The pig: a treatise on the breeds, management, feeding, and medical treatment, of swine; with directions for salting pork, and curing bacon and hams

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e

ai re

R. B. HlNMAN

COLLECTION

Professor of Animal Husbandry
1921-1943

New York

State College of Agriculture

At Cornell University

Ithaca, N. Y.

Cornell University Library
SF 396.G7Y6

The pig: a treatise on the breeds, manag
3 1924 003 171 620 „

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003171620

A SUFFOLK BOAR, THE rROPERTY OF HIS LATE MAJESTY WILLIAM IV.

A BERKSHIRE SOW, THE PROPERTY OF THE LATE DUKE OP BEDFORD.

THE PIG:

A TREATISE ON THE

BREEDS, MANAGEMENT, FEEDING, AND
MEDICAL TREATMENT OF SWINE;

WITH DIRECTIONS FOR SALTING PORK, AND CURING
BACON AND HAMS.

BY WILLIAM YOUATT, V.S,

AUTHOR OF "THE HORSE," '* CATTLE,'' "SHEEP," "THE DOG," &C.
ILIUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS DRAWN FROM LIFE

BY WILLIAM HARVEY, ESQ.

NEW-YORK:

C. M. SAXTON, AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHER,
152 Folton Street.

1852.

e

Q 1^ (>33

PREFACE.

In undertaking this work the author was more influenced by an
anxious desire to extend the views of medical science generally,
and of his own profession in particular, and a wish to draw the
attention of agriculturists and veterinary surgeons to a too much
neglected and undervalued class of animals, than by the hope of
materially increasing the amount of knowledge already possessed.

It has been his task to collect all the various brief and cursory
notices which have been accorded to swine by ancient as well as
modern agricultural and medical writers ; to select those which
were valuable and worthy of record ; and then, by weaving them
into the groundwork of his own ideas and experience, to bring the
before scattered rays into one focus, so that the eye of science
may be attracted towards this hitherto neglected branch, and, from
contemplating, may be led to study it ; and practical men may be
induced to aid, by their experience, in elucidating a subject
which is as yet so little understood.

In short, he has endeavoured to act as a pioneer, to lead the
way to, and break up, a new and fertile spot; one that will amply
reward the labours of those whom he hopes to induce by his ex-
ample to bestow some little of their care upon it.

Many talented and valued friends have kindly assisted him by
hints and information; to them he tenders his sincere thanks.
Should it be deemed that he has succeeded in throwing some

VI PREFACE.

portion of light, faint though it may be, on the management and
diseases of animals whose value is becoming more and more
acknowledged every year, he will consider his labours amply re-
warded.

WILLIAM YOUATT.
December, 1846.

Editor's Note. — The sadden death of the talented and lamented author
having deprived this work of the benefit of his supervision through the
press, the Editor has to request the indulgence of the public for any
errors which may accidentally have crept in.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Zoological definition of the Pig— The order Pachydermata— The Peccary— The
Bahiroussa — The Phaco choeres— The Capibara — Various animals nave been
called by the name of Hog ........ 9

ii.

Derivation of the terra Hog— The Hog was generally esteemed by the Romans-
Worshipped by some of the ancients— Swine's flesh prohibited by the law of
Moses— By that of Mohammed— Despised by the Egyptians . . . .12

III.

The early hiBtory of Swine— Legendary and authentic records respecting the keep-
ing of them in England — Ancient Welsh laws relative to Swine— The forests of
England— Swineherds— Their mode of 'managing their herds— Calabrian Swine-
herds — Horn used to assemble the grunting troop — The Schwein-General — Herds
of Swine kept in France — Value of Pigs— Some vindication of them— Anecdotes
proving their teachability— Sagacity of a Pig— Some demonstrations of Memory
in one — Attachment to individuals— Swine not innately filthy animals— Are pos-
sessed of more docility than they usually have credit for— Their exquisite sense of
smell— Pigs said to fortell rain and wind . . . . . .15

IV.

The Wild Boar— Description of him— Characteristics— The female and her young
— Hunting the Wild Boar — Homer's description of a Boar-hunt — Roman festivals
and games — the Wild Boar in England and Scotland — In France — In Germany —
Mode of bunting the Boar in Germany— Wild Boar park of the Emperor of Austria
— Present wild breed in Germany — In Hungary — In the Styrian Alps— In Russia
— In Sweden — In the East — Habits of the Wild Hog in India — Wild Hog hunting
in India — The wild breed in America— Fearful conflict with a wild herd in
Columbia — The Wild Boar the parent stock of all domesticated breeds —
Resemblances between — Alterations produced by Domestication — Resumption of
old habits on again becoming free from control of man . . . .33

Swine in America— In large towns— Original breed— Improved breed— Swine in
Canada— In Ohio— In Mexico— Hebrides— In Columbia— In the South-Sea Islands
—Swine in Asia— In China and Japan— Ceylon— Hindostan— Turkey and Arabia
—Swine in Africa— Guinea— New Holland— Caffraria— Swine in Europe—
Malta— Italy— Germany— Hungary— Russia— Sweden— France— Swine indigenous
in the Channel Islands— In Jersey— Guernsey— Serk— Alderney— Isle of Man-
Hebrides— Orkneys .......... 45

VI.

Scotland, aboriginal breed of Swine in— Little known until lately— Present races—
England, original breed— Swine in Yorkshire— Lincolnshire— Leicestershire-
Bedfordshire— Essex— Suffolk— Norfolk— Shropshire— Cheshire— Gloucestershire—
Herefordshire— Wiltshire— Berkshire— Hampshire— Sussex— The Chinese breed-
Swine in Ireland .......... 60

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.

PAGE

Skeleton of the Hog— Skull and Snout— Teeih— Brain— Apoplexy— Inflammation of
the Brain— Phrenitis— The Spinal Cord— Epilepsy— Pa Isy and Paralysis— Tetanus
—Rabies— Nasal Catarrh— The Larynx— The Pharynx— The Os Hyoides— Strangles
and auinsy— The Chest— Diseased valves of the Heart— The Bronchial Tubes-
Inflammation of the Lungs or Rising of the Lights— Pleura-Pneumonia— Epi-
demics . . . . . . ' . • •'<

VIII.

Anatomy of the Stomach— Gullet — Intestines— Duodenum— Jejunum— Ileum^-Cce-
cum— Colon : Diseases to which these parts are liable — Enteritis — Colic — Diarrticea
—Garget of the Maw— Anatomy of the Liver and Spleen: Splenitis— Rupture of
the Spleen— Absorption of the Spleen— Peritoneum— Worms— The Bladder and its
diseases— Protrusion of the Rectum ... ... 93

IX.

The Skin and its Diseases— Gangrenous Erysipelas— Lice — Leprosy— Mange —
Measles— Desquamation of the Skin. . ..... .107

x.

Operations— Bleeding— Castration— Catching and Holding— Drenching— Ringing 114

XI.

Breeding : Principles of— Choice of the Boar and Sow — Best Breeds— Age at which
the Sow may be used for Breeding— Proper Age for the Boar to commence at— Pe-
riod of Gestation— Fruitfulness of Sows— Treatment of them during Pregnancy —
Abortion— Parturition — Ceesarian Operation — Monstrosities — Treatment of Sows
while Nursing— Treatment of Young while Sucking— Weaning and alter Treat-
ment— Prolific Powers of Swine ....... .119

XII.

On Feeding Swine— Fat Pigs— Cattle-Shows— Wbey, Milk, and Dairy Refuse-
Refuse and Grains of Breweries and Distilleries— Residue of Starch Manufactories
— Vegetables and Roots — Fruits — Grain— Suiling and Pasturing Swine — Animal
Substances as Food for them— General Directions for Bleeding and Fattening . 134

XIII.

On the Proper Construction of Piggeries— Ventilation— Description of Mr. Hender-
son's Sties— Cooking Apparatus— Curious Contrivance for Feeding Pigs — Descrip-
tion of the Piggery at Prince Albert's Home Farm — Description of a Piggery at
Lascoed— Advantages of Cleanliness— Pig-keeping in Mexico . . .147

XIV.

•

Pigs, Profit of, to the Butcher— Sucking-pigs— Pork-butchers— Pig- killing at Rome—
Pickling Pork— Bacon : Mode of Curing in Hampshire— Buckinghamshire— Wilt-
shire— Yorkshire— Westphalia— America— Brine poisonous to Pigs— Quantity of
Bacon, Ham, and Salted Pork Imported during the last Three Years— Importation
of Swine— Pig's Dung as Manure . . . . .153

' XV.

Medicines used in combating the Maladies of Swine . . . . . 166

THE PIG.

CHAPTER I.

Zoological definition of the Pig— Tho order Pachydermata— The Peccary— The Babi-
rnussa— The Phaco-choeres— The Capibara— Various animals have been called by the
name of Hog.

The Hog {Suidae Sus of the ancients and Linnaeus,) according to
Cuvier, belongs to " the class Mammalia, order Pachydermata, genus
Suidae or Sus, having on each foot two large principal toes shod with
stout hoofs, and two lateral toes much shorter and scarcely touching the
earth; the incisors variable in number, the lower incisors all levelled
forwards ; the canines projected from the mouth and recurved upwards;
the muzzle terminated by a truncated snout fitted for turning up the
ground; the stomach but little divided; the body square and thick, and
more or less covered with bristles and hairs ; the neck strong and
muscular; the legs short and stout."* All this species feed on plants,
and especially on roots, .which their snout or trunk enables them to
grub out of the earth; they will devour animal, substances, but rarely
hunt or destroy animals for the purpose of devouring them. They are
thick skinned ; said to be obtuse in most of their faculties, excepting
in the olfaetory and oral senses; voracious; bold in defending them-
selves; and delight in humid and shady places.

To this order belong the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus,
&c, the general characteristics of all of which are very similar.'

Under the generic term Suidae or Sus many zoologists have included,
besides the true hog as it exists in a wild or tame state in Europe,
Asia, and Africa, the peccary, the babiroussa, the phaco-choere, and the
capibara; we will, therefore, slightly glance at each of these varieties
before proceeding to the actual subject of the present work.

The Peccary. — This appears to be the nearest approach to swine
among the animals indigenous to the New World ; and the Collared
Peccary (Dicotyles torquatus) and the White-lipped Peccary (Dicolyles
labiatus) actually do at first sight appear to bear a very close resem-
blance to the common hog, but a more careful examination soon enables
us to detect material differences. The head is thicker and shorter, the
body not so bulky, the legs shorter, the hoofs longer, the ears shorter ,
and the tail is supplied by a slight, and at a cursory glance almost
imperceptible, protuberance. But the great difference arises from a

* Cuvier'8 Animal Kingdom, vol. iii.

10 THE PIG.

small gland on the back, which, although partially concealed by the
hair, is nevertheless evident, and hence it is that the term Dicotyka,
which signifies a double navel, has been given to this species. This
gland secretes a fluid which is emitted in great abundance whenever
the animal is irritated, and gives out a very strong odour, pronounced
as fetid and disagreeable by some authors, and by others compared to
musk.

Cuvier remarks that the external toe on the hind feet is wanting in
the peccary. The body is of a grayish hue, and thickly covered with
strong coarse bristles, stiff enough to penetrate a tolerably firm sub-
stance, and shaded black and white. These are longest on the back,
where some will be found measuring four or five inches ; they become
gradually shorter and shorter on the sides, and disappear altogether on
the belly, which is nearly bare.- On the head is a large tuft of black
bristles. The eyes and snout are small, and the ears erect.

This animal is found in vast 'numbers in Paraguay and Guiana, and
has been termed by some writers the Mexican hog. It has nearly the
same habits and tastes as the common hog; feeds on seeds and roots;
digs with its snout; expresses its emotions by grunts; is fierce in
defence of its young; very prolific ; and the flesh is similar to ordinary
pork, but harder, less sweet and juicy, and not so fat.

The peccary may be tamed if taken when young, and will attach itself
to those who are kind to it, and to dogs and other animals; is fond of
being caressed and scratched, and will answer to its keeper's voice.

The European hog when transplanted to the wilds«of America will
herd with the peccaries, but is never known to breed with them ; the
two races, although resembling each other in certain points, are, and
remain distinct. The hog is the larger, stronger, and more useful ani-
mal, and will thrive in almost any part of the world : the peccary is
smaller, weaker, and cannot be made to live in a foreign climate without
very great care and attention..

The Babiroussa ($us baby-roussa,") or Hog-deer, or, as it has been
termed by some foreign authors, the Indian hog, is chiefly found in the
Moluccas, Sumatra, Java, and other islands of the Indian Archipelago.

This animal stands higher than the common hog; its legs are Jong
and slender; its skin thin and scantily furnished with short wooly hair
of a reddish brown on the back, and lighter and more inclined to fawn-
colour on the belly. It is chiefly remarkable for the strange position
of its upper tusks, which come through the skin of the muzzle and
curve backwards almost like horns, until tliey nearly or quite touch the
skin again; they are sometimes as much as nine inches in length and
five in circumference. Pliny evidently alludes to this animal when he
says that wild boars are found in India which have two horns on the
face, similar to those of a heifer, and tusks like the common wild
boars.*

There are all the family characteristics of the hog in this animal ; the
heavy awkward gait, thick neek, small eyes, head terminated by a snout,
and grunting voice ; it feeds, too, on roots, plants, and leaves, and some
say shell-fish; but some authors assert that it does not grub roots out
of the ground like most of the swinish varieties. Sparrman informs us

* Pliny, b. 8, chap. lii.

VARIOUS ANIMALS CALLED HOG. 1 1

that the natives would rather attack a lion than this animal, for it comes
rushing on a man swift as an arrow, and, throwing him down, snaps
his legs in two and rips his belly up in a moment.*

The flesh of the babiroussa is very fine eating, and the Malays melt
down the fat to use instead of butter and oil.

Cnvier has given an account of a pair that were at the Menagerie at
Paris, the female of which was much younger and more active than the
male; he was old and fat, and Only ate, drank, and Slept. When the
male retired to rest the female would cover him completely over with
straw or litter, and creep in after him, so that both were concealed from
sight. The specimen at the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park
used to cover himself up with straw in the same way.

The Phaco-choeres. — There are two recognised species of this
variety of the hog family, the one found in Guinea and the interior of
the Cape, and spoken of by various writers as the Wark-hog, and the
other first seen in Kordofan and afterwards in several parts of Abyssinia,
and referred to by iElian as the hog with four horns. Of the habits of
these creatures little is known, save that they are inhabitants of forests,
and their food is vegetable.

They are remarkable for the two warts or fleshy excrescences which
disfigure the face- on either side ; the eyes are small ; a bristly mane of
a pale brown colour rises between the ears and extends itself along the
back, many of the hairs of which are from eight to ten inches in length ;
the body is bare ; the tail thin and terminated by a tuft of hair ; and
the tusks very large and powerful.

The Capibara — is an animal which is often classed by modern
zoologists among the Cavies ; it also resembles a two-year old hog in
shape and colour, but its head is longer, its eyes larger, and 'its nose
cleft like the lip of a rabbit, instead of being round. It has thick coarse
whiskers, a narrow mouth, and no tusks. The front hoofs are divided
into four parts, and the back ones into three, and these divisions or toes
are connected together by skin, and thus in a manner webbed, and
adapted for swimming ; indeed so much does it delight in the water
that • by some it has been called the water-hog. It lives upon fruit,
corn, and sugar-canes, and eats all the fish it can catch. These animals
associate in herds and seldom go out of their lair excepting in the night
time, or quit the borders of some kike or river, for their short legs and
strangely formed feet prevent them from running with any degree of
speed, so their only safety is in the water, wherein they plunge on the
least alarm.

If taken young this animal may easily be tamed, and is capable of
great attachment. We are informed that its flesh is tender, juicy, and
fat, but has a fishy flavour; the head is, however, said to be excellent.

Cuvier refuses to admit this last-mentioned animal among the Pa-
chyderhata, but places it in the order RonENTrA, genus Cavia.

The animal, too, so well known to us by the name of Guinea-pig,
or among the French as the Cochon iPInde, he also classes among the
Rodentia.f

The name Hog has been given by different nations to various animals
which have no affinity whatever with the actual family Sua .■ thus the

* Sparrman's Voyage, vol ii. I Cuvier's Animal Kingdom.

12 THE PIG.

Spaniards call the tatous, hogs in armour; the Hollanders term the
porcupine, the iron-hog; the porpoise has frequently been designated
the sea-hog; and Aristotle speaks of a hog-ape, which has been since
supposed to refer to one of the baboon tribe; while among our common
animals we have the hedge-hog. This has led to much confusion and'
misapprehension; but the genus Suidae or Sus is now very generally
allowed to apply only to the actual swine as they exist in a wild or
domesticated state throughout the greater part of the known world.

CHAPTER II.

Derivation of the term Hog — The Hog was greatly esteemed by the Romans — Worshipped
bv some of the ancients — Swine's flesh prohibited by the law of Moses — By that of
Mohammed — Despised by the Egyptians.

The term Hog is stated by Carpenter to be derived from the Hebrew
word Tin, by which this animal was designated among the Hebrews,
a word derived from "W1, to encompass or surround, suggested by the
round figure of this animal when in his fat and most natural state.
Bochart and Schultens, however, are more inclined to refer the Hebrew
noun to the Arabic sense of the verb, viz., to have narrow eyes, and
there is much of probability in their supposition. In some respects
swine seem to form an intermediate link between the whole-footed and
cloven-fooled animals, and in others to occupy the same ground be-
tween the cloven-footed and the digitative; but look on them in* what
point of view we may, these animals present various peculiar charac-
teristics, and are of vast importance as affording the means of suste-
nance to millions of human beings in all parts of the world. The hog
is a perfect cosmopolite, adapting itself to almost every climate ; in-
creasing rapidly, being more prolific than any other domestic animal,
with the exception of the rabbit ; easily susceptible of improvement,
and quickly attaining to maturity.

As far back as the records of history enable us to go, the hog appears
to have been known, and his flesh made use of as food. 1491 years
before Christ, Moses gave those laws to the Israelites which have
occasioned so much discussion, and given rise to the many opinions
which we shall presently have to speak of; and it is quite evident that
had not pork then been the prevailing food of that nation, such strin-
gent commandments and prohibitions would not have been necessary.
The various allusions to this kind of meat, which occur again and again
in the writings of the old Greek authors, plainly testify the esteem in
which it was held among this nation, and it appears that the Romans
actually made the art of breeding, rearing, and fattening pigs a study,
which they designated Porculalio. Every art was put in practice to
imparl a finer and more delicate flavour to the flesh : the poor animals
were fed, and crammed, and tortured to death in various ways, many
of them too horrible to be described, in order to gratify the epicurism
and gluttony of this people. Pliny informs us that they fed swine on
dried figs, and drenched them to repletion with honeyed wine, in order
to produce a diseased and monstrous-sized liver.. The Porcus Trojanus,

SWINE S FLESH PROHIBITED IN HOT CLIMATES. 13

so called in allusion to the Trojan horse, was a very celebrated dish,
and one that eventually became so extravagantly expensive that a
sumptuary law was passed respecting it. This dish consisted in a
whole hog, with the entrails drawn out, and the inside stuffed with
thrushes, larks, beccaficoes, oysters, nightingales, and delicacies of
every kind, and the whole bathed in wine and rich gravies. Another
great dish was a hog served whole, the one side roasted and the other
boiled.

Varro states that the Gauls produced the largest and finest swine's
flesh that was brought into Italy ; and, according to Strabo, in the reign
of Augustus they supplied Rome and nearly all Italy with Gammons,
hog-puddings, hams, and sausages. This nation and the Spaniards
appear to have kept immense droves of swine, but scarcely any other
kind of live stock ; and various authors mention swine as forming a
part of the live stock of most Roman farms.

In fact the hog was held in very high esteem among the early nations
of Europe, and some of the ancients have even paid it divine honours.
In the island of Crete it was regarded as sacred. This animal was
always sacrificed to Ceres at the beginning of harvest, and to Bacchus
at the commencement of the vintage, by the Greeks ; probably, it has
been suggested, "because this animal is equally hostile to the growing
corn and the ripening grape."

The Jews, the Egyptians, and the followers of Mohammed, alone
appear to have abstained from it. To the former nation it is expressly
forbidden by the laws of Moses. Leviticus xi. 7, says: "And the
swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth
not the cud ; he is unclean unto you." Mohammed probably founded
his prohibition on this one, or was induced, by the prejudices of his
followers, to make it. Numerous theories have been advanced by
different authors to account for this remarkable prohibition uttered by
Moses against a species of food generally so wholesome and nutritious
as the flesh of the hog, Maimonides says : " The principal reason why
the law prohibited the swine was, because of their extreme filthiness,
and their eating so many impurities ; for it is well known with what
care and precision the law forbids all filthiness and dirt, even in the
fields and in the camp, not to mention in the cities. Now had swine
been permitted, the public places, and streets, and houses, would have
been made nuisances."*

Tacitus states that the Jews abstained from it in consequence of a
leprosy by which they had formerly severely suffered, and to which the
hog is very subject. And several other writers concur in this view,
stating that it was on account of the flesh being strong, oleaginous,
difficult of digestion, and liable to produce cutaneous diseases, that it
Was forbidden. Michaelis observes, that throughout the whole climate
under which Palestine is situated, leprosy is an endemic disease ; and
the Israelites being overrun with it at the period of their quitting Egypt,
Moses found it necessary to enact a variety of laws respecting it, and
the prohibiting the use of swine was one of these.f

M. Sonnini states that in Egypt, Syria, and even the southern parts

of Greece, swine's flesh, although white and delicate, is so flabby and

. . t — —

* More Nevochim, part iii. c. 8.

t Commentaries on tbe Law of Moses, Art. 303. vol. ii.

14 THE PIG.

sur-charged with fat, as to disagree with the strongest stomachs,* and
this will account for its prohibition by the priests and legislators of hot
climates, such an abstinence being absolutely necessary to health be-
neath the burning suns of Egypt and Arabia. " The Egyptians," he
says, " were only allowed to eat pork once a year, on the feast-day of
the moon, and then they sacrificed a number of these animals to. that
planet. If at any other time an Egyptian even touched a hog, he was
obliged to plunge into the Nile, clothes and all, to purify himself.
The swineherds formed an isolated race, outcasts from society, forbid-
den to enter a temple, or intermarry with other families."! Hence it
probably is that, in the beautiful parable of the Prodigal Son, this
unhappy young man is represented as being reduced to the office of a
swineherd, that being considered as the lowest possible degradation.

Others are of opinion that this and many other of the prohibitions and
ordinances established by Moses were solely for the purpose of distin-
guishing the Jews from other nations, and making them what they are
to this day in all countries and under all climates, " a peculiar people."
Others, again, assert that it was with a view to correct their gross and
gluttinous habits that none hut the simplest and mildest kinds of ani-
mal food were permitted to the Jews. And, lastly, another maintains
that the swine was thus declared an abomination in the sight of God
as a lesson to the Jews to abstain from the sensual and disgusting
habits to which this animal is given.:):

This aversion to swine has descended to the Jews,- Egyptians, and
followers of Mohammed of modem times. The Copts rear no pigs,
indeed this animal is scarcely known in most of the cities of Lower
Egypt ; and the poorest Jew would sooner starve than touch a morsel
of this forbidden food, even though the presumed cause of the prohibi-
tion has long ceased to exist, and he is removed to colder climes, where
pork is both wholesome and nutritious.

By the precepts, warnings, and threatenings of the prophets, we read
that, so great was the detestation excited in the minds of the Jewish
nation against this animal, that they would not even pollute their lips
by pronouncing its name, but always alluded to it as " that beast,"
" that thing ;" and we read in the history of the Maccabees, that Eleazer,
a principal scribe, being compelled by Antiochus Epiphanes to open
his mouth and receive swine's flesh, spit it forth, and went of his ac-
cord to the torment, choosing rather to suffer death than break the divine
law and offend his nation.§

And yet it is well known that immense numbers of swine were reared
in the country of the Jews, probably for the purpose of gain, and in
order to supply strangers ond the neighbouring idolaters; and it has
been supposed,!! that it was in order to punish this violation of the
Divine commandments that our Saviour permitted the herd of swine to
be affected with that sudden disorder which caused them to rush head-
long into the lake of Genesareth.^' ^

* Plutarch {it hide) affirms that those who drank the milk of swine became blotchy
and leprous.
t Sonnini's Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypte, vol. iii.
X Lactaintius, Inst. § 2 Maccabees vi. 18, vii. 1.

I! Farmer's Essay on Dtemoniacs, and Bishop Pearce's " Miracles of Jesus vindicated."
IT Matth. viii. 32.

EARLY HISTORY OF SWINE. 15

/

CHAPTER III.

The early history of Swine— Legendary and authentic records respecting the keeping
of them in England — Ancient Welsh laws relative to Swine— The forests of England
— Swineherds— Their mode of managing their herds— Calabrian Swineherds— Horn
used to assemble the grunting troop— The Schwein-General— Herds of Swine kept in
France— Value of Pigs — Some vindication of them— Anecdotes proving their teach-
ability—Sagacity of a Pig — Some demonstrations of Memory in one— Attachment to
individuals— Swine not innately filthy animals — They are possessed of more docility
than they usually have credit for— Their exquisite sense of smell— Pigs said to foretell
rain and wind.

In our own country the keeping of large herds of swine can be traced
back to 863 years before Christ, at least if any reliance may be placed
on the ancient and legendary history of Bath, for there it is recorded
that, about 270.9 years ago, a numerous herd of swine was kept by a
British prince in the neighbourhood of Bath, to whom we owe the dis-
covery of the medicinal qualities of the hot springs there. "Baldred,
eldest son of Lord Hudibras (then King of Britain,) it is said, having
spent eleven years at Athens in study, came home leprous, and was in
consequence confined to prevent infection. Having e'ffected his escape,
however, he went very remote from his father's court, into an untra-
velled part of the country, and offered his services in any common
employment. He entered into service at Learwick, a small village
three miles from Bath, where his business was to take care of pigs,
which he was to drive from place to place for their advantage in feed-
ing upon acorns, haws, &c. While at his usual employment one
morning, a part of the drove of swine, as if seized with a frenzy, ran
down the side of the hill into an elder-moor, till they reached the spot
of ground where the hot springs of Bath now boil up, and from thence
returned, covered with black mud. The prince being of a thoughtful
turn, was very desirous to find out the reason why pigs that wallowed
in the mire in summer to cool themselves, should do the same in win-
ter ; at length he perceived a steam arise from the place where they
had wallowed, and making his way to it, found it warm. Having
thus satisfied himself that it was for the benefit of the heat that the pigs
resorted hither, he observed, that after awhile they became whole and
smooth from their scabs and eruptions by often wallowing in this mud.
Upon this he considered within himself why he should not receive the
same benefit by the like means. He tried the experiment with success,
and finding himself cured of his leprosy, declared who he was. His
master, though incredulous at first, being at last persuaded to believe
him, went with him to court, where he was owned ; and upon succeed-
ing to his father, he erected the baths. In one of these baths there is
at the present time a statute of King Baldred, which was erected in
1699, under which is the following inscription on copper: "Baldred,
son of Lord Hudibras, eighth King of the Britons from Brute, a great
philosopher and mathematician, bred at Athens, and recorded the first
discoverer and founder of these baths,'863 years before Christ."

In Greece and the neighbouring islands it would seem that swine
were also common at even an earlier period, and were kept in large
droves by swineherds ; for we read in Homer's Odyssey, which is sup-
posed to have been written upwards of 900 years B.C., that Ulysses, on

16 THE PIG.

his return from the Trojan war, first sought the dwelling of Eumaeus,
his faithful servant, and the keeper of his swine : and that office must
then have been held in higher esteem than it subsequently became, or
was in other countries, or it would not have been performed by that,
wise and good old man, himself a descendant of princes.

