hereafter to be noticed; in this respect, how¬ 
ever, it is by no means equal to the improved 
Essex or the Old English sow when put to a Chin¬ 
ese boar. For the purpose of making fine, del¬ 
icate pickled pork, the Berkshire is inferior only 
to the improved Essex; and for the purpose of 
making ham and bacon of moderate size, name¬ 
ly, from 10 to 12 stones’weight the carcass—not 
quite equal to the Essex at the former, but pretty 
nearly so at the latter and increased weights. 
The distinction here drawn arises from the fact 
that the Essex breed, if properly maintained 
from the first, arrives very early at maturity, in 
so far as its frame or bony structure is con¬ 
cerned, whilst the Berkshire takes a longer pe¬ 
riod to arrive at its ultimate and larger size; 
the consequence is, that a small breed like the 
Essex will, with proper forcing, arrive at its full 
natural size by the time it is nine months old, 
whilst the Berkshire takes 12 or 15 months ere 
it ceases to grow. 
Now, it is a well known fact, that during the 
earlier stages of animal life, the nutritive parts 
of the food ingested by the animal and assimi¬ 
lated by its organism, is appropriated princi¬ 
pally to the development of the frame, the 
growth of the bones, tissues, and muscles, to¬ 
gether with a moderate amount of fat, the uses 
of which latter will shortly be noticed. Of the 
inorganic constituents of the food, phosphate 
of lime is the one for which there exists the 
largest demand, constituting as it does so large 
a portion of the gross weight of bones, from 15 
per cent, at birth to 50 per cent, when aged, 
and entering more or less as a constituent of 
the muscles and tissues. Of the nitrogenous 
portions of the food of animals, the muscles, 
tissues, and gelatinous substances absorb the 
whole excess above the quantity" excreted. Of 
those articles of food whose chemical compo¬ 
sition consists of carbon and hydrogen, such as 
starch, sugar, fat, &c., there can be little doubt 
but they, by their combustion, afford heat, and 
further, the amount of their excess beyond that 
required for the supply of animal heat, and not 