" But he, deep-musing, o'er the mountains stray'd,
Thro* mazy thickets of the woodland shade,
And cavern'd ways, the shaggy coast along,
With cliffs and nodding forests overhung.
Eumaeus at his sylvan lodge he sought,
A faithful servant and without a fault.
Ulysses found him busied, as he sat,
Before the threshold of his rustic gate;
Around the mansion in a circle shone
A rural portico of rugged stone;
(In absence of his lord, with honest toil
His own industrious hands had raised the pilel —
The wall was stone from neighbouring quarries borne.
Encircled with a fence of native thorn,
And strong with pales, by many a weary stroke
Of stubborn labour, hewn from heart of oak;
Frequent and thick. Within the space were reared
Twelve ample cells, the lodgments of his herd.
Full fifty pregnant females each contained,
The males without (a smaller race) remained;
Doomed to supply the Suitors' wasteful feast,
A stock by daily luxury decreas'd,
Now scarce four hundred left. Those to defend,
Four savage dogs, a watchful guard, attend.
Here sat Eumaeus, and his cares apply'd
To form strong buskins of well-seasoned hide.
Of four assistants who his labour share,
Three now were absent on the rural care;
The fourth drove victims to the suitor train;
But he of ancient faith a simple swain,
Sigh'd while he furnisb'd the luxurious board,
And weary'd heaven with wishes for his lord. 1 '— xiv. 1-30.

The rude tables of the ancient Britons were chiefly supplied from their
herds of swine, and the flesh of these animals furnished them with a
great variety of dishes.*

Sharon Turner, in his History of the Anglo-Saxons, while enumerating
their live stock, states they had " great abundance of swine ;" and adds,
that although horned cattle are occasionally mentioned in grants, wills,
and exchanges of property, swine are most frequently spoken of.

The country then abounded with woods and forests, and these are.
seldom particularized without some mention being made of the swine
fed in them. These animals appear in fact to have constituted a con-
siderable item in the wealth of an individual, for legacies of them often
occur in wills. Thus Alfred, a nobleman, bequeaths to his relatives a
hide of land with one hundred swine, and directs that another hundred
shall be given for masses for the benefit of his soul; and to his daughters
he leaves two thousand. So Elf helm left land to St. Peter's at "West-
minster on the express condition that they should feed a herd of two
hundred swine for the use of his wife.f

In the original Domesday-Book for Hampshire, where an estimate of
the value of the lands and forests belonging to the king, the monasteries,
the hundreds, and other divisions is given, the number of hogs which
can be fed on each separate portion is invariably specified.}:

* Cffisar, book i. chap. 1. t Sharon Turner's Hist, of Anglo-Saxons, vol. iv.

t Warner's History of Hampshire.

ANCIENT WELSH LAWS RESPECTING SWINE. 17

In the oldest of the Welsh Triads (which treat, of the events of Bri-
tain in general,) we find evidence of the early domestication of swine,
for one of these contains a recital of the actions of three powerful swine-
herds in the Isle of Britain, "over whom it was not possible to prevail
or gain," and who restored the swine to their owners with increase.
Some of the fabulous narrations blended with the history of these
swineherds have been attributed by antiquarians to a period antecedent
to Christianity.

In the laws of Howel, or (as some write it) Hoel Dha, there is a
chapter on the value of animals, in which it is stated "that the price of
a little pig from the time it is born until it grows to burrow, is one
penny; when it ceases sucking, which is at the end of three months,
it is worth two pence; from that time it goes to the wood with the
swine, and it is considered as a swine, and its value is four pence;
from the Feast of St. John unto the 1st day of January, its value is
fifteen pence; from the 1st of January unto the Feast of St. John, its
value is twenty-four pence; and from that time forward its value shall
be thirty pence, the same as its mother."

" The qualities of a sow are, that she breeds pigs and do not devour
her young ones. The seller must also warrant her sound against the
quinsy for three days and. nights after she is sold. If she should not
possess these qualities, one-third of her price must be returned. The
value of a boar is equal to the value of three sows."*

There are several enactments in these same laws of Howel Dha,
which regulate the compensation for corn spoiled or damaged by the
trespassing of swine; and it is stated in that part of the code, that
"little pigs, from the time they turn up the cow-dung with their noses,
are subject to the same law as their mothers." The following seems
more singular than just : " If swine enter a house and scatter about the
fire, so as to set the house on fire, and the swine escape, let the owner
of the swine pay for the act. If the swine be burnt, then both house
and swine are equal, for both are stupid ; therefore as both have equally
suffered according to law, there is nothing to be redressed, but the in-
jury of the one must be set against the injury of the other." This ap-
pears rather hard, seeing that the swine came to the fire, and not the
fire to the swine.

In a paper by Dr. Hibbert,f entitled " Illustrations of the Customs of
a Manor in the North of England," &c, there is the following notice
regarding swine, derived from an ancient court-roll of the manor of
Ashton-under-Lyne, in Lancashire, dated a. d. 1422.

"Attached to these ordinances was a covenant between Sir John of
Assheton and his tenants, relative to the keeping of swine. These
animals were allowed to range in the demesnes of the town from the
latter end of August until sowing-time, provided that they were pro-
perly ringed, and did no harm ; in default whereof the owner was to
loose him to the lord four pence, or by this sum redeem the animal from
poundage. The brewer who brewed to sell, and the miller, were
allowed to keep three swine; the tenants who had land in the fields,
two swine; and he who held no land might have one swine."

In a chapter on " The King's Entertainment from the Manors," it is

* Hoel Dha, Leges, Wnllicffi, 41.

t Transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, vol. iii.

18 THE PIG.

stated that among various rents which vassal manors must grant the
king is a three-year old swine in winter. And among the articles which
form the king's entertainment from a free manor in winter, are enume-
rated "a three-years old swine and a flitch of bacon salted, being three
fingers in thickness."

The British forests, which formerly occupied the greater part of
England, were peopled by the swinish multitude. Hertfordshire was
nearly covered with wood and forest land; Buckinghamshire boasted
its magnificent Bern Wood; Hampshire, its extensive New Forest;
nor were the other counties destitute of these sylvan retreats, which
have latterly vanished before the axe of the woodman and the industry
of the husbandman. The "Merrie green wood" has given place to
pasture and cultivated fields ; shepherds now feed their flocks where
the swineherd formerly drove his grunting troop ; and waving corn dis-
plays its golden harvest where once acorns and —

" the falling mast
For greedy swine provides a rich repast."

In 1646- Norwood in Surrey is described as containing 830 acres
from which the inhabitants of Croydon " have herbage for all kinds of
cattle, and mastage for swine without stint."

The right of forest borderers to fatten their swine in the various
forests, formerly royal property, is very ancient, being evidently ante-
rior to the Conquest. At first a small tax or fee was paid by those
holding this right ; but whether this went to the crown, or consisted in
a certain gratuity to the forest ranger or the swineherd, is no where
specified in the records. This privilege, like all others, was greatly
abused; for many of the keepers availed themselves of it, and kept
large herds of swine which they suffered to run the forests during the
whole of the year, doing exceeding damage to the timber as well as to
the land.

The actual period for which it was lawful to turn swine into the royal
woods and forests for masting, was from fifteen days before Michslmas
to forty days afterwards,* and this was termed the pawnage month.

The method of treating hogs at this season of migration, and reducing
a large herd of these unmanageable brutes to order and obedience, is
thus graphically described by Gilpin: —

"The first step the swineherd takes is to seek out some close shel-
tered partof the forest where trfere is a conveniency of water, and plenty
of oak or beech mast; the former of which he prefers when he can
have it in abundance.

" He next fixes on some spreading tree, round the bole of which he
wattles a slight circular fence of the dimensions he wants, and, cover-
ing it roughly with boughs and sods, he fills it plentifully with straw
or fern.

" Having made this preparation, he collects his colony among the
farmers, and will get together perhaps a herd of five or six hundred
hogs. Having driven them to their destined habitation, he gives a
plentiful supper of acorns or of beech-mast which he had already pro-
vided, sounding his horn during the repast. He then turns them into
the litter, where, after a long journey and a hearty meal, they sleep
soundly.

* Manwood's Forest Law.

SWINE IN THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 19

"On the next morning he suffers them to look around, shows them
the pool or stream where they may occasionally drink, leaves them to
gather the offals of the last night's meal ; gives them another plentiful
repast under the neighbouring trees — that almost rain acorns upon
them — for a considerable time to the sound of his horn, and then sends
them once more to sleep.

" On the following day he is perhaps at the pains of procuring them
another meal, with music playing as before. He then leaves them a
little more to themselves, keeping his eye, however, on them about
evening; when their bellies are full, they seldom wander far from home,
but commonly retire orderly and early to bed.

" After this he throws his sty open, and leaves them to cater for them-
selves, and henceforward has little more trouble with them during the
whole time of their migration.

" Now and then, in calm weather, when mast falls sparingly, he per-
haps calls them together by the music of his horn to a gratuitous meal ;
but they require very little further teaching, but return home regularly
every evening, although they sometimes stray two or three miles from
their sty. There are always experienced leaders among the herd, who,
having led this rambling life before, are competent to instruct their
juniors in the method of it. By this management the herd is carried
home to its owners in such a condition that a little dry meat will soon
fatten them.

" I would not, however, have it supposed that all the swineherds in
the forest can manage their colonies with such exactness. The hog is
commonly supposed to be an obstinate, headstrong beast, and he may
perhaps have a degree of positiveness in his temper ; but if properly
managed he is, or maybe made, an orderly docile animal. When your
meanings are fair, and friendly, and intelligible, he maybe led with a
straw ; nor is he without his social feelings, when he is at liberty to
' indulge them.

" During his migrations in the forest, it is commonly observed that
of whatever number the herd consists before setting forth on their
daily excursions, they generally separate themselves into parties, and
may thus be met with in those friendly groups, some earlier and some
later, according as they have been more or less fortunate in the pursuits
of the day.

"Beside the hogs thus led out in the mast-season to fatten, there are
others, the property of forest-keepers, who spend the whole year in
similar societies. .

"After the mast-season is over, the indigenous forest hog depends
chjefly for his livelihood on the roots of fern, and he would find this
food very nourishing if he could have it in abundance ; but he is obliged
to procure it by so laborious an operation, that his meals are rarely ac-
companied by satiety. He continues, however, by great industry, to
obtain a tolerable subsistence through the winter, except in frosty wea-
ther ; and he must then perish if he does not, in some degree, experi-
ence his master's care.

- " Besides these stationary hogs, there are others in some of the deso-
late parts of the forest that are bred wild, and left to themselves with-
out any settled habitation, and as they cost nothing in their food, their

20 THE PIG.

owners are content with the precarious profits of such as they are able
to reclaim."*

Our readers must forgive us if we add yet another view of this pic-
ture, given in the truthful and simply descriptive lines of our rural poet,
Bloomfield : —

" From oak to oak they run with eager haste,
Anil wrangling share the first* delicious taste
Of fallen acorns; yet btit thinly found
Till the strong gale has shook them to the ground.
It comes, and roaring woods obedient wave;
Their home well pleased the joint adventurers leave.
The trudging sow lends forth her numerous young,
Playful, and white, and clean, the briars among;
Till briars and thorns increasing force them round,
Where last year's mouldering leaves bestrew the ground,
And o'er their heads, loud lash'd by furious squalls.
Bright from their cups the rattling treasure falls.
Hot, thirsty fond; whence doubly sweet and cool
The welcome margin of some rush-grown pool."

Nor was the practice of feeding swine in herds,and accustoming them
to assemble at the sound of the horn, peculiar to this country. In Cala-
bria they are grazed in herds, and the keeper uses a kind of bagpipe,
the tones of which, when the period arrives for their being driven home,
quickly collects the scattered groups from every part. In Tuscany it
is the same.

Barna Goge, in commending the use of the horn to all keepers of
swine, gives the following ludicrous anecdote: — " Certain pirates, who
seem not well to have learned their business, since they were unable
to swim, landed on the coast of Tuscany, and carried off a number of
swine to their boats, and were just paddling off when the swineherd, miss-
ing some of his charges, winded his horn. At the well-known sound
up started all the grunters una et viva voce, and crowding to one side of
the boat upset it, and swam ashore to their keeper, leaving the unfortu-
nate thieves floundering in the sea."

In Germany almost every village has its swineherd, who at break of
day goes from house to house collecting his noisy troop, blowing his
still more noisy cow-horn, and cracking his clumsy whip, until the
place echoes with the din. The following very amusing account of
that important personage, the Schwein-General, has lately been given in
a popular work : —

" Every morning, at half-past five o'clock, I hear, as I am dressing,
the sudden blast of an immense long wooden horn, from which always
proceed the same four notes. I have got quite accustomed to this wild
reveille,a.ni the vibration has scarcely subsided, it is still ringing among
the distant hills, when, leisurely proceeding from almost every door in
the street, behold a pig ! Some, from their jaded, care-worn appeararfce,
are evidently leaving behind them a numerous litter ; others are great,
tall, monastic, melancholy-looking animals, which seem to have no-
other object left in this wretched world than to become bacon ; while
others are thin, tiny, light-hearted, brisk, petulant piglings, with the
world and all its loves and sorrows before them. Of their own accord
these creatures proceed down the street to join the herdsman, who oc-
casionally continues to repeat the sorrowful blast from his horn.

" Gregarious, or naturally fond of society, with one curl in their tails,

* Gilpin's Forest Scenery.

THE SCHWEIN-GENERAL OF OERMANY. 21

and with their noses almost touching the ground, the pigs trotnn grunt-
ing, to themselves and to their comrades, halting only whenever they
come to any thing they can manage to swallow.

"I have observed that the old ones pass all the carcasses which,
trailing to the ground, are hanging before the butchers' shops, as if
they were on a sort of parole d'honneur not to touch them ; the middle-
aged ones wistfully eye the meat, yet jog on also ; while the piglings,
who (so like mankind) have more appetite than judgment, can rarely
resist taking a nibble. Yet no sooner does the dead calf begin again
to move, than from the window immediately above out pops the head
of a butcher, who, drinking his coffee whip in hand, inflicts a prompt
punishment, sounding quite equal to the offence.

"As I have stated, the pigs, generally speaking, proceed of their own
accord ; but shortly after they have passed, there comes down our street
a little bare-headed, bare-footed, stunted drab of a child about eleven
years old — flibbertigibbet sort of creature, which in a drawing one would
express by a couple of blots, the Small one for her head, and the other
for her body, while, streaming from the latter, there would be a long
line ending in a flourish to express the immense whip which the child
carries in its hand. This little gobblin page, the whipper-in, attendant,
or aide-de-camp of the old pig-driver, facetiously called at Langen-
Schwalbach the 'Schwein-General,' is a being no one looks at, and
who looks at nobody. But such a pair of eyes for a pig have seldom,
perhaps, beamed from human sockets! The little intelligent urchin
knows every house from which a pig ought to have proceeded : she can
tell by the door being open or shut, or even by footmarks, whether the
creature has joined the herd, or whether, having overslept itself, it is
still snoring in its sty. A single glance determines whether she shall
pass a yard, or enter it; and if a pig, from indolence or greediness, be
loitering on the road, the sting of the wasp cannot be sharper or more
spiteful than the cut she gives it. As soon as she has finished with
our street, she joins her general in the main road ; the herd slowly
proceed down the town.

"As I followed them this moming, they really appeared to have no
hams at all ; their bodies were as flat as if they had been squeezed in a
vice, and when they turned sideways, their long sharp noses and tucked-
up bellies gave to their profile the appearance of starved grayhounds.

" Besides the little girl who brought up the rear, the herd was pre*
ceded by a boy of about fourteen, whose duty it was not to let the fore-
most, the most enterprising, or, in other words', the most empty pig,
advance too fast. In the middle of the drove, surrounded like a shep-
herd by his flock, slowly stalked the ' Schwein-General,' a wan spectre-
looking old man, worn out, or nearly so, by the arduous and every-day
duty of conducting against their wills a gang of exactly the most obsti-
nate animals in creation. A single glance at his jaundiced, ill-natured
countenance, was sufficient to satisfy one that his temper had been
soured by the vexatious contrarieties and ' untoward events ' it had met
with. In his left hand he held a staff to help himself onwards, while
round his right shoulder hung one of those terrific whips which must
be seen to be imagined. At. the end of a short handle, turning upon a
swivel, there was a lash about nine feet long, formed like the vertebra
of a snake, each joint being an iron ring, which, decreasing in size, was

22 THE PIG.

closely connected with its neighbour by a band of hard, greasy leather.
The pliability, the weight, and the force of this iron whip, rendered it
an argument which the obstinacy even of the pig was unable to resist ;
yet, as the old man proceeded down the town, he endeavoured to speak
kindly to the herd, and as the bulk of them preceded him, he occasion-
ally exclaimed in a low, hollow, worn-out tone of encouragement,
'Nina! Anina!' (drawling, of course, very long on the last syllable.)

"If any little savoury morsel caused a contention, stoppage, or con-
stipation on the march, the old fellow slowly unwound his dreadful
whip, and by merely whirling it round his head, like reading the Riot
Act, generally succeeded in dispersing the crowd ; but if they neglected
this solemn warning — if their stomachs proved stronger than their
judgments, and if the group of greedy pigs still continued to stagnate,
'Arriff!' the old fellow exclaimed; and rushing forwards, the lash
whiTling round his head, he inflicted with strength which no one would
have fancied he possessed, a smack that seemed absolutely to electrify
the leader. As lightning shoots across the heavens, I observed the
culprit fly forwards, and for many yards continuing to sidle towards the
left ; it was quite evident tbat the thorn was still smarting in his side,
and no wonder, poor fellow ! for the blow he received would almost
have cut a piece out of a door.

" As soon as the herd got out of the town, they began gradually to
ascend the rocky, barren mountain which appeared towering above
them, and then the labours of the Schwein- General and his staff' became
greater than ever; for as the animals from their solid column began to
extend or deploy themselves into line, it was necessary constantly to
ascend and descend the slippery hill, in order to outflank them.
' Arriff!' cried the old man, striding after one of his rebellious subjects ;
'Arriff!' in a shrill tone of voice was re-echoed by the lad, as he ran
after another. However, in due time the drove reached the ground
which was devoted for that day's exercise, the whole mountain being
thus taken in regular succession.

"The Schwein-General now halted, and the pigs being no longer
called upon to advance, but left entirely to their own notions, I became
exceedingly attentive in observing them.

" No wonder, poor reflecting creatures ! that they had come unwill-
ingly to such a spot, for there appeared literally nothing for them to
eat but hot stones and dust; however, making the best of the bargain,
they all very vigorously set themselves to work. Looking up the hill,
they dexterously began to lift up with their snouts the largest of the
loose stones, and then grubbing their noses into the cool ground. I
watched their proceedings for a very long time. Their tough wet
snonts seemed to be sensible of the quality of every thing they touched,
and thus out of the apparently barren ground they managed to get fibres
of roots, to say nothing of worms, beetles, or any other travelling in-
sects they met with. As they slowly advanced working up the hill,
their ears most philosophically shading their eyes from the hot sun, I
could not help feeling bow little we appreciate the delicacy of several
of their senses, and the extreme acuteness of their instinct.

" There exists, perhaps, in creation no animal which has less justice
and more injustice done to him than the pig. Gifted with every faculty
of supplying himself, and of providing even against the approaching

THE SCHWEIN-GENERAL OF GERMANY. 23

storm, which no creature is better capable of foretelling than a pig, we
begin by putting an iron ring through the cartilage of his nose;- and
having thus barbarously deprived him of the power of searching for and
analyzing his food, we generally condemn him for the rest of his life
to the solitary confinement of a sty,

"While his faculties are still his own, only observe how, with a
bark or short, he starts if you approach him, and mark what shrewd
intelligence there is in his bright twinkling little eye: but with pigs
as with mankind, idleness is the root of all evil. The poor animal,
finding that he has absolutely nothing to do, having no enjoyment,
nothing to look forward to but the pail which feeds him, naturally most
eagerly, or, as we accuse him, most greedily, greets its arrival. Having
no natural business or diversion, nothing to occupy his brain, the whole
powers of his system are directed to the digestion of a superabundance
of food. To encourage this nature assists him with sleep, which, lull-
ing his better faculties, leads his stomach to become the ruling power
of his system — a tyrant that can bear no one's presence but his own.
The poor pig thus treated gorges himself — sleeps — eats again — awakens
ina fright — screams — struggles against the blue apron — screams fainter
and fainter — turns up the whites of his little eyes — and dies !

"But to return to the Schwein-General, whom we left sitting with
horn and whip by the side of the mountain.

"In this situation do the pigs remain every morning for four hours,
enjoying little else but air and exercise. At about nine or ten o'clock
they begin their march homewards, and nothing can form a greater con-
trast than their entry does to their exit from their native town.

" Their eager anxiety to get to the dinner trough that awaits them is
almost ungovernable, and they no sooner reach the first houses of the
town than a sort of ' sauve qui peuf motion takes place; away each of
them starts towards his duke domum,- and it is really curious to stand
still and watch how quickly they canter by, greedily grunting and
snuffling, as if they could smell with their stomachs as well as their
noses the savoury food which was awaiting them.

" At half-past four the same four notes of the same horn are heard
again ; the pigs once more assemble, once more tumble over the hot
stones on the mountains, once more remain there for four hours, and in
the evening once again return to their sties.

" Such is the life of the pigs, not only of Langen-Schwalbach, but
those of every village throughout a great part ofi Germany: every day
of their existence, summer and winter, is spent in the way I have de-
scribed. The squad consists here of about 156, and for each pig the
poor old Schwein-General receives 46 kreuzers (about Is. Id.) for six
months' drilling of each recruit. The income- therefore is about 26^.
a-year, out of which he has to pay the board, lodging, and clothing of
his two aides-de-camp; and when one considers how unremittingly
these poor creatures have to contend with the gross appetites, sulky
tempers, and pig-headed dispositions of the swinish multitude, surely
not even the most niggardly reformer would wish to curtail his emolu-
ments"*

In France^ again, swine are ftept in herds, and in many districts the

* Bubbles from the Urunnen.

24 THE PIG.

feeding of them in the woods and forests (/e glandage,) under certain
conditions and restrictions, has been a source of no inconsiderable
emolument to the forester. Indeed to such an extent was it carried in
certain localities, that it became an object of political economy. But
of late years it has much diminished ; the progress of agriculture is
fast sweeping away those immense tracts of woodland country winch
formerly existed both in England and France, and with them depart
the denizens of the forest, whether wild or tame, and the privileges
and offices of foresters, rangers, &c.

Nature evidently designed the hog to fulfil many important functions
in a forest country. By his burrowing after roots and such like, he
turns up and destroys the larva; of innumerable insects that would
otherwise injure the trees as well as their fruit and roots. He greedily
destroys the slug, the snail, the snake, and the adder, and thus not only
rids the forest of these injurious and unpleasant inhabitants, but also
makes them subservient to his awa nourishment, and thus to the benefit
of mankind. The fruits; too, which he eats, are such as would other-
wise rot on the ground and be wasted, or yield nutriment to vermin;
and his digging for earth-nuts, &c, loosens the soil and benefits the
roots of the trees. Hence, under proper restrictions, the appanage of
hogs in forest-land may be regarded as eminently beneficial, and it is
only the abuse of it which is to be feared. The celebrated German
agriculturist, Thaer, does not, however, advocate the forest feeding of
swine unless they are kept in the woods day and night and carefully
sheltered; as he conceives that the bringing them home at night heats
their blood, and nullifies the good effects of the day's feeding. He
likewise considers that, although acorns produce good firm flesh, beech-
mast makes unsound oily fat.

But if he is a useful animal in this public point of view, how much
more so is he to individuals! Among the poorer classes of society
how often is the pig their chief source of profit, of wealth, if we may
so speak ; in Ireland is this especially the case ; there he is emphati-
cally " the ginfleman what pays the rint," better treated often than the
peasant's own children. The small cost at which these animals can
be reared and fattened, and their fecundity and wonderful powers of
thriving under disadvantages, render them an actual blessing to many
a poor cotter, who, with his little savings, buys a young and ill-con-
ditioned pig, fattens it on all the refuse lie can beg or spare, or collect,
and sells it at a good profit, or occasionally, perhaps, kills it for the
use of his family, who thus obtain an ample supply of cheap nutritious
diet.

Were it not for this animal many of the labouring poor would
scarcely be able to keep a roof over their heads, therefore we may with
justice designate the hog " the poor man's friend."

With the exception of the rabbit, swine are the most prolific of all
domesticated animals, and this is another argument in their favour.
Nor does its value cease with its life ; there is scarcely a portion of the
pig that is not available for some useful purpose. The flesh takes the
salt more kindly than that of any other animal, and, whether dried as
bacon or salted down as pickled pork, forms an excellent and nutritious
food, exceedingly valuable for all kinds of stores. The fat or lard is
useful for numerous purposes — the housewife, the apothecary, and the

A SPORTING FIG. 25

perfumer in .particular know how to value it; — the head, the feet, and
great part of the intestines, all are esteemed as delicacies. Brawn, that
far-famed domestic preparation — which is evidently no recently invented
dish, for at the marriage of Henry IV. in 1403, and of Henry V. in
1419, we find, among other records quoted by Strutt, that brawn and a
kind of hashed pork formed the staple dishes — is made from the pig.
The bristles, too, are another important item in the matters furnished
by swine; they are used by brushmakers, and are necessary to the
shoemaker, and some idea may be formed of the extent to which they
form an article of use and of commerce, when we state that in the yeiar
1828 alone, 1,748,921 lbs. of hog's bristles were imported into England
from Russia and Prussia, each of which cannot have weighed less than
two grains. From this we may fairly conjecture that 13,431,713,280
bristles were imported that year. As these are only taken from the top of
the hog's back, each hog cannot be supposed to have supplied more than
7680, which, reckoning each bristle to weigh two grains, will be one
pound. Thus in Russia and Prussia in 1828, 1,748,921 hogs and
boars were killed to supply the consumption of bristles in England.
The skin is formed into pocket-books, employed in the manufacture
of saddles, and of various other things, and even the ears are eaten
in pies.

It has been too much the custom to regard the hog as a stupid, brutal,
rapacious, and filthy animal, grovelling and disgusting in all his habits;
intractable and obstinate in temper. But may not much of these evil
qualities be attributable to the life he leads ! In a native state swine
seem by no means destitute of natural affections; they are gregarious,
assemble together in defence of each other, herd together for warmth,
and appear to have feelings in common ; no mother is more tender of
her young than the sow, or more resolute in their defence. Besides,
neglectedas this animal has ever been by authors, there are not wanting
records of many anecdotes illustrative of their sagacity, tractability,
and susceptibility of affection. How often among the peasantry, where
the pig is, in a manner of speaking, one of the family, may this animal
be seen following his master from place to place, and grunting his re-
cognition of his protectors.

The well authenticated account of the sow trained by Toomer, a game-
keeper to Sir Henry Mildmay, testifies to the teachability of these ani-
mals ; and therefore, as it is our intention to defend them from many
of the aspersions cast upon them, we will quote it.

" Toomer (formerly one of the king's keepers in the New Forest, and
afterwards gamekeeper to Sir Henry Mildmay) actually broke a black
sow to find game, and to back and stand. Slut was bred in, and was
of that sort which maintain themselves in the New Forest without
regular feeding, except when they have young, and then but for a few
weeks, and was given, when about three months old, to be a breeding
sow, by Mr. Thomas to Mr. Richard Toomer, both at that time keepers
in the forest. From having no young she was not fed or taken much
notice of, and, until about eighteen months old, was seldom observed
near the lodge, but chanced to be seen one day when Mr. Edward
Toomer was there. The brothers were concerned together in breaking
pointers and setters, some of their own breeding, and others sent to be
broke by different gentlemen : of the latter, although they would stand
3

26 THE PIG.

and back, many were so indifferent that they would neither hunt, nori
express any satisfaction when birds were killed and put before them.)
The slackness of these dogs first suggested the idea that, by the same
method, any other animal might be made to stand, and do as well as,
any of those huntless and inactive pointers. At this instant the sow
passed by, and was remarked as being very handsome. R. Toomer threw
her a piece or two of oatmeal roll, for which she appeared grateful, and
approached very near ; from that time they were determined to make a
sporting pig of her. The first step was to give her a name, and that of
Slut (given in consequence of soiling herself in a bog) she acknow^
ledged in the course of the day, and never afterwards forgot. Within
a fortnight she would find and point partridges or rabbits, and her train-
ing was much forwarded by the abundance of both which were near
the lodge ; she daily improved, and in a few weeks would retrieve
birds that had run as well as the best pointer, nay, her nose was supe-
rior to the best pointer they ever possessed, and no two men in England
had better. ' She hunted principally on the moors and heaths. Slut
has stood partridges, black-game, pheasants, snipes, and rabbits, in the
same day, but was never known to point a hare. She was seldom
taken by choice more than a mile or two from the lodge, but has fre-
quently joined them when out with their pointers, and continued with
them several hours. She has sometimes stood a jack-snipe when all
the pointers had passed by it: she would back the dogs when they
pointed, but the dogs refused to back her until spoke to, their dogs being
all trained to make a general halt, when the word was given, whether
any dog pointed or not, so that she has been frequently standing in the
midst of a field of pointers. In consequence of the dogs not liking to
hunt when she was with them (for they dropped their sterns and showed
symptoms of jealousy,) she did not very often accompany them, except for
the novelty, or when she accidentally joined them in the forest. Her
pace was mostly a trot, was seldom known to gallop, except when called
to go out shooting; she would then come home off the forest at full
stretch, for she was never shut up but to prevent her being out of the
sound of the call or whistle when a party of gentlemen had appointed
to see her out the next day, and which call she obeyed as regularly as
a dog, and was as much elevated as a dog upon being shown the gun.
She always expressed great pleasure when game, either dead or alive,
was placed before her. She has frequently stood a single partridge at
forty yards' distance, her nose in an exact line, and would continue in
that position until the game moved : if it took wing, she would come up
to the place, and put her nose down two or three times ; but if a bird ran
off, she would get up and go to the place, and draw slowly after it, and
when the bird stopped she would stand it as before. The two Mr.
Toomers lived about seven miles apart, at Rhinefield and Broomey
lodges; Slut has many times gone by herself from one lodge to the
other, as if to court the being taken out shooting. She was about five
years old when her master died, and, at the auction of his pointers, &c,
was bought in at ten guineas. Sir Henry Mildmay having expressed
a wish to have her, she was sent to Dogmersfield Park, where she
remained some years. She was lastin the possession of Colonel Sykes,
and was then ten years old, and had become fat and slothful, but could
point game as well as ever. She was not often used, excepting to

TRACTABILITY OF SWINE. 27

show her to strangers, as the pointers refused to act when out with her.
When killed she weighed 700 lbs. Her death-warrant was signed in
consequence of her having been accused of being instrumental to the
disappearance of sundry missing lambs."*

Colonel Thornton also had a sow which was regularly taught to
hunt, quarter the ground, and back the other pointers.

Some thirty years since it was mentioned in the public papers that a
gentleman had trained swine to run in his carriage, and drove four-in-
hand through London with these curious steeds. And not long since
the market-place of St. Albans was completely crowded in consequence
of an eccentric old farmer, who resided a few miles off, having entered
it in a small chaise-cart drawn by four hogs at a brisk trot, which pace
they kept up a few times round the area of the market-place. They
were then driven to the wool-pack yard, and after being unharnessed
were regaled with a trough of beans and wash.

A gentleman present offered 50/. for the whole concern as it stoodj
but his offer was indignantly declined. In about two hours the ani-
mals were re-harnessed, and the old farmer drove off with his extra-
ordinary team. He stated that he had been six months in training them.

Nor are these cases without parallel, for Montfaucon informs us that
Heliogabalus, the Roman emperor, trained hoars, stags, and asses to
run in his chariot ; and Pennant states that in Minorca, and that part of
Murray which lies between the Spey and Elgin, swine have been con-
verted into beasts of draught, and that it is by no means unusual to see
a cow, a sow, and two young horses yoked together in a plough, and
that the sow is the best drawer of the four. In Minorca, the ass and
hog may be regularly seen working together in turning up land.

Henderson gives another, and a very simple account, illustrative of
the tractability of swine : —

"About twenty-five years ago my father farmed very extensively in
various parts of the kingdom, and upon one of his farms in Redkirk, in
the parish of Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire, kept at times upwards of
one hundred swine. It so happened that the keeper of that flock was
either taken unwell or abruptly left his service one harvest, when
every creature able to work was employed in reaping. A brother and
I being the only idlers about the premises, the above flock was given in
charge to us for a few days, until a proper keeper was found ; we were
then reluctantly obliged to march off with our ' hirsel ' early every
morning to a clover-field about a mile distant, with our dinners, books,
and great-coats, &c. packed upon our backs : we, however, soon began
to think it was a great hardship' for us to be groaning under our loads
while so many stout able ponies were trotting along before us at their
ease, and immediately set about training one of them to relieve us of
our burdens, which we accomplished in a few days by occasionally
scratching the animal and feeding it with bread, &c. out of our hands.
It became at last so docile as to stand every morning until it received
the burden girthed upon it, and then marched on in the rear, which
place it was trained to keep, as we had more than once lost our dinners
when it was allowed to join the herd; and in the same manner we
soon trained two or three more into carrying the baggage in turns.

* Daniel's Rural Sports.

28 THE PIG.

Having been so successful in this training exploit, we then thought it
would be turning our punishment into pleasure if we could train each
of us one to ride : this was no sooner thought of than commenced, and
although we received many a tumble, yet we soon accomplished our
design, and succeeded in breaking in each two or three chargers. At
length our system became so complete, that we not only rode to and
from the field, but whenever any of the herd were likely to stray, or go
into some adjoining field of corn, &c, each alternately mounted his
charger, and went off at full gallop to turn back and punish.the trans-

" Such as were trained seldom or never went astray, being always
about hand, and in readiness to be mounted; in short, on such days as
my father was from home, it was not unusual. for a group of servants
to receive amusement from my brother and I running set matches with
our steeds, which were determined in the usual manner, with whip
and spur; and in this latter management there was no such thing as
bolting or tumbling going on, which occurred frequently during the
training season. This system however, came at length to my father's
ears, from one or two of the racers happening to die in consequence of
too severe heats, or too much weight ; when we were immediately dis-
banded from our office, and (our holidays being expired) ordered off to
school again, which we set about with as much reluctance as we did
the first morning in driving the hundred swine tQ the clover field."*

The learned pig is another illustration of this same quality. Thi3
creature had been taught to pick up letters, written upon pieces of
card, at command, and arrange them into words. It was first exhibited
in the vicinity of Pall-Mall, in 1789, at 5s. each person. The price of
admission was afterwards reduced to 2s. 6d., and finally to Is.

The showman stated that he had lost three pigs in the course of
training Since then there have been many successors of the "learned
pig "exhibited at different places, but none equal in talent to the ori-
ginal.

The next thing which we shall claim for our porcine clients is saga-
city ; nor are we here in want of illustrative evidences of their posses-
sion of it. But in general there is nothing in the life of a pig, in his
domesticated state at least, which calls for any exercise of reasoning
powers. His sole business is to eat, drink, sleep, and get fat; all his
wants are anticipated, and his world is limited to the precincts of his
sty or of the farm-yard. Yet even in this state of luxurious ease indi-
viduals have shown extraordinary intelligence.

Mr. Craven relates the following anecdote of an American sow : —
•' This animal passed her days in the woods, with a numerous litter of
pigs, but returned regularly to the house in the evening, to share with
her family a substantial supper. One of her pigs was, however, quietly
slipt away to be roasted ; in a day or two afterwards another; and then
a third. It would appear that this careful mother knew the number of
her offspring, and missed those that were taken from her, for after this
she came alone to her evening meal. This occurring repeatedly, she
was watched out of the wood, and observed to drive back her pigs
from its extremity, grunting, with much earnestness, in a manner so

* Henderson's Practical Grazier.

SAGACITY OF THE PIG. 29

intelligible, that they retired at her command, and waited patiently for
her return."

Surely this must be the result of something very like" reasoning
powers? "A gentleman residing at Caversham bought two pigs
at Reading market, which were conveyed to his house in a sack, and
turned into his yard, which lies on the banks of the river Thames.

"The next morning the pigs were missing. A hue and cry was
immediately raised, and towards the afternoon a person gave informa-
tion that two pigs had been seen swimming across the river at nearly
its broadest part.

" They were afterwards observed trotting along the Pangbourn road,
and in one place where the road branches off, putting their noses toge-
ther as if'in deep consultation. The result was their safe return to the
place from which they had originally been conveyed to Reading, a dis-
tance of nine miles, and by cross roads.

"The farmer from whom they had been purchased, brought them
back to their owner, but they took the very first opportunity again to
escape, recrossing the water like two dogs, thus removing the stigma
on their race, which proverbially disqualifies them for " swimming
without cutting their own throats," and never stopped until they found
themselves at their first home."

Here we see difficulties overcome, and a strange element encountered,
in order to arrive at a far distant spot — the home to which- the animals
were attached. Some recollection of that place or some association of
ideas must have influenced the proceedings of these animals ; but to
what faculty shall we attribute their swimming the river in a direct line
with their old master's house, and thenfindingtheirwayso immediately
thither 1 ? And how shall we account for their thus acting in concert,
if pigs are to be considered as the stupid obtuse brutes most persons
are in the habit of designating them ? Such instances of sagacity in
the dog and the horse scarcely astonish us, because we allow to them
a certain degree of reasoning power. But is not the great development
of it in them as much arising from their intercourse, if such we may
term it, with man? — from their being his companions, educated and
ordered by him 1 "I have observed great sagacity in swine," observes
Darwin, in his "Zoonomia," "but the short lives we allow them, and
their general confinement, prevent their improvement, which would
otherwise probably equal that of the dog."

"The Naturalist's Library" gives another anecdote of a pig which
is indicative of no small degree of.instinct or intelligence : —

" Early in the month, a pig that had been kept several days a close
prisoner to his sty, was let out for the purpose of its being cleaned and
his bed replenished. On opening the sty-door he anticipated the pur-
pose of his liberation by running to the stable, from which he carried
sevefal sheaves of straw to his sty, holding them in his mouth by the
band. The straw being intended for another purpose, it was carried
back to the stable; but our porter, seizing a more favourable opportu-
nity, regained it to the amazement of several persons, who were pleased
to observe the extraordinary instinct of this wonderful pig."

Swine have also been repeatedly known to attach themselves to indi-
viduals, and to other animals, and to manifest great docility, gentleness,
and affection.

30 THE PIB.

Mr. Henderson says, " I have a young sow of a good breed, so
docile that she will suffer my youngest son, three years of age, to climb
upon her back and ride her about for half an hour at a time, and more;
when she is tired of the fun, she lays herself down, carefully avoiding
hurting her young jockey. He often shares his bread and meat with
her."*

A pig belonging to a baker in Kinghorn, county Fife, became so
attached to a bull-dog that it would follow and sport with him, and
follow her master, when he was accompanied by this dog, for five or
six miles. The dog was fond of swimming', and the pig imitated this
propensity ; and if any thing was thrown into the water for the dog to
fetch out, the pig would follow and dispute the prize with him very
cleverly and energetically. These two animals invariably slept to-
gether.

M. de Dieskau tells us that "he made a wild boar so. tame that the
animal, although nearly three years old, would go up stairs to his
apartment, fawn upon him like a dog, and eat from his hand. He also
endeavoured to bring up one which he caught very young, and which
formed such an attachment to a young lady in the house that he accom-
panied her wherever she went, and slept upon her bed. Once he
attacked her maid as she was undressing her mistress, and, had he
been strong enough, would have done her some mortal injury. This
lady was the only person in the house for whom the creature showed
any affection, and yet he was not fed by her. At last he fretted him-
self to death on account of a fox which had been taken into the house
to be tamed."

A very amusing account of a " pet pig " is given by a lady, in
"Chamber's Edinburgh Journal:" —

"Being at a loss- what to do with the refuse of our garden, Aunt
Mary suggested that a pig should be purchased. Accordingly our little
damsel Annette was despatched to a neighbouring farmer, and in ex-
change for a few shillings she brought home a fat, fair, round pig, just
six weeks old ; and in her haste to display her bargain she tumbled it
out in the sitting-room. Nothing daunted by the splendour of its new
abode, the pig ran up and down, snorting and snuffing at every chair
and table in the room, overturning with his snout my aunt's footstool,
and trying its teeth on her new straw work-basket. After the pig had
been duly admired and commented on, Annette was desired to instal it
in its own domicile; but this was more easily said than done; for
being, I suppose, pleased with his quarters, Toby — for so we named
him — ran hither and thither, now scudding behind a chair or table, now
whisking under the sofa ; at length Annette succeeded in dragging him
from his hiding-place, while he roared out ' Murder!' as plain as a pig
could speak. Annette was very fond of dumb creatures, as she called
them; the pig became her darling, and for want of a companion^ her
own species, Toby became her constant associate ; and finding his
•visits to the kitchen were winked at, he made use of the privilege, and
would bask himself at full length before the fire. He even ventured
pccasionally to follow her into the front lobby ; and if, as sometimes
fwas the case, she put him into the yard, he would kick up such a row

, ' " : — '

* Henderson on Swine.

CLEANLINESS AND SENSITIVENESS OF PIGS. 31

at the kitchen door, to be let in, thumping on it with his snout, that
she was fain to admit him to his old quarters. Toby was of a very
social disposition, and so fond of Annette, and so grateful for her kind-
ness, that he would follow her about every where ; indeed, to my great
surprise, one day I found him standing sentry over her while she was
putting down the stair' carpet, and he seemed to be watching her pro-
ceedings with a very sagacious air. In process of time there came
"another proof that the course of true love never did run smooth. An-
nette fell into bad health, and returned to her home; the damsel who
replaced her had no taste for the society of pigs ; so she thumped" Toby
away from the kitchen door, and many were the blows he got from her
broom, or whatever missile came first to hand. Toby was now exiled
to his sty, much against his inclination, for he evidently would have
preferred bivouacking in the back premises. We seldom passed to the
garden without throwing him some comfort in the shape of a few cab-
bage-leaves, a handful of acorns, or a bunch of turnip-tops. It was
truly amusing to see Toby make his bed. As the straw which was
furnished for it was rather long and coarse, Toby used to take it bunch
by bunch in his teeth, and run into a corner, breaking it into small
pieces ; and having accomplished this feat, he proceeded to arrange his
couch in the most methodical manner. One day, Betty having omitted
to give him his dinner, Toby, in a great passion, jumped out of his sty,
and came running to the kitchen door to see what was the reason of
his being so shamefully neglected, and loud and long were his remon-
strances on the subject. Finding it difficult to get the poor animal
jiroperly attended to, he was transferred to a neighhour ; and we never
gave him a successor, as we scarcely expected to find in another of his
species that gratitude for kindness, and affection for his friends, which
shone so conspicuous in the character of poor Toby."*

It may appear absurd to claim cleanliness as a swinish virtue ; but
in point of actual fact the pig is a much more cleanly animal than most
of his calumniators give him credit for being. He is fond of a good
cleanly bed ; and often, when this is riot provided for him; it is curious
to see the degree of sagacity with which lie will forage for himself.
"A hog is the cleanliest of all creatures, and will never dung or stale
in his sty if he can get forth," says a quaint old writer of the sixteenth
century, and we are very much of his opinion. But it is so much the
habit to helieve that this animal may be kept in any state of filth and
neglect, that "pig" and "pig-sty" are terms usually regarded as
synonymous with all that is dirty and disgusting.

His rolling in the mud is alleged against him as a proof of his filthy
habits; if so, the same accusation applies to the elephant, the rhino-
ceros, and other of the Pachydermata. May this not rather be for the
purpose of cooling themselves, and keeping off flies, as we admit it to
be#n the case of the animals above mentioned ? Savages cover them-
selves with grease in hot climates in order to protect their skins ; may
not instinct teach animals to roll themselves in mud for a similar
purpose ?f

* Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, vol. v.

t " The Hog, tho' he tumble in the dirte in the summer, is not a filthie animal. He
dnelh it, partlie to cool himselfe, partlie to kill his lice; for when the dirte is dric he
rubbeth it off, and therebie destroyelh the lice."— Hartlieb's Laet Legacis.

32 THE FIG.

Pigs are exceedingly fond of comfort and warmth, and will nestle
together in order to obtain the latter, and often struggle vehemently to
secure the warmest berth.

They are eminently sensitive of approaching changes in the weather,
and may often be observed suddenly to leave the places in which they
had formerly been quietly feeding, and run off to their sties at full
speed, making loud outcries. When storms are overhanging, they
collect, straw in their mouths, and run about as if inviting their com-
panions to do the same; and if there is a shed or shelter near at hand,
may be seen to carry and deposit it there, as if for the purpose of pre-
paring a bed. Hence has arisen the common Wiltshire saying, "Pigs
see the wind." Virgil, in enumerating the signs of settled fine weather,
notices this peculiarity in swine : —

" Nor sows unclean are mindful to provide
Their nestling beds of moutti collected straw !"

Foster says — " When hogs shake the stalks of corn, and thereby
spoil them, it indicates rain ; and when they run squeaking about and
throw up their heads with a peculiar jerk, windy weather is about to
commence."

Darwin observes — "It is a sure sign of a cold wind wherfpigs collect
straw in their mouths, and run about crying loudly. They would carry
it to their beds for warmth, and by their calls invite their companions
to do the same, and add to the warmth by numerous bedfellows."*

In their domesticated state swine certainly are very greedy animals;
eating is the business, of their lives; nor do they appear to be very
delicate as to the kind or quality of the food which is set before them.
Although naturally herbiverous animals, they have been known to
devour carrion with all the voracity of beasts of prey, to tear and mangle
infante, and even gorge their appetites with the living limbs of their
own young.

Low, however, says — " Instances have occurred in whioh a sow has
been known to devour her young ; but rarely, if ever, does this happen
in a state of nature. It is not unreasonable to believe that when an act
so revolting does occur, it arises more from the pain and irritation pro-
duced by the state of confinement, and often filth, in which she is kept,
and the disturbances to which she is subjected, than from any actual
ferocity: for it is well known that a sow is always unusually irritable
at this period, snapping at all animals that approach her. If she is
gently treated, properly supplied with sustenance, and sequestered
from all annoyance, there is little danger of this ever happening."!

Roots and fruits are the natural food of the hog, in a wild as well as
a domesticated state ; and it is evident that, however omnivorous this
animal may occasionally appear, its palate is by no means insensible
to the difference of eatables, for whenever it finds variety it wil^be
found to select the best with as much cleverness as other quadrupeds.
" In the peach-tree orchards of North America," says Pennant, " where
hogs have plenty of delicious food, they have been observed to neglect
the fruit that has lain a few hours upon the ground, and patiently wait
for a considerable time for a fresh windfall.''

* Darwin's Zoonomia. + Domesticated Animals of the British Islands.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WILD BOAR. 33

According to Linnsus the hog is more nice in the selection of his
vegetable diet than any of our other domesticated herbivorous animals.
This great naturalist states that —

The Cow eats 376 plants and rejects 218

„ Gnat „ 449 „ 126

„ Sheep „ 387 „ 141

„ Horse „ 262 „ 312

but that the Hog only „ 72 „ 171

They are gifted with an exquisite sense of smell as well as touch,
residing in the snout, and this enables them to discover roots, acorns,
earth-nuts, or other delicacies suitable to their palates, which may be
buried in the ground.

In some parts of Italy swine are employed in hunting for truffles that
grow some inches below the surface of the soil, and form those pickles
and sauces so highly esteemed by epicures., A pig is driven into a
field and there suffered to pursue his own course. Wherever he stops
and begins to root with his nose, truffles will invariably be found.

The last charge which we shall endeavour to refute is that of intrac-
tability. All the offences which swine commit are attributed to an
innately bad disposition ; whereas they too often arise solely from bad
management or total neglect. Would horses or cattle behave one iota
better, were they treated as pigs too often are ? They are legitimate
objects for the sport of idle boys, hunted with dogs, pelted with stones,
often neglected and obliged to find'a meal for themselves, or wander
about half-starved. Can we wonder that, under such circumstances,
they should be wild unmanageable brutes 1 Look at the swine in a
well regulated farm-yard — they are as peaceable and as little disposed
to wander or trespass as any of the other animals that it contains.
Here, as in many other things, man is but too willing to attribute the
faults which are essentially of his own causing, to any other than their
true source.

CHAPTER IV.

The Wild Boar— Description of him— Characteristics— The female and her young-
Hunting the Wild Boar— Homer's description of a Boar-hunt— Roman festivals and
Karnes — the Wild Boar in England and Scotland — In France — In Germany— Mode of
hunting the Boar in Germany— Wild Boar park of the Emperor of Austria — Present
wild breed in Germany— In Hungary— In the Styrian Alps— In Russia and Sweden—
In the East— Habits of the Wild Hog in India— Wild Hog hunting in India— The wild
breed in America— Fearful conflict with a wild herd in Columbia— The Wild Boar the
parent stock uf all domesticated breeds — Resemblances between — Alterations produced
by Domestication — Resumption of old habits on again becoming free from control of
man.

The wild boar (««s scrofa ,• var. aper) is generally admitted to be the
parent of the stock from which all our domesticated breeds and varieties
have sprung. This animal is generally of a dusky brown or iron-gray
colour, inclining to black, and diversified with black spots or streaks.
The body is covered with coarse hairs, intermixed with a downy wool ;
these hairs become bristles as they approach the neck and shoulders,
and are here so long as to form a species of mane, which the animal
erects when irritated. The head is short, the forehead broad and flat,

34

THE PIG.

the eats short, rounded at the tips and inclined towards the neck,, the
jaw armed with sharp crooked tusks which curve slightly upwards,
and are capable of inflicting fearful wounds, the eye full, neck thick
and muscular, the shoulders high, the loins broad, the tail stiff, and
finished off with a tuftof bristles at the tip, the haunch well turned, and
the legs strong.*

THE WILD BOAR.

The wild boar is a very active and powerful animal, and becomes
fiercer as he grows older. When he exists in a state of nature, he
will usually be found in moist, shady, and well wooded situations, not
far remote from streams or water. In India they are found in the thick
jungles, in plantations of sugar-canes, rice, or rhur, or in the thick
patches of high, long grass.f In England, France, Germany, Italy,

* A full grown wild boar in India averages from thirty to forty inches in height at
the shoulder. The African wild boar is about twenty.eigbt or thirty inches high.

t The wild hog delights in cultivated situations/but will not remain where water is not
at hand in which he can quench his thirst and wallow at his ease, nor will he resort a se-
cond season to a spot that does not afford ample cover, either of heavy grass or underwood
jungle, within a certain distance for him to fly to in case of molestation ; and especially
to serve as a retreat during the hot season, as otherwise he would find no shelter. The
sugar-cane is his great delight, both as affording his favourite food and yielding a highly
impervious, and unfrequented situation. In these the hogs, and the breeding sows espe-
cially, commit great devastation, for the latter not only devour but cut the canes for a
litter, and to throw up a -species of hut, which they do with much art, leaving a small
entrance which they can stop up at pleasure. Sows never quit their young pigs without
completely shutting them up. This is, however, only requisite for a few days, after
which, the little ones may he seen following their mother at a good round pace, though
evidently not more than a week or ten days old.— Williamson's Oriental Field Sports.

A WILD-BOAR HUNT, FROM HOMER. 35

and Spain, their resorts have been in the woods and forests. This ani-
mal is naturally herbivorous, and appears to feed by choice upon plants,
fruits, and roots. He will, however, eat the worms and larvae which
he rinds in the ground, also snakes and other such reptiles, and the
eggs of birds; and Bnffon states that wild boars have been seen to
devour the flesh of dead horses, while other authors accuse them of
devouring hares, leverets, partridges, and indeed all kinds of small
game, and feeding greedily upon carrion ; but this has also been as-
serted to be only the case when they are pressed by hunger. They
seldom quit their coverts during the day, but prowl about in. search of
food during twilight and the night. Their acute sense of smell enables
them to detect the presence of roots or fruits deeply imbedded in the
soil, and they often do considerable mischief by ploughing up the
ground in search of them, particularly as they do not, like the common
hog, root up a little spot here and there, but plough long continuous
furrows.

The wild boar, properly so called, is neither a solitary nor a gregari-
ous animal. For the first two or three years the whole herd follows
the sow, and all unite in defence against any enemies, calling upon
each other with loud cries in case of emergency, and forming in regular
line of battle, the weakest occupying the rear. But when arrived at
maturity the animals wander alone, as if in perfect consciousness of
their strength, and appear as if they neither sought nor avoided any
living creature. They are said to live about thirty years; as they grow
old the hair becomes gray, and the tusks begin to show symptoms of
decay. Old boars are rarely found associating with a herd, but seem
to keep apart from the rest, and from each other.

The female produces but one litter in the year, and herlitters are much
smaller in number than those of the domestic pig; she carries her young
sixteen or twenty weeks, and generally is only seen with the male
during the rutting season. She suckles her young for several months,
and continues to protect them for some time afterwards ; if attacked
then, she will defend herself and them with exceeding courage and
fierceness. Many sows will often be found herding together, each fol-
lowed by her litter of young ones, and in such parties they 'are exceed-
ingly formidable to man and beast. Neither they or the boar, however,
appear to want to attack any thing, but only when roused by aggres-
sion, or disturbed in their retreat, do they turn upon their enemies
and manifest that mighty strength with which nature has endowed
them, otherwise they pursue^ their way in a kind of solitary savage
majesty. Occasionally when two males encounter each other, a fierce
and furious battle will ensue, especially if this happens during the
rutting season, when their passions are inflamed. When attacked by
dogs, the wild boar at first sullenly retreats, turning upon them from
time to time, and menacing them with his tusks; but gradually his ire
rises, and at length he stands at bay, fights furiously for his life, and
tears and rends his persecutors. He has even been observed to single
out the most tormenting of them, and rush savagely upon him.

Hunting the wild boar has been a favourite sport v in almost all the
countries in which this animal was found, from the earliest ages. In all
the ancient Grecian and Roman classical writers, some allusions to this

36 THE PIG.

animal will be found.* Homer, whose vivid portraitures of the actions
and habits of princes and warriors nearly thirty centuries ago are known
to almost every scholar, again and again refers to this savage denizen
of the forests, nor can we deny ourselves the pleasure of extracting the
following graphic lines : —

"Sunn as the morn, new roll'd in purple light,
Piere'd with her golden shafts the rear of night,
Ulysses, and his brave maternal race
The young Antofici, assay the chase ;
Parnassus, thick nerpiex'd with horrid shades,
With deep-mouth'd hounds thu hunter troop invades;
What lime the sun from ocean's peaceful stream
Darts o'er the lawn his horizontal beam.
The Pack impatient snuff the tainted gate;
The thorny wilds the woodmen fierce assail;
And foremost of the Train, his cornel spear
Ulysses wav'd to rouse the savage war;
Deep in the rough recesses of the wood,
A lofty copse, the growth of ages stood;
Nor winter's boreal blast, nor thunderous show*r.
Nor solar ray could pierce the shady bower.
With wither'd foliage strew'd, a heapy store!
The warm pavilion of a dreadful boar.
Rous'd by the hounds' and hunters' mingling cries,
The savage from his leafy shelter flies.
With fiery glare, his sanguine eye-balls shine
And bristles high impale his horrid chine.
Young Ithacus advanced, defies the foe,
Poising his lifed lance in act to throw:
The savage renders vain the wound decreed,
And springs impetuous with opponent speed!
His tusks oblique he aim'd, the knee to gore;
Aslope they glanced, the sinewy fibres tore,
And bar'd the bone: Ulysses undismay'd,
Soon with redoubled force the wound repaid;
To the right shoulder-joint the spear applied,
His further flank with streaming purple dyed ;
On earth he rush'd with agonizing pain,
With joy, and vast surprise, the applauding train
Viewed his enormous back extended on the plain. "t

The wild boar formed part of the sports, pageants, and wild-beast
shows and fights of the Romans. On the return of Severus from Arabia
and Egypt, in the tenth year of his reign, sixty wild boars fougjit each
other; and in the year that Gordian the First was sedile, he entertained
the people of Rome, at his own expense, once a month ; and " on the
sixth month there were two hundred stags, thirty wild horses, one
hundred wild sheep, twenty effes, one hundred Cyprian bulls, three

* In hunting the wild boar, javelins and large nets were used. The recent prints of
the animal's feet on the ground, the impression of ,his teeth on the bark of the trees, and
other indications, led us to a thick wood (Xenoph, Exped. Cyr. lib. 5.) We loosened a
dog of Lacomia, who followed the scent and brought a cry of his discovery. We imme-
diately retired and prepared our nets, and occupied our respective places. The wild
boar first comes on our side; far from being entangled in the net, he paused, and for
a moment sustained the attack of the whole pack; but their baiting, and the attempts
of the hunters to wound him with arrows and stones, caused him to re-enter the forest.
He very soon met with Moschion, who awaited him with the intention of spearing him,
but the spear glided over the shoulder of the animal and fell from the hands of the hun-
ter, who instantly threw himself down with his face on the ground. I thought that he
was lost. Already was the beast about to trample him under foot, when lie saw Diodti-
rus, who flew to the aid of his companion. He immediately sprung on this new enemy,
who, more skilful or more fortunate, plunged his spear into the joint of. the shoulder.
We then had a dreadful example of the ferocity of this animal, who, although wounded,
continued to advance furiously towards Diodorus, who also kept up the conflict. Seve-
ral of the dogs were wounded and escaped, but Diodorus was more fortunate.— Vid.
Xenoph. de Venat. vol. v. 999, and Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis, vol. iv. 6.

t Homer's Odyssey, b. xix. v. 501.

THE BOAR S-HEAD OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 37

hundred red Barbary ostriches, thirty wild asses, and one hundred and
fifty wild boars," given out to be hunted by the populace, and become
the property of whosoever was fortunate enough to catch them.*

During the middle ages, hunting the wild boar formed one of the
chief amusements of the nobility, in most European countries. The
dogs provided for this sport were of the slow heavy kind, anciently
known by the name of the "boarhound." None but the largest and
oldest boars were hunted, and these afforded a very exciting and often
dangerous sport, lasting for many hours ; for when first the animals
was "reared,"" he contented himself with slowly going a way, just keeping
ahead of his pursuers, and_ apparently caring but little for them, and
pausing every half-mile to rest himself, and give battle to his assail-
ants, who are, however, tpo wary to advance upon him until he becomes
tired ; then he takes his final stand, and dogs and hunters close around
him, and a mortal combat ensues, in which the beast eventually falls a
victim.

In treatises on venery and hunting, the technical term for the boar in
the first year is "a pig of the sounder;" in the second, "a hog;" in
the third, "a hog steer;" and in the fourth, "a boar."

Many of the forests in our own country were infested by wild boars.
The Anglo-Saxons seem, from the rude frescoes and prints which are
handed down to us, to have hunted this animal on foot with no other
weapon but the boar-spear, and attended by powerful dogs ; and appa-
rently with such success, that at the Norman conquest William the
First thought it necessary to make some strict laws for the preserva-
tion of this beast of the chase. The period for hunting the wild boar
among the Anglo-Saxons was in September. Howel Dha, the cele-
brated Welsh lawgiver, gave permission to his chief huntsman to chase
the boar from the middle of November until the end of December.f

These animals continued to linger in the forests of England and
Scotland for several centuries after the Norman conquest, and many
tracts of land have derived their name from this occurrence, while in-
stances of valour in their destruction are recorded in the heraldic de-
vices of many a noble family.:): Fitzstephen, a writer of the twelfth
century, informs us that wild boars, stags, fallow deer, and bulls,
abounded in the vast forests which existed on the northern side of Lon-
don in the time of Henry II. The learned Whittaker informs us
that this animal roved at liberty over the woods of the parish of Man-
chester for many centuries after the Romans departed from that station,
and hence the name of Barlow (ioar-ground) came to be assigned to a
district in the south-western portion. In Cumberland, the appellation
"Wild Boar's Fell " still points out the haunts of this animal. The
forests of Bern wood in Buckinghamshire, of Stainmore in Westmore-
land, and those extensive woody districts which once existed in Hert-
fordshire and over the Chiltern Hills, were formerly peopled with wild
boars, wolves, stags, and wild bulls. Many ancient Scottish writers,
too, speak of the existence of this animal in the woods of Caledonia.
In the county of Fife there exists a tract of country formerly called
Muckross (which in the Celtie signifies Boar's Promontory); it is said

* Augustan History, vol. ii. t Lpges Walliae.

X The ancient crest of the family of Edgcumbe was a boar's bead crowned with bays
upon a charger.

38 THE PIG.

to have been famous as the haunt of wild boars. One part of it was
called the Boar Hills, which name has since been corrupted into
Byro Hills. It lies in the vicinity of St. Andrew's, and in the cathe-
dral church of that city two enormous boar's tusks were formerly to be
seen chained to the high altar, in commemoration of an immense brute
slain by the inhabitants after it had long ravaged the surrounding
country.*

The precise period at which the wild boar became exterminated in
England and Scotland cannot be correctly ascertained. Master John
Gifford and William Twety, who lived in the reign of Edward II.,
composed a book on the craft of hunting, part in verse and part in prose,
and among the beasts mentioned in those hunted we find —

•• To venery I caat me fyrst to go;
Of whiche foure beasts there be; that is to say,
The hare, the lierte, the wulfhe, the wild boor also."

In the time of Charles I. they had evidently been long extinct, for he
endeavoured to re-introduce them, and was at considerable expense in
order to procure a wild boar and his mate from Germany. These are
said to have been turned into the New Forest, where they propagated
greatly. Certain it is, that the breed commonly called " forest pigs,"
are very different from the true Hampshire, and have many of the cha-
racteristics of the wild boar.

Throughout the whole of England the boar's head was formerly a
standard Christmas dish, served with many ceremonies, and ushered in
by an ancient chorus chanted by all present,,the words of which are
preserved in " Ritson's Ancient Song : —

"The bore's heed in hand bring I,
With " garlands" gay and rosemary,
I pray you all synge merily,
Qui eslis in convivio.
The bore's heed, I understande,
Is the " chefe " servyce in the lande
Loke where ever it be founde,
Semite cum caatico.

Be gladde, lordes, bothe more and lasse,
For this hath ordeyned oar stewarde.
To chere you all this Christmasse,
The bore's heed with mustarde."

Queen Margaret, wife of James IV. of Scotland, " at the first course
of her wedding dinner," was served with "a wyld bore's head gylt
within a fayr platter."

King Henry II. himself bore this ancient dish into the hall, attended
with trumpeters and great ceremony, when his son was crowned.

The boar's head is to the present day placed upon the table in Queen's
College, Oxford, on Christmas-day, but now it is neatly carved in wood
instead of being the actual head of the animal. This ceremony is said
to have originated in a tabendar belonging to that college having slain
a wild boar on Christmas-day, which had long infested the neighbour-
hood of Oxford. He is said to have been going to serve at church
when he met the animal, and to have slain him by thrusting a copy of
Aristotle down his throat.

The abbot of St. Germain, in Yorkshire, was bound to send yearly a
present of a boar's head to the hangman, which a monk was obliged to

.- * See Martin's Reliquia; Divi, and Sibbald's Hist, of Fire.

WILD BOARS IN GERMANY. 39

carry on his own. This rent was paid yearly, at the feast of St. Vin-i
cent, the patron of the Benedictines, and on that day the executioner
took precedency in the procession of monks.

France, too, formerly had its trackless forests, through which the
grisly boar roved in savage grandeur — its boar-hunts — its legends of
sanguinary combats with these monsters. The " wild boar of Arden-
nes " has been the theme of many a lay and romance. But civilization,
the increase of population, and the progress of agriculture, have here,
too, been at work. Still, however, in the large tracts of forest land
which yet exist and supply the towns with fuel, boars are still occa-
sionally to be met with, although they cannot be regarded as so wild
or ferocious as the ancient breed. At Chantilly, within forty miles of
Paris, the late Prince of Conde, who died in 1830, kept a pack of
hounds expressly for the purpose of hunting the boar; and some Eng-
lish gentlemen who visited the hunting palace in the summer of 1830,
were informed by the huntsman that a few days previously he had seen
no less than fourteen wild hogs at one time. But the good old " wild-
boar hunt," as once existed, with all its perils and excitements, is now
extinct in France as well as in Germany. Where any traces of it
remain, they resolve themselves into a battue of a most harmless de-
scription, which takes place in the parks of the princes or nobles. The
drivers beat up the woods, the wild swine run until they come in con-
tact with a fence stretched across the park for the purpose, and about
the centre of which, at an opening in the wood, a sort of stage is raised,
on which the sportsmen stand and fire at the swine as they run past.

Germany being a coifntry boasting forests of immense extent, was
once the most celebrated of all nations for its wild boars and boar-
hunts ; and in many parts wild hogs are still abundant, and various
methods are adopted to destroy them, as well for amusement as to
turn their carcasses to account, which furnish those finely flavoured
hams called Westphalian, and generally supposed to be bears' hams.

The most simple and effectual way is to find out the haunts of the
boar, and place a matchlock on rests well charged, and concealed by
brambles near it. A rope is attached to the trigger, and carried below
the rests to the trunk of a tree at some little distance, so as to intersect the
animal's path to the forest. Over this the hog inevitably stumbles, and
thus discharges the piece, and receives the ball in the neck or shoulder.
' The ordinary method of shooting the hog in Germany is as follows : —
The huntsman, or jdger, goes out with an ugly but useful animal not
unlike a shepherd's dog, but smaller, which is in German language
called a " sow-finder." The business of this creature is to seek the
hog, and so well trained is he that no other animal will turn him from
that particular scent. On meeting with the object of his search he
gives tongue incessantly, and with active but cautious irritation pursues
the boar till he is at bay; then, by continual teasing, he manages to
turn him sideways to his master, the shoulder affording the best aim
for "readily disabling him. In this situation the sagacious dog contrives
to keep him until his master fh-es; then if the wounded boar makes off,
the boar-hound (a species of btood-hound) is let loose, who pursues
him for miles, giving tongue, nor will he leave him even if other boars
come in the way.*

-r — ' — ^ — r

* Foreign Field Sports.

40 THE PIG.

At the wild-boar park of the Emperor of Austria, which is at Huttels-
dorf, near Vienna, Mr. Howitt states that he saw " Numbers of swine
of all ages and sizes, from the grisly old boar to the sow and her troop
of suckling young ones. Here some grim old fellow as black as jet,
or of a sun-burnt and savage gray, lay basking in the deep grass, and
at our approach uttered a deep guff, and starting up, bolted into the
wood. Others were lying their length under the broad trees, others
scamperingabout with cocked tails. The sows and their young seemed
most savage and' impatient of our presence. Some were tame enough
to come at the whistle of the keeper, and scores ran voraciously when
he shook one of the wild cornel-trees, which grew plentifully in the
forest. This is a tree as large as an apple-tree, bearing in autumn fruit
of about the size of cherries, and of a coral red colour. The swine are
very fond of it, and as the trees were shook and it pattered to the ground,
they came running on all sides, and stood in the thickets eager for our
departure, when they rushed ravenously forward and devoured it."

"After all," he continues, " the wild swine here can present but a
faint idea of what they were in their ancient wilds. They are all of
the true breed, and cannot, for a moment be confounded with the tame
variety : there is the tusked mouth, the thick fore-quarter, the narrow
hind-quarter, the mane, the coarse bristles, the speed of gait, indicative
of the wild breed, but they appeared tame and pigmy in comparison
with the huge savage monsters bred in the obscure recesses of deep
forests and unacquainted with the sight of man.

"Hunters tell us that, notwithstanding the orders of Government to
exterminate swine in the open forests, on account of the mischief they
do to cultivated land, there are numbers in the forests in Hanover and
Westphalia, huge, gaunt, and ferocious as ever. These will snuff the
most distant approach of danger, and with terrific noises rush into the
densest woods; or surrounding a solitary and unarmed individual,
especially a woman or a child, will scour round and round them,
coming nearer and nearer at every circle, until at last bursting in upon
them they tear them limb from limb and devour them. Tame swine,
which are herded in these forests and become mixed in breed with the
wild, acquire the same blood-thirsty propensities, and will in their
herds surround and devour persons in a similar manner."*

The wild breed abound in Upper Austria, on the Styrian Alps, and in
many parts of Hungary. In the latter country, a recent author speaking
of them, says: "These animals have lost some little of their natural
ferocity, but they still fly at the approach of strangers, and in their form
and habits preserve all the characteristics of the true wild boar, from
which stock they are descended without intermixture of any other breed.
I am told too that their flesh has all the peculiar flavour of the wild boar.
This animal, in a completely savage state, is now becoming very scarce
in Hungary, and is only met with in the most secluded forests and in
the recesses of the Carpathian mountains.!

The forests of Poland, Spain, Russia, and Sweden^ still contain ani-

* Howell's Rural Life in Germany.

t Bright's Travels through Germany and Lower Hungary.

t Lloyd, in his "Field Sports of Northern Europe," gives the following account of an
encounter with a wild sow:— 'One day in the depth of winter, accompanied by my
Irish servant, I struck into the forest, in the vicinity of that place for the purpose of
•hooting capercali. On this occasion, however, we had no other guide Iban my pocket

HUNTING THE WILD HOG IN INDIA. 41

mals of the wild boar tribe, and the inhabitants of these countries hunt
them with hounds, or attack them with fire-arms or with the proper
boar-spear.

But the most exciting accounts we now have of this sport are fur-
nished by our countrymen in the East, who diversify their other hunts
and field-sporte by occasionally chasing the wild hog. Captain Wil-
liamson, in his graphic volume, gives some very animated accounts of
the perils of this chase, as does also Mr. Johnston fe, and if any thing
could reconcile us to the pursuing, tormenting, and shedding the blood
of an animal who only puts forth his strength in self-defence, it would
be the bravery and presence of mind exhibited by some of the hunts-
men. One or two quotations will illustrate the habits of the wild hogs
of India, as well as the mode in which they are hunted.

" The pace and powers of" the wild hog" are not to be estimated
by any comparison with those of the tame one. Persons unacquainted
with the vigour and speed of the Jungle hog will be surprised to learn
that it requires a good horse to keep near a moderately sized hog, and
that it is by no means uncommon to see what is considered as a mode-
rately sized animal overthrow many horses in succession. The fact is,
that from April to November, during which period the canes and corn
are off the grounds, the wild hogs are compelled to wander from the
copses and long grass-jungles in which they take refuge, to greater dis-
tances, in search of food, by which means they are not only kept low
in flesh, but, from their daily exercise, get confirmed in good wind,
and seem rather to attack the hunter than to run away; and this is not'
merely during the space of a few hundred yards, but for a considerable
distance. I recollect being one of four well-mounled riders, who were
completely distanced in a chase of about three miles.

" In crossing the country early in June, about sunrise, we saw at a
considerable distance a hog trotting over a plain to his cover, which
was a large extent of brambles and copse, from which we could not
hope to drive him. As there appeared no chance of overtaking him,
we agreed to let him proceed unmolested, and to be at the place whence
he had come by daybreak on the next morning. We accordingly were
up early on the following morning, anticipating the pleasure of being
at his heels, but on arriving at the spot in which we had observed him
on the preceding day we found him nearer to his cover than before.
" Knowing that when hogs take the alarm they are apt to change

compass. Towards evening, and when seven or eight miles from home, we came to a
small hamlet, situated in the recesses of the forest; here an old wild sow and her progeny
made a determined dash at a brace of very valuable pointers I at that time had along with
me, who naturally took shelter behind us. My man had a light spear in his hand, simi-
lar to those used by onr lancers; this ( took possession of, and directing him to throw
the dogs over a fence, in the angle of which we were cooped up, I placed myself between
the dogs and their pursuers. The sow, nevertheless, 51 ill pressed forward, and it was
only by giving her a severe blow across the snout with the butt end of the spear, that I
stopped her further career. Nothing daunted, however, hy this reception, she directed
her next attack against myself; when, in self-defence, I was obliged to give her a home-
thrust with the point of the spear. These attacks she repeated three several times, and
as often got the spear up to the hilt either in her head or neck. She then slowly retreated,
bleeding at all pores: so savage and ferocious a beast 1 never saw in tny life. In the
fray 1 broke my spear, which was as well, for it was by no means strong enough to an-
swer the purpose for which it was intended.

" This was not a solitary instance of the ferocity of the wild swine. It was the same
throughout Sweden ; whenever they caught sight of my dogs, they generally charged, and
if they came up with them, would tumble them over and over again with their snouts,"
4

42 THE PIG.

their route and their hours, we were not surprised at this manreuvring.
We were still earlier on the third morning, when we took our positions
nearer his place of nightly resort, and had the satisfaction to find that
we were in time to bear him company homeward. Here, however,
some delay took place. The hog on his first breaking from the small'
jungle where we awaited him, and through which he had to pass, after
glutting himself in a swamp among some rye, sown extremely thick
for transplanting,, found that he was watched. He, therefore, after
trotting out a hundred yards, gave a sort of snort and returned. This
was precisely what we wished for.

"It was not yet. day, and the desire to intercept our prey had made
us push forward so as to place our people far behind. They, however,
came up to the number of a hundred, and after beating the cover for a
short time, our friend took fairly to the plain.

" As we were careful not to dispirit, and had cautiously kept from
that side on which we wished him to bolt, he gained upon us a little.
He had to go at least three miles, and the whole of the plain was laid
out in paddy or rice fields.

" The hog kept a-head the whole way, so that there was no possi-
bility of our throwing a distant spear.

" The swine generally establish themselves in cane or grain planta-
tions, when these are high and afford good shelter, and here they live
for several months; but about the middle of March, or, at the latest,
the beginning of April, they are obliged to shift their quarters, as the
cane and grains are generally cut about that time. However, they
often retain possession to the last moment, disputing every inch with
the reapers, and not rarely causing them to leave parts uncut, in the
hope that the hogs will evacuate them, which, if the jungles to which
they must betake themselves happen to be remote, they feel no great
disposition to do, for at this season the hog is indolent and heavy, in
consequence of the abundance of the excellent food to which he has for
five or six months been habituated.

" Hogs are often found in March with three or four inches of fat on
the chines and shoulders.

" It usually requires a great number of persons to drive the hogs out
of the sugar-canes, on account of their extent. The beaters should not
be more than five or six yards distant from each other, or they will turn
back and rush through the intervals. Small drums should be used to
frighten them out; sometimes this will be troublesome; it is particu-
larly so with a sow that has 'pijis:' she will frequently come to the
edge, and dash through the line of beaters again and again. The hog
is generally hunted on horseback, but elephants are likewise employed-
in this sport, in which tigers are not unfrequently dislodged from their
retreats.

"The how, being forced from his covert, is crowded on by several
horsemen with spears, which they use in the manner of javalins. They
pursue the animal at speed as he makes his way to the nearest cover,
darting their spears into his body as they come up to him. Those
horsemen," says Captain Williamson, " who are placed at the nearest
situation, should gallop round to watch the hog passing, and giving the
loud halloo, should dash at him at full speed, spearing as they come
up. Some hogs, however, are aware of the plot, having been hunted
before.

ALTERATIONS PRODUCED BY DOMESTICATION. 43

"Many may lie seen with scars, evidently the result of wounds
received on former occasions, and such are extremely difficult to deal
with. They will break out of the line repeatedly, dash at all they
meet with, and eventually create such terror as effectually to discourage
the beaters, who thence get into groups, and, though they continue their
vociferation, act so timorously as to render it expedient to withdraw
them for the purpose of trying a fresh cover, it is very common to see
a plough at work at the very edge of the canes where the villagers are
beating for hogs; and as the bullocks employed are extremely skittish
and wild, it often happens that they take fright and run off with the
plough, which frequently is broken to pieces. The ploughman, alarmed
equally with his cattle, also takes to flight, as do all the peasants who
may see the bristling animal galloping from his haunt."*

Mr. Johnston describes another scene eminently characteristic of the
desperate fierceness and strength of the wild hog. He was one of a
party of eight persons, on a sporting excursion near Patna on the banks
of the Soane. Returning one morning from shooting, they met with a
very large boar, which they did not fire at or molest, as, although
several of the party were fond of hunting, they had no spears with
them. The next morning they all sallied forth in search of him, and
just as they had arrived at the spot where they had seen him the day
before, they discovered him at some distance galloping off towards a
grass jungle on the banks of the river. They pressed their horses as
fast as possible, and were nearly up with him when he disappeared all
at once.

The horses were then nearly at their full speed, and four of them
could not be pulled up in time to prevent their going into a deep branch
of the river, the banks of which were at least fourteen or fifteen feet
high. Happily, there was no water in, or any thing but fine sand, and
no person was hurt. One of the horses, that was exceedingly vicious,
got loose, attacked the others, and obliged them, and all the rest, to
recede.

A few days afterwards they went again, early in the morning, in pur-
suit of the same hog, and found him farther off from the grass jungle,
in a rhur-field, from which with much difficulty they drove him into a
plain, where he stood at bay challenging the whole party, and boldly
charging every horse that came within fifty yards of him, grunting
loudly as he advanced.

"The horse I rode," says Mr. Johnston, "would not go near him;
and when I was at a considerable distance off, he charged another horse
with such ferocity that mine reared and plunged in so violent a manner
as to throw me off. Two or three others were dismounted at nearly
the same time; and though there were many horses present that had
been long accustomed to the sport, not one of them would stand his
charges. He fairly drove the whole party off the field, and gently
trotted on to the grass jungle, foaming and grinding his tusks."f

In Morocco the wild boar is the most common and prolific of all the
ferocious animals found there; the sow produces several large litters
in the year ; and were it not that the young form the favourite food of
the lion, the country would be overrun with these animals.

* Williamson's Oriental Field Sports. t Johnston's Indian Field Spoils.

44 THE PIG.

In the woods of America there are abundance of wild swine, pos-
sessing all the ferocity of the boar. The following fearful scene
occurred in Columbia. A party of six hunters had gone out on a
sporting expedition. They fell in with a herd of swine, upon which
four of them, less experienced than the others, immediately fired, and
the swine advanced fiercely to attack them. The four young men,
intimidated, took to flight without warning their companions, or con-
sidering the danger to which they were exposed. They climbed up
into some trees, but the other two were quickly surrounded by the
swine. They made a long and desperate defence with their lances,
but were at length dragged down. One of them was torn to pieces,
and the other dreadfully lacerated and left for dead by the swine, who
now watched the four fugitives in the trees until sunset. Then, pro-
bably yielding to the calls of nature, they retired. The surviving
hunters then came down and assisted their wounded companion into
the canoe, and carried off the remains of the unfortunate man who had
fallen in this horrible encounter.*

We have entered thus much at length into the history of the wild
boar, because no one can for a moment doubt that it is the parent stock
from which the domesticated breeds of swine originally sprung ; the
well known fact that all kinds breed with the boar, is in itself a suffi-
cient testimony ; but to this we can add that the period of gestation is
the same in the wild and tame sow ; the anatomical structure is iden-
tical ; the general form bears the same characters ; and the habits, so
far as they are not altered by domestication, remain the same.

Where individuals of the pure wild race have been caught young and
subjected to the same treatment as the domestic pig, their fierceness
has disappeared, they have become more social and less nocturnal in
their habits, lost their activity, and lived more to eat. In the course of
one or two generations even the form undergoes certain modifications ;
the body becomes larger and heavier ; the legs shorter and less adapted
for exercise ; the formidable tusks of the boar, being no longer needed
as weapons of defence, disappear; the shape of the head and neck
alters; and in character as well as in form, the animal adapts itself to
its new position. Nor does it appear that a return to their native wilds
restores to them their original appearance, for, in whatever country pigs
have escaped from the control of man and bred in the woods and wil-
dernesses, there does not appear to be a single instance recorded by
any naturalist in which they have resumed the habits and form of the
wild boar. They become fierce, wild, gaunt, and grisly, and live upon
roots and fruits; but they are still merely degenerated swine, and they
still associate together in herds, nor " walk the glade in savage solitary
grandeur" like their grim ancestors.

We shall now proceed to notice some of the accounts given of the
swine found in various parts of the world, previous to entering upon a
consideration of the breeds peculiar to our own country.

* Cochrane'* Columbia, vol. i.

SWINE IN AMERICA. 45

CHAPTER V.

Swine in America— In large towns— Original breed— Improved breed— Swine in Canada
— In Ohio — In Mexico — Hebrides — In Columbia— In the South-Sea islands— Swine in
Asia — In China and Japan— Ceylon — Hindostan — Turkey and Arabia— Swine in
Africa— Guinea— New Holland— Caffraria— Swine in Europe— In Malta— in Italy —
In Germany — In Hungary— In Russia — In Sweden— In France— Swine indigenous to
the Channel Islands — In Jersey — In Guernsey — In Serk— In Alderney — The Isle of
Man— In the Hebrides— In the Shetland Isles — In the Orkneys.

Throughout the whole of this quarter of the globe swine appear to
abound. They are not, however, indigenous, but were doubtless origi-
nally carried thither by the early English settlers, and the breed thus
introduced still may be distinguished by the traces they retain of their
parent stock; but France, Spain, and, during the slave-trade, Africa,
have also combined to supply America with varieties of this animal, so
useful to the settler in the wilds and woods, and so much esteemed
throughout the whole of the country, as furnishing a valuable article of
food.

"It appears that the American zoologists describe no fewer than six
species of the hog, some of them so entirely distinct in their general
habits and appearance as to prevent their ever breeding or even associa-
ting together. Five of these species need only be regarded as objects
of curiosity; the sixth is the common wild hog of the eastern continent —
which we will describe in order to illustrate the difference between a
good and a bad animal of the same variety ; they have long-peaked
snouts, coarse heads, thin chests, narrow shoulders, sharp backs, slab
sides, meagre diminutive hams, big legs, clumped feet, the hide of a rhino-
ceros, the hair and bristles of a porcupine, and as thick and shaggy as a
bear's ; they have no capacity for digesting and concocting their food
in the stomach for nourishment; there is nothing but offal, bones, rind,
bristles and hair, with a narrow streak of gristle underneath, and a still
narrower line of lean, as tough and as rank as white leather — their
snouts against every man, and every man's hand against them. No
reasonable fence can stop them, but, ever restive and uneasy, they rove
about seeking for plunder; swilling, grunting, rooting, pawing, always
in mischief and always destroying. The more a man possesses of such
stock the worse he is off; and he had far better sell his produce at any
price, than to put it into such totally worthless creatures."*

Stuart says — "Hogs are universal in this part of the world, and are
well and frequently fed. At first they are kept in the woods, and nur-
tured on chestnuts and apples ; before being killed, they have good
rations of Indian corn or barley-meal, and in many cases are likewise
well supplied with steamed food. In South Carolina the climate is so
mild that they are allowed to wander about the woods during the whole
year, feeding on the nuts, acorns, &c. which are there so abundant, and
occasionally eating the fallen fruit they meet with. They are very use-
ful in destroying snakes."f

In large towns, too, they are apparently as much at home and as com-

* A. B. Allen. t Stuart's North America.

46 THE PIG.

mon as in the forests, pacing the streets, instead of the glades, and feed-
ing upon the offal and filth rejected by mate, instead of the fresh and
wholesome fruits supplied by the hand of nature. One of our country-
men gives an amusing graphic account of the swinish multitude m some
of the large towns through which he passed.

"We are going to cross here. Take care of the pigs. Two portly
sows are trotting up behind this carriage, and a .select party of half-a-
dozen gentlemen hogs have just now turned the corner. Here is a soli-
tary swine, lounging homewards by himself; he has only one ear,
having parted with the other to vagrant dogs in the course of his city
rambles; but he gets on very well without it, and leads a roving, gen-
tlemanly, vagabond kind of life, somewhat answering to that of our
clubmen at home. He leaves his lodgings every morning at a certain
hour, throws himself upon the town, gets through his day in some
manner quite satisfactory to himself, and regularly appears at the door
of his own house again at night, like the mysterious master of Gil
Bias; he is a free-and-easy, careless, indifferent kind of pig, having a
very large acquaintance among other pigs of the same character, whomhe
rather knows by sight than conversation, as he seldom troubles himself
to stop and exchange civilities, but goes grunting down the kennel,
turning up the news and small-talk of the city, in the shape of cabbage-
stalks and offal, and bearing no tails but his own, which is a very short
one, for his old enemies the dogs have been at that too, and have left
him hardly enough to swear by ; he is in every respect a republican
pig, going wherever he pleases and mingling with the best society, on
an equal if not superior footing, for every one makes way when he ap-
pears, and the haughtiest give him the wall if he prefer it ; he is a great
philosopher, and seldom moved unless by the dogs before mentioned;
sometimes, indeed, you may see his small eye twinkling on a slaugh-
tered friend, whose carcass garnishes a butcher's door-post, but he
grunts out "Such is life; all flesh is pork!" buries his nose in the
mire again, and waddles down the gutter, comforting himself with the
reflection that there is one snout the less to anticipate stray cabbage-
stalks, at any rate.

" They are the city scavengers! these pigs, ugly brutes they are ;
having for the most.part scanty brown backs, like the lids of old horse-
hair trunks, spotted with unwholesome black blotches; they have long
gaunt legs too, and such peaked snouts that if one of them could be
persuaded to sit for his profile, nobody would recognize it for a pig's
likeness; they are never attended upon, or fed, or driven, or caught,
but are thrown upon their own resources in early life, and become pre-
ternaturally knowing in consequence; every pig.knows where he lives
much better than any body could tell him. At this hour, just as even-
ing is closing in, you will see them roaming towards bed by scores,
eating their way to the last. Occasionally some youth among them
who has over eaten himself, or has been worried by dogs, trots shrink-
ingly homeward, like a prodigal son ; but this is a rare case ; perfect
self-possession and self-reliance, and immovable composure, being their
foremost attributes."*

And Mrs. Trollope piteously exclaims — "I am sure I should have

* Dicken's American Notes.

SWINE IN AMERICA. 47

liked Cincinnati much better if the people had not dealt so very largely
in hogs ! The immense quantity of business done in this line would
hardly be believed by those who had not witnessed it. I never saw a
newspaper without remarking such advertisements as the following :
"Wanted immediately, 4000 fat hogs;" "For sale, 2000 barrels of
prime pork." But the annoyance came nearer than this. If I deter-
mined upon a walk up Main Street, the chances were five hundred to
one against my reaching the shady side without brushing by a snout
Or two, fresh dripping from the kennel. When we had screwed up
our courage to the enterprise of mountinga certain noble-looking sugar-
loaf hill, that promised pure air and a fine view, we found the brook
we had to cross at its foot red with the blood from a pig slaughter-
house ; while our noses, instead of meeting " the thyme that loves the
green hill's breast," were greeted by odours that I will not describe,
and which I heartly hope my readers cannot imagine; our feet, that on
leaving the city had expected to press the flowery sod, literally got en-
tangled in pigs' tails and jaw-bones; and thus the prettiest walk in the
neighbourhood was interdicted for ever."*

The common breed may for the most part be described as large,
rough, long-nosed, big-boned, thin-backed, slab-sided, long-legged,
ravenous, ugly animals. But latterly great improvements have been
made in it by judicious crossing with the Chinese and Berkshire pigs,
by crossing these two breeds with each other, and by careful breeding
from these two stocks without intermixture.f

Mr. Bement, of Albany, who has devoted great attention to the rear-
ing and breeding of swine, speaks in the highest terms of praise of the
cross between the pure Chinese breed and the original breed of the
country, or, " land-shads," as he termed them. He says that the
Chinese breed was first introduced about twenty years ago, but that
from their size seldom attaining more than 250 lbs., and from their
delicacy, they were not adapted for "a farmer's hog." But with the
just-mentioned cross they become all that could be wished. He thus
describes the " improved China hogs :" — " In colour they aTe various —
white, black and white, spotted, and gray and white; they are longer
in the body than the pure Chinese breed; small in the head and legs;
broad in the back; round in the body; the hams well let down; skin
thin; and flesh delicate andjfinely flavoured. They are easy keepers,
small consumers, quiet in fnsposition, not given to roam or commit
depredations ; and when in condition may be maintained so upon grass
only."i:

The best Berkshire breeds as imported into America vary somewhat
in size and appearance; that from which most of the present stock have

* Domestic Manners of the Americans.

t American Pigs.— In the 15th annual Fair in New York, the following account was
given of the Pigs: — "The swine were fairly represented in the Berkshires, Chinas, and
their crosses. There were some beautiful specimens of these, and if any one doubts that
it is the corn-crib alone that makes the pork, let him scan closely the fine forms, thin
hair, mellow elastic handling, delicate limbs, and quiet countenance, expressive of peace
with all the world, exhibited by some of the grunters inside the yard, and their Ham-
mish kindred without, a roaming, restless, thriftless brute, with legs reaching to the
back-bone, the bristles of a porcupine, the hide of -a rhinoceros, the snout of a plough-
share, and all the grim aspect and unthrifty look of a wolf or hyena; thrice cursing the
human race — a curse to their neighbours, a curse to their feeders, and a curse to their
eaters."— JVct York Herald. J The Cultivator, vol. ii.

48 THE PIG.

been raised was taken to America in 1832. This breed has spread
rapidly over the country, and fetches a high price from its peculiar
aptitude to fatten. Its prevailing characteristics are — a fine head, a
dished face, rather upright ears, close shoulders and hams, and a short
body; animals of this kind mature very rapidly; and produce most deli-
cate meat.

A celebrated pig-breeder says — "The Americans are so partial to this
breed, that I have sold sucking-pigs weighing from 30 to 32 lbs. each,
when seven or eight weeks old, at 50 dollars for a sow pig, and 30
dollars for a boar. I sold a sow pig of eight weeks old for 70 dollars.
I knew a pair of pigs of this breed, killed at the age of one year and a
quarter, which weighed 41 stone ; thus the pig's age being 456 days,
and his weight 574 lbs., he must have increased at the rate of rather
more than 1 i lb. per day."* This breed is to be found in New Orleans,
Kentucky, Alabama, Albany, Saratoga, Newburn, &c. There are now
various improved breeds, known for the most part under the names of
the improvers, or of the localities in which they are found, arising from
crosses of the original American hog with the above-mentioned breeds,
or others which may have been imported from England and other
countries. The establishment of agricultural societies and cattle-shows
has contributed in the New as well as in the Old World to direct the
attention of farmers and breeders to all kinds of domesticated animals,
and the advantages which have been obtained in swine alone are suffi-
ciently great to prove incentives to increased care and study on the all-
important principles of breeding.

Head, in his journey from Halifax to Upper Canada, again and again
alludes to the fine pigs he saw, and the delicious pork with which he
was regaled by the settlers he met with in various parts. He says that
bears are very fond of pork, for they often get into the farm-yards and
carry off a squeaking struggling victim to regale themselves upon.

In Canada the breed of swine furnishes the principal supply for food
and exportation ; great quantities of pork being sent to New Orleans.
Mr. Owen has established a whiskey distillery, and fattens the swine
on the refuse. About 1500 barrels' of whiskey, worth 10 dollars a bar-
rel, were made every year in Mr. Owen'e distillery. Great numbers
of swine roam in the woods of Indiana, far from all human dwellings,
where they grow very fat upon the abundance of oak and beech mast.f
They are of a reddish-brown colour, with round black spots; there are
some quite wild, which any body is at liberty to shoot. These animals
are never housed, even in the vicinity of Harmony. In the depth of win-
ter the young ones often perish with cold, or are devoured by the mo-
thers ; and then dead swine will be seen lying about in all directions,
some partly devoured by others. The negligence and want of feeling
with which these animals are treated is very great, and consequently
they can never be expected to prosper or yield those advantages which
might be derived from them under proper treatment.±

* The Cultivator, vol. ii.

t In some parts where great numbers of swine are allowed to run almost wild, a tri-
angular yoke is Axed round thefrnecks to prevent them from breaking through fences.—
Weld's Travels in North America. { Maximilian's Travels in North Amerioa.

SWINE IN MEXICO AND COLUMBIA. 49

Professor Silliman, in his account of Ohio, says that large numbers
of hogs pass the winter in the woods quite independent of the assist-
ance of man, subsisting on nuts and acorns. Single individuals of these
are occasionally destroyed by bears and wolves, but a herd of ten or
twenty hogs are more thai) a match for a wolf or panther. Indeed an
old hunter once saw a panther spring from a tree into a drove of wood
bogs, and scarcely had he touched the ground than the larger ones fell
upon him with their tusks and the weight of their bodies, and killed
and tore him in pieces in a few moments.*

In Mexico fine breeds of pigs are kept by many persons of wealth as
an article of trade as well as of consumption, and the greatest possible
care and attention are paid to the cleanliness and comfort of these ani-
mals ; nay more, the Mexican pigs may be said to possess the luxuries
of life, for two Indian lads are kept to sing the grunting herd to sleep.
These boys are chosen for the strength of their lungs and their taste
and judgment in delighting the ears and lulling the senses of the por-
cine, harmonists, and they take it by turns to chant throughout the
whole day ; nor does their performance appear to be unappreciated by
their strange audience, but jather to afford exceeding delight and grati-
fication.!

The New Hebrides, the Marquesas, the Friendly and Society Islands,
and New Guinea, abound with a breed of swine closely resembling the
Chinese, and these being almost the only domestic animals which the
natives of these islands possess, they accordingly receive great care
and attention. This race is small, the belly hanging, the legs short,
the tail almost imperceptible, and the colour gray. Its flesh is very
white and delicate.

COLUMBIA.

In the woods of Columbia there are numbers of swine, but for the
most part wild ; and the flesh of these wild ones is far superior to that
of the few that are domesticated, as that of the latter, from the animals
being often fed on stale fish and all kinds of abominations, acquires a
rancid and unpleasant flavour. Some of the settlers chiefly live by the
sale of the flesh of wild swine, which they obtain by hunting, and then
cure or dry it.

Experienced hunters will kill their fourteen or fifteen swine a-day,
and a well trained dog will often destroy two or three of these animals
a-day by himself. The mode of proceeding is for the dog to keep the
hog at bay while the hunter creeps up, and watching his opportunity,
throws his lance with such vigour as to pin the animal to the ground.
This done, he rushes upon him, seizes the lance firmly with one hand,
and with the other dispatches the game with his knife.:):

* Arcana of Science, 1828. f Bullock's Mexico. J Cochrane's Columbia.

50 THE PIG.

In Paraguay and Brazil swine are likewise abundant, and for the
most part wild.

The Falkland Islands were stocked with swine by the French and
Spaniards, but little, if any, trace of the original breeds can now be
discovered in the fierce, bristly, tusked animals now found there, some
of the older ones of which rival the grisly boar in appearance and
wildness.

SOUTH-SEA ISLANDS.

The South-Sea Islands, on their discovery by Europeans, were found
to be well stocked with a small, black, short-legged hog; the tradi-
tionary belief of the human natives was, that these animals were as
anciently descended as themselves. The hog, in fact, is in these
islands the principal quadruped, and is of all others the most carefully
cultivated. The bread-fruit tree, either in the form of a sour paste or
in its natural condition, constitutes its favourite food, and its additional
choice of yams, eddoes, and other nutritive vegetables, renders its flesh
most juicy and delicious; its fat, though rich, being at the same time
(so says Foster) not less delicate and agreeable than the finest butter.
Before our missionary labours had proved so signally successful in
these once forlorn and benighted regions, by substituting the mild spirit
of Christianity for the sanguinary forms of a delusive and degrading
.worship, the Otaheitans and other South-Sea Islanders were in the habit
of presenting roasted pigs at the morais, as the most savoury and ac-
ceptable offering to their deities which they could bestow.

Throughout the greater part of Asia swine are to be found. The
extensive and magnificent forests which cover much of the Birmese
Empire, Siam, Cochin China, and other kingdoms of the south-east,
abound with hogs, as well as other pachydermatous animals.

Here are found the celebrated Siamese or Chinese breed, so much
esteemed throughout all parts of the world to which they have been
exported: distinguished for their small size, fine head and snout, com-
pact deep carcass, large hams and shoulders, short limbs, delicate feet,
fine hair and skin, aptitude to fatten and grow, and the sweet delicate
meat they yield.

CHINA AND JAPAN.

The Chinese and Japanese are great pig-breeders, and make the art
of crossing, breeding, and rearing swine, which furnish them with their
principal animal food, an object of peculiar attention and study. Mer-
chants who have resided for some time in China, and even travellers
who have merely been able to bestow a superficial glance on matters,
speak of the great care bestowed on this point; but no author appears
to have given any details as to the course of practice adopted. Perhaps
from the naturally jealous and uncommunicative disposition of the
Chinese, they have been unable to acquire any; and, perhaps, few have
thought it worth while to trouble themselves about so degraded an ani-
mal as the pig. However this may be, it is much to be regretted lhat

SWINE IN CEYLON AND HINDOSTAN. 51

the information is so very scanty, for many valuable hints might pro-
bably have been thus obtained.

Tradescent Lay, the naturalist in Beechey's expedition, in his inter-
esting work on China, thus amusingly speaks of the natives and their
swine : — " There is a striking analogy between these two. A Chinese
admires a round face and the smooth curvatures of a tun-belly, and
where opportunity serves, cultivates these additions to personal beauty
in himself. The Chinese pig is fashioned on the same model. At an
early period the back becomes convex, the belly protuberant, and the
visage shows a remarkable disposition to rotundity. Nor is the resem-
blance merely personal ; in the moral character there is an amusing
similitude, contrariety and obstinacy being the prevailing characteristics
of both men and brutes."

This same author informs us that swine are rarely driven or made to
walk in China, but conveyed from place to place in a species of cradle
suspended upon a pole, carried by two men. But he says, " the diffi-
culty is to get the animal into this conveyance, and this is accomplished
by the cradle being placed in front of the pig, and the owner then
vigorously pulling at 'porky's tail,' and in the spirit of opposition the
animal darts into the place they have prepared for him. At the jour-
ney's end the bearers dislodge him by spitting in his face."

Mr. Lay states that " pork is very plentiful in China, but never
agreeable to the European eye, from its shining flabby appearance ', it
does not taste either like our pork, and is only tolerable when cut into
thin slices and fried in soy to correct the grossness of the natural juices.
The natives cut it in long slices or rashers, and dry it in the sun, and
thus prepared it is not unpleasant in flavour, although it is then by no
means easy to distinguish it from dogs' or cats' flesh similarly pre-
pared."*

In speaking of Ceylon and its neighbourhood, an intelligent traveller
says: — "The swine here are a long-legged ugly breed, allowed to run
wild and pick up whatever food they can get. I never saw at any na-
tive cottage or farm a pig penned or put up to fatten, and yet the natives
are very fond of hog's flesh, and never hold any feast or festival without
this meat constituting the chief and most approved dishes."

HINDOSTAN.

The existence of a breed of swine* in Hindostan and the Birmese
empire is mentioned by several travellers, but scarcely one gives any
account of them. It would seem, however, that they are identical with
the Siamese breed. Hogs are also enumerated as among the wild
beasts of Central India. Some of the Hindoo tribes use hog's blood
for all the purposes to which other nations apply holy-water; but pork
is not eaten, excepting by Europeans and the lowest caste of Hindoos.
In the Eastern Archipelago and the Moluccas, a breed of wild swine
exists bearing great resemblance to the Chinese, but rather longer in
the legs and lighter in the body, and affording delicious meat.

* The Chinese as they are, by Tradescent Lay.

52 THE PIG.

TURKEY AND ARABIA.

In Turkey, Syria, Persia, Arabia, and the norlh-eastem parts of Asia,
comparatively few pigs are found, and these are of an iron-gray, black,
and occasionally brown hue; short-legged, small, round in the body,
very apt to fatten, and attaining the weight of from 350 to 400 lbs.
And there are two ways of accounting for this, viz.: the prevalence of
the Mohammedan religion, and the sandy open nature of the country;
for it is chiefly in well-wooded if not cultivated districts that we find
swine, their nature and habits alike unfitting them for dry sandy
deserts.

In this quarter of the globe again we meet with but few swine, until
we approach the south-eastern parts, and for the same reason which we
have just given. In Abyssinia they are to be found, but they are not
field in much estimation. They have been imported into New Hol-
land, Caffraria, and the Cape of Good Hope, but are not kept to any
extent, on account of the difficulty of feeding them. In most of these
places pork is chiefly used as food for the lower classes, and but little
care or attention is bestowed upon the animals ; and the breeds greatly
resemble the Chinese variety, but are somewhat less, being short-legged,
round bodied animals, of a black or dark brown colour, the bristles few
and almost as fine as hairs, and the tail terminated by a tuft.

The Coast of Guinea used to possess a breed of swine which have
been exported thence as an article of commerce, especially to the new
settlements 'in America and to some parts of the East Indies, and were
held in high estimation at that time. But the cessation of the inter-
course induced by the slave-trade, and the discovery of more valuable
breeds, have rendered these almost forgotten. These animals were
large in size, square in form, of a reddish colour, the body covered with
short bristly hair, and smoother and more shiny than almost any other
variety of the porcine race ; the tail very long, and the ears long, nar-
row, and terminating in a point. This variety is also found in Brazil.

We now find swine almost universal, and every where, more or less,
an object of special care and attention, both as furnishing a valuable
kind of animal food and an article of commerce.

Coming up the Mediterranean Sea we find the small black Maltese
breed, the bodies of which are almost bare and smooth, and which fatten
so aptly and afford such delicate pork. Spain then offers its breeds,
none of which are, however, held in great estimation out of their native
country. The chief of these is a short-headed, long, yet round-bodied,
dumpty-legged variety, of a reddish brown or copper colour ; the skin
fine and the bristles slender ; it is small in size, very prolific, and may
easily be fattened to an enormous weight. This breed is also found in
Portugal and some parts of the south of Italy ; it closely resembles the

SWINE IN EUROPE. 53

Siamese pigs, and has doubtless originally sprung from them. The
far-famed Bologna sausages are made from the flesh of this animal.

Italy too is in some degree celebrated for its pigs, the best breeds of
which, like the Maltese, are small, black, destitute of bristles, and
delicate in flesh. The Neapolitan breed has been extensively exported,
for the purpose of crossing with other kinds, and has found considerable
favour in many parts of England. In themselves these pigs are not
sufficiently hardy for general use, but, crossed with rougher breeds,
they yield a valuable progeny, fine in form, delicate in flesh, and easy
to fatten. There is a much larger race of swine bred in the Duchy of
Parma, and generally considered to be the finest breed in Italy, in every
point of view.

In Palermo, Bosco, the environs of Rome, and the neighbourhood of
Bologna, Count Chateauvieux tells us pigs are kept. Those at Bosco,
on the Apennines; he describes as a good breed, which the farmers
fatten on chestnuts and milk, housing them in the winter and suffering
them to run over the mountains during the summer. At the farm of
Campo Morto he found a herd of 2000 pigs, of the domestic breed, and
black. They run all the year on the immense tract of land which ex-
tends towards the sea, are fatted on nuts and acorns, and yield excellent
meat. They are not indigenous, but have been brought thither to stock
the woods, and they are regarded by the proprietor of that farm as the
most valuable part of his stock, for their keep costs him little or no-
thing, and they yield a very good profit.

The pigs he found on the marshy plains of PoTesino, between Bo-
logna and Ferrara, he describes as large, lean, thin-flanked, and long-
limbed animals.*

In some of the towns of Italy certain swine are made privileged
animals, by undergoing some ceremonies ; they are then, to all intents
and purposes, citizens, and may roam the streets unmolested seeking
their daily food. Among the ancient statutes of Trieste, some of which
are now abrogated, the following may still be found : — " It shall be
also lawful for two pigs of the fraternity of St. Anthony to wander in
the dty, they having one ear cut off and the other slit. But when they
have pro-created, the superior or stewards of the said fraternity shall
provide that all the young ones, except two only, be within the month
next ensuing, sold or sent out of the city, under a penalty of 50 livres.
And if the said two pigs do any damage, the stewards shall be bound
to make it good, and the party complaining shall be delivered on his
oath, both as to the nature of the damage and its extent. And to every
judge of the city it shall be lawful to hear and determine all such
causes in a summary way, after one sole citation of the stewards."

Pursuing our way to Germany we meet with totally different ani-
mals," submitted for the most part to an entirely different management.
The common breeds of the country are every where described as huge,

* Chaleauvieuj's Letters from Italy.

54 THE PIG.

gaunt, long-legged, lean-bodied, greyhound-like animals, with exceed-
ingly long snouts and coarse bristles, forming almost as much of a
mane on the neck and shoulders as those of the wild boar.

In Prussia and many parts of Poland a rather smaller, but scarcely
less uncouth, race are met with, of a yellow or reddish brown colour.

Thaer, in his valuable work on agriculture, informs us, that " the
chief breeds of pigs known in the north of Germany, and crossed in
various different ways, are, — the Moldavian, Wallachian, and Bothnian
pigs, remarkable for their enormous size, iron-gray colour, and large
lapping ears ; and the Polish, or, properly speaking, the Podolian pigs,
which are also very large, but are of a yellow colour, and have a broad
brown stripe along the spine." These two breeds, he says, furnish
the large pigs for fattening, but they require a proportionably large
quantity of food, and besides are not very productive, the sows seldom
bringing forth more than four or five at the most at a birth.

The Bavarian pigs, he states, are much esteemed for their smallness
of bone and aptitude to fatten ; but the flesh is not liked, it being too
flabby and soft. This breed is usually marked with reddish brown
spots.

The Westphalian is another breed very generally met with ; these
animals are large in size and very prolific, bringing forth ten or twelve
at a litter.

The next variety mentioned he designates " the English pig," and
describes it as being large, full, and deep in the body, and requiring
very substantial food. A cross between this breed and the Westpha-
lian is stated to produce an excellent animal.

To these he adds the Chinese breed, the Spanish or African black
pig, which he estimates very highly from its aptitude to fatten on in-
different or scanty food, its rapid growth, delicate flesh, excellent hams,
and the advantages derived from crossing the larger breeds with it;
and lastly, the German pig, properly so called. But it appears that
this can scarcely be regarded as a distinct breed, but rather as the re-
sult of numerous and various crosses, for he says : " This breed is
different in its characteristics in different provinces ; the colour is white,
black, gray, or spotted. It is of a middling size and can be supported
on a moderate quantity of nourishment. There is no doubt but that by
more attention being bestowed upon the breeding, rearing, and feeding
of this race, they might be materially improved, but most of the per-
sons who undertake the management of pigs on an extensive scale,
seem rather anxious to try the effect of different and new crosses than
to improve the old breed."*

HUNGARY.

In Hungary, Croatia, and Servia a race of swine resembling that
found in Turkey are met with ; small, of a dark gray colour, and short-
legged, yet not apparently deriving their origin from the Chinese. The
flesh of the swine reared in Servia is said to be more delicate than will
be met with any where throughout the wh'ole of Europe.

In Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the northern parts of Europe, the
swine yet retain all the characteristics of their ancestor the wild boar.

* Thiier's Principles or Agriculture, Trunsl. by Messrs. Johnston and Shaw.

SWINE IN FRANCE. 55

They are mostly of a red, or dirty brown, or yellow colour; long in the
body, light and active in make, having long legs } a broad flat head,
erect ears, and a nervous slightly up-tnrned snout. They are wild in
their habits, fierce, not apt fatteners, or producing delicate meat.

In Holland and Belgium we find numerous varieties and crosses,
but the original breeds have large bodies and long lopping ears; the
sows are prolific, and if properly attended to, the animals fatten very
kindly. There is a variety often met with, — and much esteemed for its
productive powers, its disposition to fatten, and the delicacy of its
flesh, — which most probably derives its origin from a cross between a
native pig and one of the Siamese breed. This animal is of a medium
size, rather short on the legs, with a full round body, straight back,
broad flanks, and small head. The bristles are white and thinly
scattered over the back, but growing rather closer upon the neck and
towards the head.

The original breeds of France are almost all coarse ungainly animals,
for the most part white, excepting towards the south, and there we find
the native breeds very much to resemble those of Italy. " In the time
of Buffon the greater proportion of the hogs in the north of France were
white, as were likewise-those of Vivarais; while in Dauphiny, which
is not far distant, they were all black. Those of Languedoc and Pro-
vence were also of the latter colour. Black pigs still prevail both in
Italy and Spain. According to the great French naturalist, one of the
most evident marks of degeneration (an ill-applied term) is furnished
by the ears, which become more supple and pendent as the animal
changes into the domestic state. He regards the wild boar as the mo-
del of the species, and I think erroneously, for it can only be looked
upon as formed on the model best adapted to the haunts and habits of
a wild animal, the welfare of which requires either the instinct of a
cunning concealment or the possession of strength or swiftness. Now
concealment in a pigsty is of little avail when the day of terror comes,
and the obesity of a well-fed porker is, and must ever continue, en-'
tlrely inconsistent either with speed of foot or vigour of limb ; there-
fore the proper attributes of the animal in its unreclaimed and domesti-
cated conditions being incompatible with each other, those of the former"
ought not in any way to be set up or assumed as a model by which the
latter should be altered or improved."* Of late years French agri-
culturists have seen the advantages small breeds possess over large"
ones, and endeavoured by judicious crosses to reduce the size of their
pigs, and at the same time give to the breeds all the value arising from-
early maturity, a kindly disposition, and productiveness. M. Magne
says, " Our breeds of pigs are in general very defective; they are long-
limbed, thin-necked, narrow-chested, and have high curved backs ; they
are hardy, but far from precocious, fatten with difficulty, and consume
an immense quantity of food compared with the flesh they yield. "f

We are partly indebted to Mr. Wilson's valuable ' Essay on I>o-
.mestic Animals' for the following account of the present chief breeds

* Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. iii.

t Traill! sur l'Eleve, Entreiien et Engraissement du Fore.

56 THE PIG.

of swine in France. The most distinguishable of the present races of
France are the following ; —

" 1. The race of the Pays (PJIuge (by some authors called the Nor-
mandy breed,) which has the head small and sharp-pointed ; the ears
narrow and pointed; the body lengthened ; the legs broad and strong;
the hair coarse, spare, and of a white colour; and the bones small. It
attains to the weight of 600 lbs." M. Bella considers that this breed
are great eaters, but do not fatten kindly.

2. The race of Poitou, of which the head is long and thick, the point
projecting; the ears large and pendulous; the body lengthened ; the
bristles white and coarse; the feet broad and strong; and the bones
large. Its weight does not exceed 500 lbs.

3. The race qf Perigord, of which the neck is thick and short, the
body broad and compact, and the hair black, short, and rough. This
race, when crossed with the Poitou pigs, produces very good animals ;
and it is probable that the pied swine, so common in the south of
France, are descended from this cross.

4. The race of Boulogne. Of considerable dimensions, and well in-
clined to fatten quickly ; ears very broad ; general colour white. This
breed has sprung from a cross between the large English breed and one
of the common races of France.

Of other continental races we shall mention the Jutland swine. Of
these the ears are large and pendent, the body elongated, the back some-
what curved, the legs long. The size of this breed is considerable, as
from 200 lbs. to 300 lbs. (French livres) of lard are got from them in
their second year. They form an important branch of commerce.

The race known abroad under the name of Cochon de Siam is the re-
presentative of our Chineseibreed. Its ears are short, straight, and
flexible ; its body is covered with soft and somewhat silky hair, which
is stiff and thick on the head and back of the neck, and frizzly on the
cheeks and under-jaw ; on the other parts it is thin, and for the most
part hard and black. The skin is also bjack, except on the belly ; the
eyes are surrounded by a slight tinge of flame-colour ; their tails mea-
sure nine inches in length ; their bodies three feet three inches; their
height at the shoulder is one foot eight inches (French.) This breed
appears to have spread extensively over most of the southern shores, of
the old continent.*

To these he adds the Turkish hog, the New Guinea hog, De Witt's
hog, and the smooth or short-legged swine, the two latter of which
evidently derive their origin from a cross with the Siamese and some
other breed, and all of which fatten easily and to a great weight, and
are good breeders.

The swine in Normandy are, even to the present day, of the large
gaunt grizzly race, common in some of the south-eastern counties of
England and Germany. f Mr. Wilson informs us, that, in the time of
Buffon, by far the greater proportion of the swine in the north of France
were perfectly white, as were also those of Vivarais ; while in Dauphiny,
which is not far distant, they were all black. Those of Languedoc and
Provence were likewise black. This is a curious fact, and seems to

* Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. iii. p. 48.

t Mr. Lnrimer, in his Tour ihrnugh Normandy in 1845. describes the pigs to be of that
gray hound-like variety so common all over the Continent.

SWINE IN FRANCE. 57

prove, beyond a doubt, that the parent stock of these two opposite co-
lours was totally different, and also that there was little intermixture
or crossing among the breeds of these places, but that the races were
preserved pure and distinct. He also mentions that latterly a new va-
riety of the porcine race has been introduced under the name of" Lt Pare
de Nobles," which appears to have been derived from the improved
English breed, which originated from a cross between an Anglo-Chi-
nese sow, and an emancipated American boar. This answers very
well, and is much esteemed on account of tho delicate flavour of its
flesh.

In Champagne the breed of pigs are white, long-limbed, flat-sided,
hollow in the flanks, and having large ears.

In Quercy the breed is of a moderate size, has a small short head,
little ears, and a curved back ; most of these pigs are spotted, but there
is more of black than white in them.*

In the department of Mayenne, and along the Oudon, some very
valuable kinds are found, which have been carefully bred and reared
expressly for the purpose of improving the French breeds of pigs.
There are two distinct varieties, the one called the " Craon Breed,"
which has a long body, short legs, and a back so broad that even when
the animals are lean the spine does not project. These fatten well and
easily, but do not begin to make much flesh until they are eleven or
twelve months old, after which they rapidly develope themselves, and
attain an immense weight.

The other variety is designated the "Valley Breed :'' here, too, the
legs are short, the body of a medium length, the back extremely broad,
the ears large and falling to the tip of the snout, which is short and
wide ; the back is covered with bristles, me tail finished with a tuft of
the same, and from the under-jaw two hairy appendages similar to those
of a goat depend. Pigs of this breed fatten well, and may be killed at
any-age.f

In the province of Bresse, in the neighbourhood of Lyons, of the
Dombes, and Carolais, and prevalent through the department of Aisne,
is a breed called the Bressane race. These animals are of a moderate
size, long in the body, round in form, short-legged, with long pendu-
lous ears, and of a dark or blackish colour, with a broad stripe of white
encircling the body ; their flesh is delicate, and of a fine flavour.^

An attempt was made to introduce some of the English breed of
swine into France by a young agriculturist, and he thus narrates the
results : — " I began with the large Shropshire pigs. They pleased my
eye, and for some little time I was perfectly satisfied ; but presently I
began to remark, that, although they devoured an amazing quantity of
food, they fattened but very slowly, and seemed to derive no advantage
whatever from the herbage and vegetables which they found in the
fields.

" When killed, the flesh, and especially the fat, was exceedingly
course. The sows, nevertheless, yielded many pigs at each farrow,
which, from their size when young, sold well to persons who were tole-
rably rich, and knew little or nothing about the breeding of pigs.

"I next tried the small Berkshire pigs, and immediately perceived a

* M. Magne, Traite du Pore. | Revue Agricole de Juillet, 184U.

} M. Magne, Traite du Fore.
5

i ,

58 THE PIG.

very sensible improvement. They fattened quickly* procured most of
their nourishment from the fields* and their flesh was very superior to
that of the last-named breed. But as they were large, I thought to
effect a still greater improvement by exchanging them for the Chinese;
but here I fell into the opposite extreme. The Chinese were prolific,
fattened speedily, and almost obtained their own subsistence ; but they
were faulty in form, their flesh was not firm, but loose in fibre, as if
they had died of disease." And, accordingly, the experimenter returned
to some- of his best native breeds.*

In Flanders and the Netherlands the indigenous swine are long-
legged, narrow-backed, flat-sided, ugly, gaunt animals, difficult to fat-
ten ; but when in good condition making fine-flavoured, excellent pork
and bacon.

THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.

Jersey. — Great attention has here been paid to the breed of pigs,
which have improved by crosses and admixture with the best English
and French varieties. The pork is excellent; many declare it to be finer
and more delicate in flavour than any English pork. It forms one of
the chief articles of consumption during the winter months, and sells
at from id. to 5d. the pound.

Guernsey. — The swine here have latterly been considerably im-
proved by the exertions and encouragements of the Guernsey Agricul-
tural Society. The original breed resembled the native French and Irish
pigs, and were large, coarse, ungainly, and unprofitable, evidently de-
scended from the wild long-legged, flat-sided race; but judicious
crosses with the Hampshire and Berkshire breeds have now made it
a well-shaped, profitable annual. The Guernsey pigs of the present
day fatten readily and cheaply, and often attain to an enormous size.
One was killed not long since weighing 640 pounds (80 stone, Smith-
field weight,) offal not included. The flesh sold at i%d. per pound,
Guernsey weight, which is ten ounces heavier than an English'p&ind.
The pig here forms part the establishment of every cottager, and is kept
a close prisoner in his sty, where he is well supplied with buttermilk,
bran, potatoes, cabbages, and all kinds of vegetables during the spring
and summer, and fed almost exclusively on parsnips from September.
They are generally killed at about twenty months old, and weigh then
from 300 to 400 or 450 pounds.f Pork forms the staple food of the
Guernsey farmers and cottagers.

Serk. — The swine here are very similar to those of Guernsey ; if
there is any difference, it is that they are somewhat larger. They are
managed in a similar manner, fatten well, and are profitable animals.

Aldernet. — Here, too, the original large breed have been improved
by judicious crosses. The fat hogs reach an enormous size, sometimes
even outweighing a tolerably fed cow ; but 500 pounds is no uncom-
mon weight.:):

The Isle of Man. — Here the original breed of swine are small, wild,
apt to fatten, and that without much care or attention, and yielding ex-

* Annates ii' Agriculture Franchise, Numero 29.

+ The author has here to acknowledge Ins obligation to Colonel Lake, of Woodlands,
Guernsey, for the information so kindly contributed by him.
t See Inglis's Channel Islands.

SWINE IN THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. 59

cellent meat. Crosses liave been introduced, which perhaps have bet-
ter adapted the animals to the system of sty-feeding; but we question
whether they can be said to be improved by having been rendered more
dependent upon the care of man.

The Hebrides, or Western Isles. — The most common breeds
of these islands are generally considered to be aboriginal, and line-
ally descended from the wild boar. These swine are described as
being very small, active, and shaggy, of a grayish or dirty yellow
colour, grazing wild upon the hills like sheep, their sole food herbage
and roots, and receiving no other sustenance or shelter all the year
round but what is furnished them by nature, yet being in good condi-
tion, and affording excellent meat. When artificially fed, and carefully
sheltered and tended, they will attain to a very considerable bulk, with-
out any deterioration of the quality and flavour of their flesh.*

The Shetland Islands. — The breed of swine here very much resem-
ble those we have just been describing. They are Small, of a dirty
white or yellowish brown colour, remarkably strong in the snout, with
sharp-pointed ears, and an arched back, from which rises a forest of
stiff bristles. When poor, the flesh of these animals is coarse ; but
those which are properly fattened yield sweet and delicate meat, and
the hams, when cured, are pronounced by connoisseurs to be excellent.
The Shetland pigs are generally suffered to roam about and forage for
themselves at will, and the mischief they do is by no means inconsi-
derable ; for with their muscular snouts they plough up the soil, and
root out potatoes, carrots, and turnips, and even upturn the growing
corn.

Dr. Hibbert informs us that there is an^ancient law in Shetland rela-
tive to these animals, viz. " that none have more swine than effeiring
(proportional) to their land labouring;" and "that none have swine
pasturing on their neighbours' lands, under the penalty of ten pounds
besides damages." But he adds that these enactments are but little
regarded ; the pigs are allowed to wander where they please, and, far
from being a source of profit, are, from the mischief they do, an abso-
lute loss to the country.f

The same author describes the original Shetland pig as "a little
brindled monster, the very epitome of a wild boar, yet scarcely larger
in size than a terrier dog : —

" His bristled back a trench impaled appears,
And elands erected like a tit-Id of spears."

According to his account, " this lordling of the seat-holds and arable
lands ranges undisturbed over his free demesnes, and, in quest of the
earthworms and the roots of plants, furrows up the pastures or corn-
fields in deep trenches, destroying in his progress all the plovers',
curlews', and other birds' nests he meets with. He bivouacs in some
potato-field, which he rarely quits until he has excavated a ditch large
enough to bury within it a dozen fellow-commoners of his own weight
and size. Nor is the reign of this petty tyrant wholly bloodless; '
young lambs just dropped often fall victims to his ferocity or thirst for
blood!"

* Walker's Hebrides. t Dr. Hibbert's Account of the Shetland Isles.

gO THE FIG.

The Orkneys To describe the swine found here would be but a

repetition of what we have already said. They are small, of roving
habits, do much mischief, yield but poor meat unless carefully fattened,
and seldom reach a weight of more than sixty or seventy pounds. Low
informs us that the pork rarely fetches more than 2d. per pound, and a
butcher never thinks of giving more than 4s. or 5s. a-head for the pigs.
Ropes are fabricated from the bristles of these animals, by which the
natives suspend themselves over the most fearful precipices in search
of sea-fowls' eggs ; and, short as the hair or bristles are, the ropes
manufactured from them are said to answer better for this perilous
purpose than hempen ones would, being less liable to be frayed by the
sharp and rugged rocks.*

It is in these northern islands that several authors have spoken ot
swine being used as beasts of draught, but it could not have been these
aboriginal and diminutive breeds, we should conceive, but some of the
large heavy kinds imported from England or Ireland.

CHAPTER VI.

Scotland, aboriginal breed of Swine in— Little known until lately— Present races—
Enolakd. original breed— Swine in Yorkshire— Lincolnshire— Leicestershire— Bedford-
shire— Essex — Suffolk— Norfolk— Shropshire — Cheshire — Gloucestershire— Hereford-

ghire Wiltshire — Berkshire— Hampshire — and Sussex — The Chinese breed — Swine in

Ireland.

SCOTLAND.

There can be little doubt but that the aboriginal breed of Highland
swine are, like those found in the Hebrides, descended from the wild
boar, for, until within the last half-century, they retained much of the
form, and many of the habits and characteristics, of the wild breed.
They also are small, shaggy, bristled, and wild ; wandering about the
hills, grazing and seeking out roots and other favourite food, and re-
quiring no care or sustenance at the hand of man, yet keeping in con-
dition, and making excellent pork or bacon. The latter end of the
autumn is the best time to kill them, as they are then in good flesh.

Those which have been brought into the low country and artificially
fed, have fattened to a considerable size, and yielded fine-grained, firm,
well-flavoured meat.

Formerly immense herds of these small swine were reared in the
highlands of Scotland, and brought down to the lowland markets for
sale; the practice of keeping these animals gradually declined some
fifty or sixty years ago, but has latterly been revived since the cultiva-
tion of the potato has become more extensively practised. There can-
not, however, be a doubt that a great number of this breed of pigs might
be advantageously fattened upon every Highland farm where the land
in crop is enclosed, both on account of the little artificial food they
require, and the roots and various substances they will consume which
no other kind of stock would touch.

* See Fauna Orcadensis by tbe Rev. Ceo. Low.

SWINE IN SCOTLAND. 61

But although the practice of keeping swine in the Highlands and
north of Scotland is of very ancient date, there are no records which
speak of their existence in the more southern parts of Caledonia ; in-
deed, if we may give credence to several anecdotes related by Mr.
Henderson,* they were absolutely unknown animals in several parts.

It would seem that, some hundred and twenty years since, a person
residing in the parish of Ruth well, in Dumfriesshire, received a present
of a young pig, which is said to be the first which had ever appeared
in that part of the country. This said pig strayed from his new home
one day into the adjoining parish of Carlayroc, and wandering along the
sea-side came upon a woman who was keeping cattle. She screamed
at the sight of the "strange beast," and ran off to her village, and the
pig after her. There she declared she had seen "the deil come out of
the sea, and that he had chased her, roaring and gaping at her heels."
One of the bravest of the villagers got a Bible and an old sword to
"cunger the deil;" but while he was uttering his threats, along came
the creature with such a loud " grumph," that the poor man fell down
half dead with fright, and all the rest fled, and then from windows and
house-tops peeped at the "monster," until one Fellow cried out that it
was "the gude man o' the brow's grumphy," and gradually the alarm
subsided.

This same pig seems to have frightened many persons at different
times, as did another which escaped by some means from a vessel
which put into Glencaple Quay, just below Dumfriesshire, and was
hunted as a wild beast, and at last slain with a pitchfork by a man,
who was termed " stout-hearted Geordy " all the rest of his life for the
performance of this valorous exploit.

In 1760 there was scarcely a parish in Dumfriesshire which could
muster twenty swine, but within ten years of that time they gradually
began to increase, and each farmer took to keeping one or two, and
from 1775 to 1780 the trade became pretty considerable. This increase
was chiefly owing to the exertions of Lord Graham, of Netherby, who
encouraged the breeding and rearing of swine among his tenants by
every means in his power, and was the chief institutor and supporter
of a market at Longtown, in Cumberland, for the sale of swine and
pork.

The next steps were the establishments of pig>markets in several
other principal towns in the southern parts of Scotland, and small pre-
miums offered on every market-day to the owners of the finest pig or
the largest number of good swine brought to the market.

When thirty or forty years ago there was not a pig to he seen, as
much as 400/. or 500/. worth of hogs and bacon, or pork, are now sold
every market-day. This alteration is ascribed by some persons to the
extension of the cultivation of the potato, and the consequent increased
facility for feeding and fattening swine; but it may, doubtless, be also
attributed to the increasing demand for animal food, the more extended
views of farmers and agriculturists of the present day, and ah appre-
ciation of the profit and advantages arising from the keeping of these
valuable animals.

There is a very good kind which are well made, white in colour,

* Henderson's Treatise on Breeding Swine.

62

THE PIG.

bave short upright ears, fatten quickly and on little food, and come
early to maturity. Crosses with the Chinese have been tried, but
they produce too delicate an animal, and consequently have fallen into
disrepute. It would, however, be needless to enter into an account of
all the varieties of swine now existing in Scotland, as, in describing
the English breeds, we shall have to speak of all those which of late
years have been introduced into Scotland, and either crossed with the
original small, dark, prick-eared Scottish pig or with each other, or
retained in their natural state. Henderson says that hundreds of pigs
and shots (pigs from six to eight months old) are brought over from
England every year, and fattened in Scotland.

The original breeds of this country are now rapidly losing all traces
of individuality under the varied systems of crossing to which they are
subjected. Formerly' they might have been divided into two principal
classes, the small and the large breeds : the former having ears tending
to the upright, being dusky in hue, and greatly resembling the wild

EST mO STfcCIHIN. ^' —

THE OLD ENGLISH HOG.

boar in form; and the latter being long-bodied, long-eared animals,
mostly white or spotted. The former were chiefly found in Scotland,
and on the northern hills ; and the latter in the lower and more midland
counties of England, where the hog had been more domesticated.

Where individuals of the pure old breed are met with, they will be
found long in limb, narrow in the hack, whioh is somewhat curved,

SWINE IN ENGLAND. 63

low in the shoulders, and large in bone ; in a word, uniting all those
characteristics which are now deemed most objectionable, and totally-
devoid of any approach to symmetry. The form is uncouth, and the
face long and almost hidden by the pendulous ears. They nevertheless
have their good qualities, although aptitude to fatten does not„rank
among the number, for they consume a proportionally much larger
quantity of food than they repay ; but the females produce large litters,
and are far better nurses than those of the smaller breeds. They are,
however, now nearly extinct, disappearing before the present-rage for
diminishing the size of the hog and rendering his flesh more delicate ;
points which, however desirable toa certain extent, may easily be car-
ried too far. Low judiciously observes: " While we should improve
the larger breeds that are left us, by every means in our power, we
ought to take care that we do not sacrifice them altogether. We should
remember that an ample supply of pork is of immense importance to
the support of the inhabitants of this country. England may one day
have cause to regret that this over-refinement has been practised, and
future improvers vainly exert themselves to recover those fine old races
which the present breeders seem aiming to efface."

It would be vain to attempt to particularize the breeds of swine at
present kept in this country^ for they are daily altering their character-
istics under the influence of some fresh cross ; we will therefore content
ourselves with enumerating those which are allowed to have been the
Chief and best breeds, and pointing out some of the alterations which
have latterly taken place in them.

YORKSHIRE.

The old Yorkshire breed was one of the very large varieties, and one
of the most unprofitable for a farmer, being greedy feeders, difficult to
fatten, and unsound in constitution. They were of a dirty white or
yellow colour, spotted with black, had long legs, flat sides, narrow
backs, weak loins, and large bones. Their hair was short and wiry,
and intermingled with numerous bristles about the head and neck, and
their ears long. When full grown and fat they seldom weighed more
than from 25 to 30 stone.

These have of late years been crossed with pigs of the new Leicester
breed ; and where the crossings have been judiciously managed and not
carried too far, a fine race of deeprsided, short-legged, thin-haired ani-
mals have been obtained, fattening kindly, and rising to a weight of
from 16 to 30 stone of 14 lbs. when killed between one and two years
old, and when kept over two years reaching even 40 and 50 stone.

Mr. Samuel Wiley, of Bransoy, to whose courtesy we are indebted
for the information, and who has paid much attention to the breeding
of swine, keeps only the pure improved Leicester breed, which with
ordinary feeding will, at sixteen or eighteen months old, weigh from
18 to 30 stone of 14 lbs. ; and, when put up to fatten, attain the weight
of from 30 to 32 stone. He considers them far superior to, and more
profitable than, the larger breeds.

Other breeders have crossed with the Chinese and Neapolitan breeds,
and with some considerable success — the extremes of the large arid
small kinds happily correcting each other. The Berkshire pigs have

64 THE PIG.

also been employed as a cross, and hardy, profitable, well-proportioned
animal obtained. The original breed, in its purity, size, and defective-
ness, is now hardly to be met with, having shared the fate of the other
large old breeds, and given place to smaller and more symmetrical ani-
mals. Mr. Smith, of Hoyland Hall, Sheffield, whose kind replies to
our queries we have to acknowledge, is another great pig-breeder, and
his swine have carried off numerous prizes ; they appear to be descended
from a cross between the Yorkshire and Lord Western's improved
Essex pigs. Their chief characteristics are — smallness of bone, great
development of the fleshy parts, symmetry of form, and a strong pro-
pensity to fatten. Although'' hearty feeders, a small quantity of food
suffices for them. When matured they readily attain the weight of from
30 to 35 stone of 14 lbs.

LINCOLNSHIRE.

The true Lincolnshire pigs are white, with long straight bodies,
round carcasses, fine skins, and few bristles; the heads are well formed
and of moderate size, and the ears erect, pointing somewhat forward
and curling slightly at the tips ; the hair is long and fine, but scanty.
This breed was formerly considered as superior to any but the Berk-
shire in point of form and value, they being easily fattened, and the flesh
being tender and of a fine flavour ; with care they will reach 45 or 50
stone of 14 lbs. to the stone; and many, at a year and a-half old, will
weigh 25 or 30 stone. They certainly do not attain to their maturity
as early as some of the smaller breeds, but are, notwithstanding this,
profitable animals, and good, sound, handsome stock. A cross between
the Lincoln and Chinese pigs is productive of an animal presenting
great tendency to fatten, and a small eater.

The old breed of this county are long-legged, narrow-backed, un-
gainly animals, with thick skins covered with short thick hair ; the
head is large, the forehead wide, and the ears set far apart. They are
far from profitable animals, being enormous eaters, and fattening but
poorly ; few attain to a greater weight than 18 or 20 stone.

DERBYSHIRE.

Here there is no prevailing breed. The greater part of the pigs kept
in this county come from Cheshire and Shropshire, and these are either
left in their pure state, or crossed with some of the small English or
foreign breeds, according as the taste or circumstances of the farmer or
breeder leads him to prefer large or small animals.

LEICESTERSHIRE.

The old Leicestershire breed was a perfect type of the original hogs
of the midland counties ; large, ungainly, slab-sided animals, of a light
colour and spotted with brown or black. The only good parts about
them were their head and ears, which showed greater traces of breed-
ing than any other parts. Mr. Bakewell improved them, and the
variety thus obtained was called after him, and was superior in value
and beauty to the old stock. Within the last few years various crosses
have been tried, and the original breed is now fast losing all its peculi-
arities and defects.

SWINE IN ENGLAND.

65

BEDFORDSHIRE.

There is no distinct breed in this county; the animals are mostly
Suffolk or Berkshire pigs, variously crossed. Some of the best kinds
are distinguished for their aptitude' to fatten early, and on a small
quantity of food. His Royal Highness Prince Albert obtained a prize
for some Bedfordshire pigs 41 weeks old, at the Smithfield Club Cat-
tle-show in 1846.

The Essex pigs, too, have been indebted for their improvement to
crosses with the foreign breeds, and especially the Neapolitan, and
with the Berkshire swine. They are mostly black and white, the head
and hinder parts being black, and the back and belly white; have
smaller heads than the Berkshire pigs, and long thin upright ears,
short hair, a fine skin, good hind quarters, and a deep round carcass;
they are also small-boned, and the flesh is delicate and well-flavoured.
They produce large litters, but are bad nurses.

LORD WESTERN'S ESSEX BREED.

The most esteemed breeds are entirely black, and are distinguished
by having small teat-like appendages of the skin depending from the
upper part of the neck, which are commonly termed wattles. Some of
these animals will attain the weight of 480 lbs., but they are not, ac-
cording to some breeders, quick fatteners; while others prize them for
their rapid growth and aptitude to lay on flesh, as well as for its excel-

66 THE PIG.

lence ; it forms small and delicately-flavoured pork. Lord Western
has been the great improver of the Essex pigs, and his breed is highly
esteemed throughout the kingdom.

Some Essex pigs, at only 23 weeks old, carried off one of the prizes
at the Smithfield Club Cattle-show of 1846.

SUFFOLK.

The old pigs of this county are white in colour, long legged, long
bodied, and narrow back, with broad foreheads, short hams, and an
abundance of bristles. They are by no means profitable -animals.
Lord Western's improved Essex breed is much esteemed in Suffolk,
and so are the Lincolnshire hogs.

A SUFFOLK BOAR, THE PROPERTY OF HIS LATE MAJESTY WILLIAM IV.

A cross between the Suffolk and Lincoln has produced a hardy ani-
mal, which fattens kindly, and will attain the weight of from 30 to 40
and even 50 stone of 14 pounds to the stone. Another cross, much ap-
proved by farmers, is that of the Suffolk and Berkshire. On the whole,
there are few better breeds to be found in the kingdom, perhaps, than
the improved Suffolk pigs ; they are well-formed, compact, short-legged,
hardy animals, equal in point of value to the best of the Essex, and
superior in constitution, and consequently better adapted for general
keep, and especially for the cottager. The greater part of the pigs at
Prince Albert's farm, near Windsor, are of the improved Suffolk breed ;

SWINE IN ENGLAND. 67

that is to say, the Suffolk crossed with the Berkshire and Chinese.
They are small in size, with round bulky bodies, short legs, small
heads, and fat cheeks. Those arising from the Berkshire and Suffolk
are not so well shaped as those derived from the Chinese and Suffolk,
being coarser, longer legged, and more prominent about the hips.
They are mostly white, with thin fine hair; seme few are spotted, and
all easily kept in fine condition ; they have a decided aptitude to fatten
early, and are likewise valuable as store-pigs.

Many of the improved Suffolk breed will, at a year or fifteen months
old, weigh from 12 to 15 or 16 score; at this age they make fine bacon
hogs. The sucking pigs and porkers are also very delicate and deli-
cious.

NORFOLK.

The pigs of this county do not materially differ from those of Lin-
colnshire, but are rather smaller. They, too, are white, fine boned,
long eared, and well formed, good feeders, and yielding fine meat.
This is especially the case in that part of the county which approaches
Lincoln. Various breeds and varieties, are, however, to be met with
in Norfolk, and among them some very inferior animals. There is a
small variety resembling the Chinese, and probably descended from
that breed, which is peculiar to this county, and much esteemed for its
aptitude to fatten on a small quantity of food. A cross between the
Norfolk and Suffolk pigs produces a fine hardy animal.

9
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

The old breed of Northamptonshire were large-bodied, large-boned,
bristly animals, covered wjjh white coarse hair. Their legs were short
and their ears very long, so much so as often to trail upon the ground.
They were capable of being fattened to a considerable size, but not with-
out great trouble and expense. These gave place to a lighter-made
animal, equally large, but with small bones, small ears, and greater
aptitude to fatten. The Bakewell Leicester pigs are highly esteemed
by some of the breeders and farmers of this county.

SHROPSHIRE.

This seems to have been only another variety of the Northampton-
shire pigs; they are coarse, ungainly animals, with long heads, pendent
ears, arched loins, large bones, flat sides, mSny bristles, and coarse wiry
hair; they are brindled, or of a dirty white gray, or drab colour, with
spots of black. They were capable of being fattened to a considerable
;size, and might be made at two years old to weigh 40 or 50 stone ; but
to accomplish this an abundance of food was required. They are by
no means adapted for farm stock ; but brewers, distillers, and those
■who have large quantities of refuse wash and grains, hold them in some
estimation. Latterly the breed has been very much improved, and
renderedmore profitable, by crossing it with the Berkshire, Chinese,
and other esteemed breeds, under the influence of which the most sa-
lient and objectionable points have disappeared, and the animals are now
short legged, fine haired, straight backed, and thin skinned, white, in
colour, and weighing 14 or 15 stone at two years old. Lord Forester of

68 THE PIG.

Willy Park, and Sir F. Lawly of Monkhopton, are in possession of
the best breeds.

The old breed of this county were some of the largest swine in
England, standing from three and a half to four and a half feet high.
They were black and white, white, and blue and white ; long-bodied,
narrow-backed, slab-sided, large-boned, long-limbed animals, haying
large heads, drooping ears of such a size as scarcely to permit them to
see out of their eyes, and loose coarse-looking skins. Nevertheless
they fatten to an enormous weight, and without consuming a compara-
tively larger amount of food than many of the much more esteemed
English breeds. One excellent variety has been obtained by a cross
with a Berkshire boar.

Of late years, however, the old Cheshire breed has almost entirely
disappeared, andj)een replaced by a fine-boned, round-bodied animal,
longer from head to tail and wider across the shoulders, coming earlier
to maturity and easily fatten ; the form of the head, too, is improved,
and the eats are smaller and more shapely. These animals are chiefly
derived from the old Berkshire and Cheshire breeds with an occasional
and judicious cross with the Chinese. There is, too, a slight admix-
ture here and there of the Leicestershire blood. They never attain to
the size or weight of the old breeds, but their forms are more com-
pact, their flesh finer grained, and their bones smaller. They are con-
sidered by many persons to be equal in value in all points to any breed
in Europe.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

The Gloucestershire is another of the large old breeds, gaunt, long*
legged, and unprofitable, of a dirty white colour, and having wattles de-
pending from the neck. It has been supposed to have once been the
prevailing breed in England, but is now rapidly disappearing before
the alterations produced by the present prevailing system of crossing
from small breeds.

HEREFORDSHIRE.

The pigs of this county are of the large class, similar in many respects
to tbe Shropshire swine, and in all probability produced by a cross be-
tween those and some one or more of the smaller breeds ; for they are
smaller, finer-boned animals than the Shropshire pigs, have better
shaped heads and ears, are more compact in form, and have greater ap-
titude for fattening. They may, in fact, be fed to an enormous size ;
and with proper management will, at two years old, weigh two or three
times as much as most hogs of other breeds at the same age. No
farmer need wish to possess finer and more profitable animals than may
be found among the Herefordshire pigs ; the bacon made of their flesh
yields in excellence to none.

Latterly this breed has been crossed with the Berkshire, and the re-
sult has been a fine useful animal possessing numerous good points,
but not much superior to the good old stock.

SWINE IN ENGLAND. 69

WILTSHIRE.

Here the old breed was one of the larger class. The Wiltshire swine
were long in the body, round in carcass, hollow about the shoulders,
and high on the rump; short-legged, large-boned, light-coloured, and
the ears were large and pointed. They were, like most of this kind of
pigs, large eaters and slow to fatten ; but when fat attained a fair aver-
age weight, and their flesh was fine-grained and highly esteemed, espe-
cially as bacon. Crosses with the Chinese and Neapolitan breeds
have however much improved the original race ; they are now smaller
boned, not so large in size, and fatten earlier and more readily.

CORNWALL.

The Cornish Breed. — Here, again, the march of improvement is
decidedly evident; the old Cornish hog, a large, white, long-sided,
heavy-boned, razor-backed animal, possessing but little aptitude to
fatten, is nearly extinet ; and in its place we see a compact well-made
pig, fattening kindly, coming early to maturity, a/id yielding in excel-
lence and value to few* This variety has been produced by crossing
the old breed with the Berkshire, Chinese, Essex, Leicester, and Nea-
politan pigs. These animals require little food .beyond vegetables and
the farm house wash, excepting at the period of fattening, when about
24 gallons of barley will suffice to bring them, at nine months old, to
the weight of from 350 to 400 pounds..

BERKSHIRE. ' f

The Berkshire pigs belong to the large class, and are distinguished
by their colour, which is a sandy or whitish brown, spotted regularly
with dark brown or black spots, and by their having no bristles. The
hair is long, thin, somewhat curly, and looks rough'; the earsare fringed
with long hair round the outer edge, which gives them a ragged or
feathery appearance ; the body is thick, compact, and well formed ; the
legs short, the sides broad, the head well set on, the snout short, the
jowl thick, the ears erect, the skin exceedingly thin in texture, the flesh
firm and well flavoured, and the bacon very superior. This breed of
pigs has been generally considered to be one of the best in England,
on account of its smallness of bone, early maturity, aptitude to fatten
on little food, hardihood, and the females being such good breeders.
Although termed the Berkshire breed, these 'pigs* have been reared ( in
various parts of the kingdom ; and some .of -the very best have come
from Staffordshire, from the progeny of the celebrated Tamworth boar..
In Leicestershire also is a very fine race of them, descending from the
stock of Ricjiard Astley, Esq., who devoted much care to the improve-
ment of the Berkshire pigs. Hogs of the' pure' original ;bre.ed have
been known to attain to an immense size, and weigh as much as 100
and 120 stone of eight pounds the stone.

One bred at Petworth measured seven feet seyen inches from the tip
of his snout to the root of his tail, and seven feet ten inches in girth
round the centre; five feet round the neck, ten inches round the thinnest
part of the liin^, Leg, and two feet acoss the widest part of the back.
He. stood. tlri£JK"j&et nine inches high ; and, what was most remarkable

70

THE PIG.

in this monstrous animal, he did not consume more than two bushels.
and six gallons of ground oats, peas, and barley, per week.

Parkinson, in his "Live stock," vol. ii., .gives some extraordinary
accounts of the size and weight attained by individuals of this breed,
and the profit yielded by them, and also of their aptitude to fatten at

They are not, however, generally of an enormous size, being much
smaller than several of the older breeds; their ordinary weight averages
from 12 to 15 score, and some will at two years old weigh 20 score.

— Ulcr

THE BERKSHIRE SOW, THE PROPERTY OP THE LATE DUKE OF BEDFORD.

It would be impossible to give an account of the numerous'cfosses from
this breed ; the principal foreign ones are those with the Chinese and
Neapolitan swine, made with the view of decreasing the size of the
animal, and improving the flavour of the flesh, and rendering it more
delicate ; and the animals thus obtained are superior to almost any
others in their aptitude to fatten, but are very susceptible of cold from
being almost entirely without hair. A cross of the Berkshire with the
Suffolk and Norfolk pigs also is much approved in some^parts of the
country. A hardy kind is thus produced, which yields well when sent to
the butcher; but even the advocates of this cross allow that, under most
circumstances, the pure Berkshire is the best.

HAMPSHIRE.

Here there are two varieties, the one larger than the other ; in colour
they are either white or black and white with long necks and bodies,

SWINE IN ENGLAND. 71

flat sides, and large bones. The smaller variety are more easily fattened
to a considerable size and weight, and make excellent bacon, bat the
larger kind require an extra amount of food to bring them to perfection,
although when this object is attained they will often weigh from 600
to 800 lbs.

Considerable improvement has however been latterly effected by
crosses of the Berkshire, Chinese, Essex, and Suffolk pigs, with the
large old Hampshire hog. The animals resulting from these intermix-
tures are better shaped and more profitable ; in fact, they bear about
them the characteristics of the breed from which they were obtained.
There is also a third variety of swine found in Hampshire, called the
" Forest pigs," differing materially from the true Hampshire breeds,
and in many points strongly resembling the wild boar, from which it is
not improbable they derived their descent, for the last wild boars known
to be at liberty in England were those turned into the New Forest by
Charles I., and which he obtained from Germany with the view to the
re-introduction of the fine old sport of boar-hunting. The Forest pig
is broad Shouldered and high crested; light and lean in the hinder
quarters ; has a bristly mane and erect ears ; is of a dark or blackish
colour; and lives chiefly on beechmast-and acorns. This breed is no
favourite in Hampshire; the animals are wild, fierce;, not apt to fatten,
and, from their peculiar makei do not cut up to advantage when killed ;
it is however now losing its distinctive characteristics, and becomnng,
as it were, more civilized or domesticated. Gilpin gives a very strik-
ing account of the sudden appearance of a herd of these semi-wild crea-
tures.

"We well remember an occasion when we had thrown- ourselves
down at the foot of a great beech-tree, whence we looked abroad, from
underneath its wide canopy of foliage, on a small track of sunshine,
which, penetrating an opening in the wood, and falling athwart the
ground beyond, gave a broader and deeper effect to the surrounding
shadows. There was not a breath of air, and not a sound was audi-
ble; calmly we lay in all that listlessness of a dreamy musing which,
to an idle mind, might seem like idleness, but which the philosopher,
student, or moralist knows better how to appreciate.

"Suddenly a sound like that of warlike music mellowed by distance
came upon our ears. We started so far up from our recumbent posi-
tion as to lean upon one arm and listen intently, and not without some
degree of awe, being almost persuaded that some wonderous fairy
pageant was about to gratify our sight. -

"The sound increased and grew harsher as it advanced, and as it
drew yet nearer the tramp of what might easily have been imagined to
be elfin chivalry accompanied it. At length, while we yet listened in
mute expectation, the leading boar of a large herd of forest pigs came
grunting into view, followed by all the musical members of his harmo-
nious detachment.

" Whether it was the cheering invigorating effects of the sunshine,
and whether there was something particularly savoury in the herbage
of that spot, we know not, but the grunting swelled into a loud chorus ;
their snouts became more and more busy; their ears and tails kept up
one continuous and joyous motion ; and their small eyes seemed to flash
back the sun's rays with unwonted eagerness of expression. It was

72 THE PIG.

really an interesting sight ; and were it not that swine were the sub-
ject of it, we should, and truly, say it was as beautiful as interesting;
The creatures were in fine condition ; their bristles glittered like silver ;
their bodies were as clean as if they were as regularly washed and
combed as a lady's lapdog; and they seemed so full of freedom and
happiness, that while looking on them we felt all the romance of forest
life and recollections of the "merrie green wood."

" Wishing to observe and admire them more closely, we sprang up,
but in so doing alarmed them, and off they galloped belter skelter,
sauve qui pent, with a speed that none of the porcine race not ' forest
born' and bred could equal ; and long after every one was out of sight,
vanished in the mazes of the woodland, we still heard their retreating
trumpets gradually dying away until lost in the distance."*

SUSSEX.

The breed of this country are by some authors supposed to have
descended from the large spotted Berkshire swine ; while others assert
them to be a variety of the black-and-white Essex pig, if not the ori-
ginal stock. They are of moderate size, handsomely formed, thin-
skinned, and black and white ; not, however, spotted, but white at one
extremity and black at the other. The hair is fine and long, but spare ;
the head long and tapering ; the ears well set on and pointing forwards ;
the eyes quick and vivacious; and the snout fine. The chief fault in
their make is, that the bones are somewhat too large. They grow
quickly, feed well, fatten kindly, and will when full-sized weigh from
18 to 25 stone of 14 lbs.

Some of the finest pigs of this kind ever reared were in the posses-
sion of the Western family, at Felix Hall, Essex.

In speaking of the breeds of pigs belonging to this county we must
not omit the now extinct Rudgwick swine, which derived their name
from a village in Sussex, and were some of the largest hogs produced
in England. They fattened but slowly, and were consequently deemed
unprofitable, but yielded excellent meat and in considerable quantities.
They have, however, passed away before the alterations produced by
the general aim of the present system of breeding.

THE CHINESE SWINE.

Although these have been already noticed when speaking of Asia,
we cannot now pass them over, as they actually form one of the recog-
nised stock breeds of England. There are two distinct varieties, the
while and the black; both fatten readily, but from their diminutive size
attain no great weight. They are small in limb, round in body, short
in the head, wide in the cheek, and high in the chine; covered with
very fine bristles growing from an exceedingly thin skin; and not
peculiarly symmetrical, for, when fat, the head is so buried in the neck
that little more than the tip of the snout is visible. The pure Chinese
hog is too delicate and susceptible of cold ever to become a really pro-
fitable animal in this country ; it is difficult to rear, and the sows are
not good nurses; but one or two judicious crosses have in a manner
naturalized it. ^

This breed will fatten readily, and on a comparatively small quantity

* Gilpin's Forest Scenery.

SWINE IN ENGLAND — CHINESE SWINE.

73

of food; and the flesh is exceedingly delicate, bat does not make good
bacon, and is often too fat and oily to be generally esteemed as pork.
They are chiefly kept by those who rear sucking-pigs for the market,
as they make excellent roasters at three weeks or a month old. Some
authors point oat five, some seven varieties of the Chinese breed, but
these are doubtless the results of different crosses with oar native kinds ;
among these are black, white, black and white, spotted, and blue and
white, or sandy. Many valuable crosses have been made with these

"=^T="j : - ; ■ =-

CHINESE PIS.
From a Sow sent direct from China to William Ogilvy, Esq., Hon. Sec. Zool. Soc.

animals ; for the prevalent fault of the old English breeds having been
coarseness of flesh, unwieldiness of form, and want of aptitude to fatten,
an admixture of the Chinese breed has materially corrected these de-
fects. Most of our smaller breeds are more or less indebted to the
Asiatic swine for their present compactness of form, the readiness with
which they fatten on a small quantity of food, and their early maturity ;
but these advantages are not considered by some persons as sufficiently
great to compensate for the. diminution in size, the increased delicacy
of the animals, and the decrease of number in the litters. The best
cross is between the Berkshire and the Chinese.

Here the hog is, in the fullest sense of the word, a domesticated ani-
mal. The Irish pig is born in the warmest nook of his master's cabin,'
reared among the children, and often far better fed and more carefully
6

74 THE PIG.

tended than the ragged urchins who play around him, for the peasant
will half starve himself and children in order to have more food for his
pig ; and while the former have only potatoes, and few enough of them,
the porker frequently gets not only a good meal of potatoes, but some
porridge, or bran, or refuse vegetables in addition. He is in fact the
chief person in the household ; on him the poor man reckons for the
payment of his rent or the purchase of the necessaries of life. Swine
abound in all parts of Ireland ; scarcely a peasant's cot but numbers a
pig among the family; and the roads, lanes, and fields in the neigh-
bourhood of every village, and the suburbs of every large town, are
infested with a grunting multitude.

Until lately, however, notwithstanding the value set on these ani-
mals, the real Irish pig was a huge, gaunt, long-legged, slab-sided,
roach-backed, coarse-boned, grisly brute; with large flapping ears
which almost wholly shrouded the face ; of a dirty white, or black and
white colour; with harsh coarse hair, and Tbristles that almost stood
erect. It was also far from being a profitable animal, requiring a very
considerable quantity of food, and when fat producing only coarse-
grained meat* But since the facility of export has become greater,
considerable improvement has been effected by the introduction of
Berkshire and Chinese boars and sows, and crossing the old .breed
pretty extensively with these. Thus the unwieldiness of size and
coarseness of bone have been diminished, and greater aptitude for fat-
tening communicated, which latter qualification is invaluable to the
poor peasant. There is, however, great room for still farther improve-
ment, and we trust that before long some enterprising individuals will
devote their energies to the task, and thus become the means of be-
stowing a great benefit) on the peasantry of the " sister-isle."

Steam navigation has wonderfully increased the trade in pigs between
England and Ireland, for we find that in 1821 only 104,501 of these
animals were brought into Liverpool; while in 1837, 595,422 were
imported. The cost ef conveyance has been so materially decreased
by the facility of steam-boat and railway conveyance, that this is not at
all to be wondered at.

Irish pork or bacon is not so fine-grained or so finely flavoured as the
English ; and although imported in considerable quantities, sells for a
much lower price than our own. This has been attributed by some to
the pigs being entirely fattened on potatoes, but it is also referable to
the innate coarseness of the animals themselves.

CHAPTER VIL

The Skeleton of Ihe Hog— Skull and.Snout— Teeth— Brain—Apopleiy— Inflammation of
the Brain— Pnrenilis— The Spinal Cord— Epilepsy— Palsji and Paralysis— Tetanus—
Rabies— Nasal I Catarrh-The Larynx.— The Pharvnx— The Os Hyoides-Straneles and
auinsy— The Chest— Diseased valves of the Heart— The Bronchial Tubes— Inflamma-
tion of the Lungs or Rising of the Lights— Pleuro-Pneumonia— Epidemics.

A very slight acquaintance- with that: complicated and beautiful
structure which we term the animal economy, will be sufficient to con-
vince; us. that any rational method of investigating or treating disease

ANATOMY OF SWINE. 75

must be founded upon an acquaintance with the general construction of
the frame, the derangements and alterations to which it is liable, and a
concise notion of the various systems or sets of organs of which the
body is composed.- Without this amount of knowledge it will be im-
possible correctly to interpret those signs of alteration of strncture or
function which constitute the symptoms of disease, and indicate its
nature and seat.

If we would understand how to regulate the working of some com-
plicated machine, we must not content ourselves with a mere cursory
glance at its exterior, but closely inspect the different parts ; make our-
selves acquainted with their shape-, situation, and arrangement; inquire
into the principles upon which the whole is constructed, — its mode of
action, and the offiees which, each part was destined to perform. Pro-
ceeding thus, we shall arrive at a knowledge of the best means of pre-
serving it from injury, repairing any accident that may happen to it,
and maintaining it in a fit state for the efficient discharge of the duties
it was intended to perform.

The animal economy consists of parts or organs, differing from each
other in structure and function, yet all so intimately connected together,
and so mutually dependent upon each other, that the co-operation of
the whole is necessary to a state of perfect health ; and if any one part
suffer injury the neighbouring organs sympathize with it to a greater
or less extent, and the working of the whole system is impaired. In
order to arrive at a proper understanding- of the functions of any one
part of the body, we must study the whole ; there is no other way of
obtaining that insight into disease which will furnish us with a clear
idea of the precise nature and seat of a malady, and the course of treat-
ment most likely to be attended with success. The uninformed empiric
who deals about his nostrums at random, is far more liable to put an
end to the life of his patient than to arrest the progress of the disorder.
Such men should never be allowed to tamper with' the meanest animal.
It is only to those who, from close study and long practice, have ac-
quired an accurate knowledge of the anatomy, diseases, habits, and
general management of domesticated animals, that their medical treat-
ment can with safety be entrusted.

It is, however, by no means our intention in this work to give a
formal treatise on the anatomy, physiology, and diseases of the pig,
but simply to lay before our readers a tolerably comprehensive sketch
of the general structure of the animal, and the alterations and evils to
which certain parts are liable, and this divested as much as possible of
all the technicalities of professional language. A description of the
different parts, their form, situation, action, and functions, as well as
their admirable adaptation to the ends for which they were designed,
will lead us to a consideration of the diseases incidental to them— to
the treatment proper to be adopted — and to some account of the various
operations which it may occasionally be requisite to perform. In short,
we would present them with a practical digest of all that is yet known
relative to this too much neglected branch of veterinary science ; one
that shall serve as a book of reference in cases of doubt or emergency,
and aid in introducing those great truths and leading doctrines, which
form the groundwork upon which the practice of every branch of me-

76 THE PIG.

dical science ought to be based, into the last strongholds of ignorance
and empiricism.

In entering upon the anatomy and diseases of swine we may be said
to take possession of a new and almost untrodden field, one as yet
scarcely recognised as belonging to tiny earlier occupants; and here,
in the onset, it will be as well to observe that, careful and lucid as we
shall endeavour to make our descriptions, we should only mislead the
agriculturist or grazier if we were to encourage him to believe that they
will enable him wholly to dispense with a veterinary surgeon. Far
from it ; we would rather persuade him to seek at once the assistance
of the well-educated and scientific practitioner, who, from close study,
practical experience, and surgical skill, is qualified successfully to
grapple with the most obscure and fatal diseases. We would enable
him to assist the veterinary surgeon in his often arduous task, by giving
him that information as to the previous symptoms, habits, &c., of the
patient, which can alone enable him to proceed with certainty, and will
tend to save the life of many a valuable animal ; and, lastly, we would
warn him against empirics.

Swine, from having been, until very lately, considered as a subordi-
nate species of stock, have not yet, to any extent, become sharers in
the benefits which an improved system of agriculture, and the present
advancing state of veterinary science, has conferred upon other do-
mesticated animals. When any thing goes wrong in the piggery the
farmer too often, instead of exercising that shrewd sense which he turns
to so good an account in almost every other instance, either sends for
the butcher, or consigns the sick tenants of the Sty to the care of an
ignorant "pig-doctor," whose whole pretensions to leech-craft rest on
the possession of some antiquated recipe, which he uses indiscriminately
as a grand panacea for " all the ills swine's flesh is heir to," or on the
traditionary lore he inherits from some ancestor famous in his day for
certain real or supposed wondrous cures. The treatment adopted in
such a case is usually of a very summary nature:" a drench is admi-
nistered, the principal ingredients of which consist in whatever abomi-
nations happen to come to hand first when this learned practitioner is
summoned. The unlucky patient's tail is next cut off, or he is bled
" between the claws," and the " doctor," after some learned clinical
remarks to the bystanders, swallows the customary mug of beer, and.
leaves his patient to contend with his disease and the remedy, one or
the other of which in most cases speedily brings the matter to a con-
clusion, unless, with all the obstinacy inherent in a pig's nature, he
lives on in spite of both. The following anecdote, which appeared in
one of the daily papers, is strikingly illustrative of the rough practice
of the "village pig^doctor:" —

" A poor weaver laid the following complaint before the magistrate.
He kept a pig, which, appearing to be unwell, he asked a pig-doctor to
come and see it. The man came, examined the animal, stated that.it
had got ' a bit of a cold,' but he conld soon give it a drink that should
cure it. The price of this drink was to be Is. 2d., and the poor man.
agreeing to pay for it, the pig-doctor gave the animal some warm water,
and promised to bring the pig-medicine in the evening. So beneficial
were the effects of the water, that the pig was shortly running about as
brisk as ever he was in his life. The drink was sent in the evening in

ANATOMY OF SWINE.

77

a broken-necked bottle, which was violently forced into the animal's
mouth, in spite of the remonstrances of the owner. In the struggle the
bottle was still more broken, and the pig's mouth bled very much.
The poor man, however, paid the Is. 2d., but tin the following morn-
ing on going into the pig-sty found hi? pig lying dead. On its being
opened three pieces of the glass bottle were Found sticking in the
windpipe."

Many similar instances of barbarity as well as gross ignorance might
be added, but a narration of them would be of no practical benefit, and
therefore we proceed at once to our legitimate subject.

SKELETON OF THE PIG.

THE HEAD.

A. Maxilla inferior, vel posterior— lower
jaw.

B. Dentes— the teeth.

C. Ossa nasi— the nasal bones.

D. Maxilla superior, vel anterior— upper
jaw.

E. ,Os frontis — the frontal bone.

R Orbiculus— the orbit or socket of the eye.
G. Os occipitis— the occipital bone.

THE TRUNK.

H. Atlas— the first vertebra of the neck. (

I. Vertebra colli, vel cervicales — the ver-
tebra; of the neck.

J. Vertebra!- riorsi, vel dorsales— the ver-

' lebraj of the back,
K. Vertebra lumborum, vel lumbales—

the vertebra? of the loins. .
L. Ossa coccygis— the bones of the tail.

FORE EXTREMITY.

a. Scapula— the shoulder blade.

b. Humerus— the round shoulder bone,
e. Sternum — the breast bone.

d.- Ulna— the elbow.

e. Radius— the bone of the fore-arm.

/. Os naviculars — the navicular hone.
g. g. Phalanges, vel ossa pedis— the first

and second bones of the foot.
A. Phalanges, vel ossa pedis — the bones of
the hoof.

78 THE FIG.

HIND EXTREMITIES.

i. i. Pelvis (ossa innominata)— the haunch n. n. Os naviculare— the navicular bone.

bones. o. o. Dipiti.vel phalanges (ossa pedis)— the
j. j Os femoris— the thigh-bone. first digits of the foot. -

k. k. Patella— the stifle-bone. p. p. Digiti, vel phalanges (ossa pedis^lhe
/. I. Tibia— the upper bone oftbe leg. second digits of the foot.

m. m. Tarsus, (one of which is the (N) os
calcis)— the bock bones.

THE SKULL AND SNOUT.

As the skull of the hop; differs in many respects from that of the horse,
ox, sheep, or dog, we shall now proceed to notice those points of dif-
ference.

From the point of the occiput to the tip of the nasal bone the profile
presents an almost unbroken sloping line. The position of the orbit of the
eye is lateral, giving to the animal a side, rather than a forward range
of vision. The space occupied by the orbital processes of the frontal
bone in the ox and horse, is in the hog supplied by a cartilage. The
frontal bones unite together early, and the parietals appear to form but
one piece. The frontal sinuses proceed to the occiput, and are only
separated from each other by some longitudinal or somewhat oblique
bony layers which do not entirely intercept communication ; these and
the sphenoidal sinuses render the cerebral cavity narrow, in fact the
size of it is only half that of the cranium viewed from the exterior.
The ethmoid and turbinated bones are larger and more fully developed
in the hog than in the ox or sheep, in fact they occupy an intermediate
grade between those of the horse and dog, being larger than those of the
former, and smaller than those of the latter; they are spiral, complicated,
cellular, and offer an extensive surface for the expansion of the olfac-
tory nerve ; the ethmoidal fosset is very much sunk, of moderate size,
divided by a very salient crest, and riddled with numerous holes.

The nasal bones of the hog are situated low down in the face, flat-
tened, and well adapted to the situation and wants of the animal.
They are attached to the frontals in a slightly curved direction across
the face, by a strong denticulated suture. All communication between
them and the lachrymal bones is cut off by the interposition of a pro-
jection of the frontals on either side ; the suture between them and the
superior maxillary is mortised ; the anterior maxillary sends up a broad
deep process more than half the length of the nasal bones, and the
suture here is exceedingly strong. The bony nasal opening is but
small, not one-sixth of the size of that of the sheep, and the apices of
the bone form one sharp but rapidly widening point, which is carried
forward to the anterior extremity of the maxillary. The suture between
the nasals themselves is often so intricate, that before the animal is two
years old the upper part of it is perfectly obliterated, and the nasal
cavity appears as if only covered by one bone. A very slight compari-
son of the face of this animal with that of any other will prove that
strength is the object here in view; strength towards the inferior part
of the bone. In point of fact the snout of the hog is his spade, with
which, in his natural state, he digs and grubs in the ground for roots,
earth-nuts,, worms, &c. And to render his implement more perfect
an extra bone is added to the nasal bone. This one is short and trifi*

SKULL AND SNOUT. 79

cial and placed directly before the nasal bones, with which, and with
the edges of the anterior maxillary, itis connected by strong ligaments,
cartilages, and muscles. This bone has been termed the spade-bone,
snout-bone, an(l by some writers the vomer, from its supposed resem-
blance to a ploughshare. By it and its cartilaginous 1 attachments is
the snout rendered strong as well as flexible, and far more efficient than
it could otherwise be ; and the hog often contrives to give both farmers
and gardeners very unpleasant proofs of its efficiency, by ploughing up
deep furrows in newly sown fields, and grubbing up the soil in all
directions in search of his living and dead food.

The palatinebones constitute the crescentic and posterior border of the
palate and nasal cavity; they do not advance further than just before
the last mqlar tooth, instead of occupying a considerable portion of "the
palate. The palatine processes consist merely of bony laminae.

As roots and fruits buried in the" earth form the natural food of the
hog, his face terminates in a stong muscular snout, insensible at the
•extremity, and perfectly adapted for turning up the soil. There is a
large plexus of nerves proceeding down each side of the nose, and
ramifying over the nostril, and in these doubtless reside that peculiar
power which enables the hog to detect his food though buried some
inches below the surface of the ground. The olfactory nerve too is
large, and occupies a middle rank between that of the herbivorous and
carnivorous animals ; it is comparatively larger than that of the ox :
indeed few animals, with the exception of the dog, are gifted with a
more acute sense of smell than the hog. We have already spoken of
the sow which was taught to hunt partridges, and proved as sure
a finder and as staunch a backer as any pointer ever bred. To the
acute sense of the hog are epicures indebted for the truffles which form
such a delicious sauce, for they are the actual finders. A pig is turned
into a field and suffered to pursue his own course and watched. He
stops and begins to grub up'the earth, the man hurries up, drives him
away, and secures the truffle, which is invariably growing under that
spot, and the poor pig goes off to sniff out another, and another, only
now and then beingallowed by way of encouragement to reap the fruits
of his research. And how many a school-boy has by watching a hog
along the hedge sides, and driving hLm away just as he began to dig,
secured a fine juicy earth-nut.

The muscles, too, of the snout of the hog require some notice. Ac-
cording to Cuvier there are four principal muscles proceeding to it ; the
superior of these proceeds, from the lachrymal bone, which occupies a
rather large rhomboidal space upon the cheek, and its tendon bears
upon the snout, but does not approach sufficiently near to it to unite
with it. The next two are situated immediately beneath, and proceed
from the maxillary bone; these are partially united, but their tendons
pass on separately, one on the one side, and one on the other of the
extremity of the snout ; and the fourth and smallest passes obliquely
beneath the tendons of the others, from the nasal bone towards the in-
sertion of the second and third muscles. These longitudinal muscles
are enveloped in annular fibres, which appear to be a continuation of
the orbicularis of the lips, and give to the snout its extreme flexibility.

.80

THE TEETH.

The hog has fourteen molar teeth in each jaw ; six incisors and two
canines; these latter are curved upwards, and commonly denominated
tushes. The molar teeth are all slightly different in structure, and in-
crease in size from first to last ; they bear no slight resemblance to
those of the human being. The incisors are so fantastic in form as to
baffle description, and their destined functions are by no means clear.
Those in the lower jaw are long, round, and nearly straight; of those
in the upper jaw four closely resemble the corresponding teeth in the
horse, while the two corner incisors bear something of the fleur delis
shape of those of the dog. These latter aTe placed so near to the tushes
as often to obstruct their growth, and it is sometimes necessary to draw
them, in order to relieve the animal, and enable him to feed.

It is seldom that it becomes necessary to ascertain the age of the hog
by inspecting his teeth, nor is it by any means an easy task to do so,
but still it may occasionally be interesting, and, with reference to those
intended for breeding, important to be able to do so when necessary.

The calculation of the age of the hog by means of reference to the
mouth has not yet been carried beyond three years ; no writer seems to
have gone much beyond the protrusion of the adult middle teeth of the
lower jaw.

The hog is born with two molars on each side of the jaw ; by the
time he is three or four months old he is provided with his incisive
milk teeth and the tushes ; the supernumerary molars protrude between
the fifth and seventh month, as does the first back molar; the second
back molar is cut at the age of about ten months, and the third gene-
rally not until the animal is three years old. The upper corner teeth
are shed'at about six or eight months, and the lower ones at about
seven, nine, or ten months old, and replaced by the permanent ones.
The milk tushes are also shed and replaced between six and ten months
old. The age of twenty months, and from that to two years, is denoted
by the shedding and replacement of the middle incisors, or pincers, in
both jaws, and the formation of a black circle at the base of each of the
tushes. At about two years and a half or three years of age the adult
middle teeth in both jaws protrude, and the pincers are becoming black
and rounded at the ends.

After three years the age may be computed by the growth of the
tushes ; at about four years, or rather before, the upper tushes begin to
raise the lip ; at five they protrude through the lips ; at six years of
age the tushes of the lower jaw begin to show themselves out of the
mouth, and assume a spiral form. These acquire a prodigious length
in old animals, and particularly in uncastrated boars ; and as they in-
crease in size they become curved backwards and outwards, and at
length are so crooked as to interfere with the motion of the jaws to such
a degree that it is necessary to cut off these projecting teeth, which is
done with the file or with nippers.*

» Traits de l'Age du Cheval, du Breuf, du Mouton, du Coien, et du Cochon, par N. F.
et-J. Girard.

BRAIN APOPLEXY. 8 1

THE BRAIN.

This important organ is not so large as from an external view of the
cranium we should be led to suppose, the frontal and sphenoidal sinuses
contracting the limits of the cranial cavity and rendering it narrow ; it
is; however, considerably larger in proportion to the size of the animal
than that of the ox or sheep, being about l-500th part of the weight of
the animal, while that of the ox is only l-800th part, and that of the
sheep only l-750th part. The irregularities of the'surface, or those
prominences and depressions which define the organs in phrenology,
are more marked in the pig than in the horse, taking the size of the
animal into consideration, but not so much marked as in the dog.

The brain of the hog, like that of our other domesticated animals, is
composed of two substances differing materially in appearance and
structure ; the one is of a pale gray or ashy hue, and termed the cortical
or cineritious substance, and the other, from its pulpy nature and from
being found deeper in the brain, the medullary substance.

These two distinct component parts of the brain are allowed by all
scientific men to be intended for the discharge of two distinct functions.
The mind or reasoning power is supposed to reside in the cineritious
portion ; and hence the preponderance of that substance in the human
brain; while the medullary portion is merely the recipient of outward
impressions upon the senses. There is very little difference between
the proportions of these two substances in the brain of the hog and that
of the sheep ; if any thing, the hog has more of the cineritious portion
than the ox; a proof, physiologists would say, that his reasoning
powers or moral faculties are greater. We have already endeavoured,
we know not how successfully, to vindicate him from the charge of
utter stupidity and unteachableness so generally brought against him,
and pleaded the slight intercourse, compared with that enjoyed by other
animals, which he has with man as the cause of it. A philanthropist
once declared his intention of "bringing up a pig in such a way as
should tend to develope his whole nature, and give him a fair chance
of acting out his character, and showing what a pig was capable of
being." We may smile at such an Utopian idea, but are we by any
means certain that under different treatment swine might not become
intelligent and capable of attachment T There are anecdotes enough to
prove them possessed of memory, attachment, and social qualities ; but
at present the system of treatment affords no scope for the development
of any but mere brute and gluttonous instincts. ,.

As this is a disease which is chiefly induced by plethora,'laziness,
want of exercise, high feeding, and such like causes, it is not to be
wondered at that it is frequent among swine ; and in by far the majority
of cases it is fatal; for either the animal dies suddenly without any
precursory symptoms, or the progress of the attack is so rapid that be-
fore help can be obtained or remedies administered all is over. Where,
however, the apoplexy does not destroy its victim in a short space of
time, it may be subdued and the animal temporarily cured; but only
for awhile ; it invariably dies soon afterwards of inflammation of the

82 THE PIG.

brain. Sometimes apoplexy will run, like an epidemic, through a
whole piggery, and where this is the case the causes of it must be
diligently sought out and carefully removed.

The precursory symptoms which prognosticate apoplexy are dullness,
disinclination to move, heaviness of the head, an uncertain and stag-
gering gait, wildness and inflammation of the eyes, with apparent loss
of sight, no appetite, and general numbness. The treatment must be
prompt and energetic: bleeding from the palate; Epsom salts and
sulphur as purgatives; or emetic tartar dissolved in water to induce
vomiting. , Strict attention to diet will be requisite for some time after-
wards. No stimulating food should be given ; the water should be
slightly nitrated, and the animal bled at least every three months.

INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN.

Inflammation both of the substance and of the membranes of the
brain is by no means of unfrequent occurrence, apd almost invariably
follows an attack of apoplexy. It is also induced by heating or ex-
citing or indigestible food, as an over-feed of grains, of new corn, &c.
The precursory symptoms are dullness, redness of the eyes, and disin-
clination to move ; but as the inflammation becomes more intense the
animal runs wildly to and fro, seems blind and unconscious where he
is going, runs against every thing ; the pulse is small and rapid ; and
the breathing slightly accelerated. The first thing to be done is to
bleed, from the palate if possible ; if not, or if sufficient blood cannot
be obtained from there, let incisions be made in the ears, and these re-
peatedly washed with warm water, as such a proceeding materially in-
creases the bleeding. Magn. sulph. withgiriger should be given in-
ternally as a purgative. Enemas (clysters) have also a beneficial ef-
fect, and then the animal should have repeated cooling doses of sulphur.
Castor oil and jalap have been given as purgatives ; and the system
stimulated by the application of a blister to the throat.

PHRENITIS.

This is a disease very much resembling the last mentioned, and is
often called brain-fever ot frenzy ; it arises pretty much from the same
cause ; all excitants of the system, all things which tend to drive the
blood to the head, will induce it. The symptoms are prostration of
strength, blindness, frenzy, and often convulsions. The treatment must
consist in copious bleedings and strong purgatives, which should be
followed up by doses of sulphur to keep the bowels open. Croton oil
with tincture of ginger has been given in extreme cases, and with bene-
ficial effects. The dose for a moderate sized animal is about two mi-
nims of croton oil and one dram of tincture of ginger.

SPINAL CORD.

Next to the diseases of the brain follows a consideration of those
arising from the spinal cord. This proceeds from the brain to the tail,
and is divided by a central line on the upper and under surface through-
out its whole extent, forming it into two separate columns, each of
which has been proved to possess a distinct and separate function, the

DISEASES. 83

inferior surfaces being connected with voluntary motion, and the cen-
tral ones on the upper surface with sensation.

The. pig occasionally exhibits all the symptoms of epilepsy in their
most frightful intensity, and whoever has carefully marked the habits
of swine when not confined to the sty will easily be able to account for
this ; for, obtuse and stupid as it is the custom to denominate them,
there, is more excitability and nervousness in these animals than in
many that have the credit of being more delicately organised. Note
the manner in which they are affected by the approach of wind or
storms — how they run about in a state of highly nervous excitement
with straw in their mouths ; note the sympathy and terror a whole herd
will exhibit while one of them is undergoing the operation of spaying
or ringing, how they squeak in concert with his cries; see them at a
fair under the irritation of strange scenes and noises, and we shall find
sufficient indications of a, susceptibility of impression to account for
swine being peculiarly subject to epilepsy.

The prognostics are constant grunting, restlessness, acceleration of
breathing, pallor of the skin, and a staggering gait. Then the animal
suddenly falls as if struck by lightning, and for -a few moments lies
perfectly motionless ; after which convulsions come on gradually, in-
creasing in intensity until they are fearful to behold ; the countenance
is distorted; the neck curved in every direction; and the legs alternately
drawn up to the body, and extended with momentarily increasing
rapidity. The eyes protrude, the pupils are distended, and the balls
roll about. The tongue is protruded and fixed between the clenched
jaws ; the teeth grind together, foam and saliva flow from the mouth.
The pulse is wiry and small at first, then hard and bounding, and, as
the intensity of the fit decreases, irregular and intermittent. Through-
out the whole of the fit the animal remains perfectly unconscious, and
as he recovers gets up, tries to hide himself in the litter or in a corner
of the sty, and looks terrified and wild ; then gradually the impression
passes away, and he creeps out and begins to eat again. The seizure
of one pig is often but a prelude to that of the greater number of those
contained in the sty. The fits often succeed each other rapidly, two
or three occurring in one day ; and the cries uttered by the animals while
in them are distressing in the extreme.

Medical treatment can only be resorted to in the intervals between
the fits, and is seldom successful. It consists of cold effusions applied
to the head, bleeding, and energetic purgatives, followed up by low
diet, perfect quiet, and cooling medicines. The best way of keeping
the head cool is to tie a piece of cloth about it, and then keep this con-
stantly wet. A very efficient cold lotion for this purpose may be com-
posed of a pint of vinegar to two quarts of water, and one ounce of sal
ammoniac. Salts and calomel may be given as purgatives.

It is often difficult to determine what are the precise causes of epi-
lepsy ; the immediate one is generally some excitant or stimulant act-
ing on a system predisposed by cerebral inflammation, or by intestinal
Irritation arising from worms, or other sources, to take on disease.

We quote a case communicated by Mr. Cartwright, of Whitchurch,

84 THE PIG.

to whom we are indebted for much useful information relative to the
diseases of swine : —

" In 1825, 1 saw a pig that was taken ill in the following manner : —
He was a little stupid and dull, and now wandered about the sty un-
consciously for a few minutes, and then appeared to be quite well ;
but in a few days after he became worse : he would move forwards until
he came to one Wall, and then retreat backwards until be came to the
other wall ; and made a grunting and squealing noise all the time the
fit was on him, which was usually a few minutes, and sometimes
longer; and he had them every quarter of an hour, and even pftener.
His fits continued to increase ; when he had been thus for about five
days he began, after so backing himself, to fall down at full length,
stretch out his legs and tumble about, and appear as if dying, and
make a shrieking noise as if in great pain, and seem to be blind. His
pulse was very quick and full during the fits, but subsided a great
deal when they were over. He ate at intervals between the fits when
food was put to him. He continued in this latter bad state for three
or four days, and got well in a few days after. I gave him salts arid
calomel during his illness, bled him in the tail and ears and between
his claws; but little blood, I fancy, was obtained from all the places ;
and I kept his head wet with cold water.

"About the same time a miller in this neighbourhood lost five or
six in a similar way, but I had not an opportunity of opening any of
them."*

PALSY OR PARALYSIS.

This is by no means a disease of frequent occurrence in our own
country. It is treated of by French writers, who attribute it to low
marshy situations, bad or damaged food, or the avarice of the pig-owner,
who, in order to fatten the animals more rapidly, gives them highly
stimulating food, which irritates the intestinal canal, and through it the
spinal cord. Eric Viborg, an authority quoted byHurtrel D'Arboval,
recommends wholesome food, clean straw, a dose of common salt as a
purgative, and drenches of common salt and gentian.f

But there is a kind of partial palsy which is caused by the presence
of cysticercus cellulose/, a hydatid peculiar to the pig. M. Dupuy gives
the following case Which came under his observation : —

" Palsy of the hind limbs, with loss both of motion and feeling-, was
observed in a pig eighteen months old. On carefully examining him
after death, the muscles were discoloured and softened., There were
in the psoas muscles numerous cysts enclosing hydatids. Other cysts
with their parietes more thickened and fibrous inhabited the muscles
surrounding the trochanter, containing likewise hydatids. These para-
sites are also found in the lungs, the liver, and the cortical substance
of the kidneys.

"Between the internal surface of the cyst and the hydatid was a fine
white powder, resembling pulverized bones. The spinal marrow was
softened about the lumbar and sacral regions, and the membranes were
slightly reddened, particularly about the roots of the lumbar nerves."£

* Veterinarian. t .Hurtrel D'Arboral, Dictionnaire de JMecine Vetrrinaire.

X Journal Tbeorttique et Pratique.

RABIES. 85

It is generally the hinder parts of the pig which are paralyzed, either
wholly or partially; in the former case the animal is. totally unable to
rise, in the latter he totters in his gait and falls when attempting to
walk. Paralysis frequently accompanies chronic disease of the diges-
tive organs, and is attended with loss of appetite, acceleration of the
pulse, and swelling of the tongue. This disease is seldom obstinate;
a removal of the predisposing cause, good nourishing food, a clean and
well-ventilated sty, moderate exercise, and gentle purgative or cooling
medicine, will generally restore the animal to perfect health in a short
space of time.

TETANUS.

This disease, which is commonly denominated Lockedrjaw, is by no
means an unfrequent malady among pigs. The symptoms are at first
spasmodic motion of the head and of one or more of the extremities,
grinding the teeth and rigidity of the jaws. This is soon followed by
stiffness of the neck and greater part of the frame, and an unnatural up-
raised position of the head. The castration of young pigs will fre-
quently produce this disease, especially if the animal is too well fed
for a few days after the operation. It also often appears among pigs that
are driven far to market, especially if when heated by travelling or ex-
posure to the sun, they are suffered to roll themselves in ditches or
streams, as they will endeavour to do. Bleeding, warm baths, lotions,
&c., friction with stimulating oils, purgatives if they can be got into
the mouth, if not enemas and anodynes, are. the most efficient remedies.
But the disease is too often fatal, and runs its course very speedily ; if
the animal survives the first twelve or eighteen hours some hopes of his
eventual recovefy may be entertained.

RABIES.

Swine are by no means exempt from this frightful disease; there are
numerous cases on record in which they have been inoculated by the
bite of rabid dogs, and Hiibner relates a case of inoculation from the
bite of a rabid fox. The symptoms of rabies in the hog are peculiarly
interesting at times from the resemblance many of them bear to those
of the human being. At first there is dulness and indisposition, and
the pig is continually licking the bitten part. Subsequently some are
exceedingly ferocious, snapping at every body, gnawing every thing
which comes in their way, dashing themselves against walls, or leaping
over all obstacles. Others, again, are dull, stupid, refuse their food,
stagger when they attempt to rise, and are paralyzed in the hinder parts.
There is no absolute dread of water, but evident inability to drink. An
animal that we saw went to the trough, smelt at the food, and brought
his nose nearly into contact with it, then started back, trembled vio-
lently, and elevated his snout high in the air. Once or twice he at-
tempted to take portions of meat and vegetable from the wash, but the
attempt was always accompanied or followed by universal rigour and
shuddering, during which the food was dropped from the mouth, evi-
dently proving that the organs of deglutition were powerfully, affected.
The animal is in a highly nervous state, and the sensibility of the
skin is so excessive, that even if bis mother licks him he screams with
agony, and buries himself in the litter, uttering shrill squeaks on the
approach of any one, or springs up into the air if he hears a loud noise,

86 THE PIG.

and falls down again in convulsions, There is in general no great
secretion of saliva in these animals, and the delirium which characterizes
rabies in the dog is rarely seen, or when met with is less evident and
distinctive. .

As yet this disease has been but little studied in pigs. Mr. rnt-
chard, V. S. of Wolverhampton, gives the following interesting ac-
count of some cases he met with : —

" A rabid dog entered the farm-yard of Mr. George Strongitharm ot
Calderfield, near Walsall, on the 27th of December, 1835, and attacked
some pigs, which making a considerable noise, aroused Mr. S. and his
servants from their heds, and they proceeding with their guns already
loaded, discovered him, and succeeded in destroying him. Two of the
pigs had evidently received wounds in their noses from the dog, which
soon got well, no curative or preventive measures being had recourse
to, and without much irritation or swelling taking place. After a fort-
night had elapsed, nothing outward being observable in them, they
were again turned into the yard to their old companions.

"A day or two after, on the entrails of a sheep being thrown to the
pigs, all came and partook of it except the two that had been bitten.
One of these was found dead in the litter, with a quantity of froth and
slaver about his mouth ; the other, on coming out of his bed into the
air, immediately jumped up on all four legs like the bound of a deer, a
yard at least from the ground, and threw from his mouth a portion of
thick slaver and froth. Upon being again placed in the sty hewas
much convulsed, and. made a shrill squeaking noise, his mouth was
rilled with saliva, and held continually open nearly half an inch, except
when champing his under jaw, which he frequently did with consider-
able twitching of the superficial muscles. He refused to eat or drink,
gradually got worse, and died on the third day.

"Three weeks after another of the pigs was taken ill. The symp-
toms were much the same. The effect of water was tried, and upon
being thrown upon him caused him considerable distress, so that he
leaped into the air and dashed his head against the wall, appearing quite
delirious. He died on the second day. Not long afterwards another
pig was attacked, the symptoms being similar to those in the former
cases, only more violent; he died twenty»four hours afterwards, nothing
having been done to disturb him. None of the pigs ate or drank any
thing after they were first taken ill."*

And the case we are now about to quote was communicated by Mr.
Heaton, a human surgeon: —

" About May, 1829, while visiting" a patient, I was told that in a sty
at the bottom of the yard there was a mad pig. Thither I repaired,
when I was informed by its owner that the animal had been bitten about
three weeks before by a strange dog, which had passed through the
yard, and who was at the time, by those who saw it, declared to be
mad ; the dog appeared to be greatly alarmed and proceeded with swift-
ness; it was afterwards seen for the last time in some fields at the
outskirts of the town. From the statement of the man it would appear
that, on the morning of the day previous to that on which I saw the
pig, the animal began to exhibit symptoms of great oppression at the

; — *

* The Veterinarian for 1835.

RABIES. 87

prsecordia; to this succeeded, gradually inability to stand, fearful cries,
and general uneasiness when disturbed, foaming at the mouth, and a
disposition to eat whatever came in the way, &c. At six o'clock^in
the afternoon of the second day I first saw it, covered with straw and
apparently quiet, until the rattling of the sneck of its door seemed to
awaken the most painful apprehension, and its mental agony seemed
almost insufferable. The sense of sight seemed no less acute than that
of hearing, which was manifested by the animal's convulsive efforts to
hide even its head beneath the straw; this accomplished, it became
somewhat tranquil, and was constantly devouring its own litter,' ex-
crement, &c &c. Its eyes had the suspicious glance of those of a
phrenitic patient, its breathing was preternaturally quick, and its efforts
to stand wholly abortive. In 'this state it continued two hours, when
half a pint of train oil was attempted to be poured into its mouth, the
greater part being wasted, and the animal instantly expired. I regret
that the approaching night, and the man's desire to bury the carcass,
restricted the post-mortem examination, which merely went to show
that upon the division of the costal cartilages the lungs protruded, as
if too large for the cavity of the thorax, and, being cut into, poured
forth a frothy mucus, resembling in colour anjd consistence soap lather;
the stomach and duodenum were filled with the matters above described
to have been eaten, not however impacted, probably owing to the pre-
mature death. I have little doubt from the symptoms that, had the
examination gone so far, the vessels of the brain and spinal cord would
have been found injected. The splash of water certainly caused dis-
quietude; but, inasmuch as noise of any sort produced similar effects,
it is doubtful whether aversion to fluids existed,; and yet the circum-
stance of death instantly following the oil-draught,, would wawant the
belief that spasms of the muscles of deglutition, with the temporary
closure of the glottis, occasioned suffocation and death."

Among all the numerous cases of rabies which we have m-efewith in
the course of our practice, we have never had the opportunity of exa-
mining the'post-mortem appearances of a rabid pig; but it seems to be
generally admitted by those who have done so that there is invariably
inflammation about the glottis, and very considerable inflammation of
the villous coat of the stomach, especially about the pylorus, towards
the cardia, and on the surface of the two rugaee; in some parts the
inflammation had almost merged in mortification. The stomach is
generally filled with every kind of filth and' rubbish, and the bladder
distended with urine.

The disease generally appears in the third oir fourth week after the-
animal has been inoculated, but it has been known to lie dormant for
two months.

Incision of the part and the application of the oautery as soon as pos-
sible after the animal has been bitten, are the only preventive means :
cure there is none when once the disease has made its appearance, and
those who rely on the infallible nostrums of some learned "pig-doctor,"
will find themselves disappointed ; the symptoms may be alleviated by
certain drugs, but rabies is incurable.

We are not aware that rabies has ever been known to be communi-
cated by the bite of a pig, but Julian Palmarius states- that he has- seen

88 THE PIG.

horses, cattle, and sheep, become rabid from eating the straw in which
rabid pigs had lain; and Dr. Shackmann corroborates the fact.*

It has been a much disputed point whether or not the flesh of animals
which have died rabid can be eaten with safety. Two eminent scien-
tific men in Paris ate of such flesh without experiencing any bad ef-
fects. The carcass of an ox that had been bitten by a rabid dog, and
had exhibited all the symptoms of rabies, was cut up and sold, but it
did not appear that any of those who ate of it experienced the slightest
inconvenience. Again, at the Royal Veterinary School at Alford, the
tongue of a rabid horse was given to a dog ; the animal devoured it, and
lived on in perfect health.

But the opposite party bring forward as many authenticated facts in
support of the contrary opinion, and the one with which we now chiefly
have to do is narrated by Schenkius: "A tavern-keeper, in the duchy
of Wurtemberg, served up the flesh of a pig that had died rabid to some
customers who were dining at his inn. All those who partook of it
were shortly afterwards attacked with rabies." Pierre Borel records a
very similar case.f

We should most strongly urge the prudence of abstaining from the
flesh of all rabid animals, and not only of abstaining from it ourselves,
but putting it out of the reach'of other animals ; and the best way to do
this isto bury the carcass six^or eight feet under ground, cover it care-
fully and closely up, and plant the spot with thorns.

NASAL CATARRH.

We have already spoken of the formation of the nose or snout of the
pig, and will now proceed to describe a disease vulgarly called the snuffles
or sniffles. It is characterized by defluxion from the nose in the first
place, and its advance is so gradual as to be almost imperceptible. But
it gains ground daily — attacks the respiratory passages-^cough and
sneezing come on — there is evident difficulty of swallowing, and the
respiration is impeded by the mucus formed. After some time the
membrane of the nose becomes thickened, the nostril swelled and de-
formed, and the snout drawn on one side. Blood is often discharged
from the nostril, and when this has been the case all the symptoms are
abated and the animal seems relieved for awhile. Butit too frequently
happens that this discharge or hemorrhage returns again and again,
each time in increasing quantities, until the strength of the animal be-
comes so undermined that notwithstanding the utmost care and the
most nourishing diet, he dies of exhaustion, or perhaps, as it may be
more properly termed, consumption.

This disease, which strongly resembles glanders and distemper, is
like them hereditary, and may be communicated from either the male
or female parent. If also results from exposure todamp or cold.

Emetics and tonics are the best means of combating it. A solution
of sulphate of copper in doses of from three to five grains morning and
night will sometimes eventually effect a cure, assisted by strict atten-
tion to diet and regimen. But in by far the majority of cases the dis-

* Palm., de Morb., Conlag., and Shackmann, on Hydrophobia,
t Delal'ond's Sanitary Police of all Domesticated Animals.

THE LARYNX. 89

ease runs its course and terminates fatally, for it has generally gained
the upper hand before much notice is taken of it.

THE LARYNX.

This instrument of voice consists offive cartilages united to one
another by a ligamentous substance, by distinct articulations, and by a
seemingly complicated but really simple muscular apparatus. In form
it is an irregular oblong tube, exceedingly flexible, and capable of
adapting. itself to all the natural or morbid changes of the respiratory
process, and to the production of all the various intonations of sound or 1
voice by which the animal expresses his emotions. It is placed' at the
top of the windpipe, guards the exit from the lungs, and prevents the
passage of food into the respiratory canals.

The Ericoid cartilage constitutes the base and support of this organ,
and serves in great measure as a bond of union to the rest.

Placed above and resting upon this are the Arytenoid cartilages, pro-
longations of which rest upon the Chordas vacates, and influence their
action. The vocal ligaments take an oblique direction across the larynx
in the pig instead of a straight one, so that the angle is at a considerable
distance from the thyroid cartilage. They have also a curious, slanting
direction, the anterior angle being depressed and the arytenoid portion
elevated. About the middle of the chords vocales, and immediately
above them, are two sacculi, which are generally supposed to be con-
cerned in the act of grunting. From the anterior parts of the larynx
'springs the epiglottis, a heart-shaped cartilage placed at the extremity
of the opening into the windpipe, with its back opposed to the pharynx ;
its use is this : food passing from the pharynx in its way to the oesopha-
gus presses down the epiglottis, which, "closing the aperture of the
larynx, prevents any portion of the food from entering it. As soon as
the food has passed, the elasticity of the epiglottis, assisted by that of
the membrane at its base, and still more by the power of the hyo-epi-
gloltideus muscle, enables that cartilage to rise up and resume its natu-
ral position.

The thyroid cartilage envelops and protects all the rest, and shields
the lining membrane of the larynx, which vibrates under the impulse
communicated by the passage of the air, and gives the tone or voiee.

In the larynx of the hog we find that beautiful adaptation of means to
the end. The space between the arytenoid cartilages is less, compa-
ratively speaking, than in the horse or dog, speed not being required
in swine. The epiglottis too is larger than in the ox, sheep, or horse,
and differently constructed ; it is more flexible, from the cellular liga-
mentous substance at the base of it being looser; and from its increased
size, and the curved direction of its edges, it not only covers the open-
ing into the windpipe, but in a manner embraces the arytenoid cartilages
when pressed down by the passage of food, a formation admirably
suited to an animal who is constantly plunging his nose and muzzle
into mud or dirt, and who by blowing into his food in the peculiar way
pigs are apt to do in order to stir up the sediment would otherwise be
constantly getting some irritating and noxious matters into his wind-
pipe. The inferior cornu of the thyroid bone is comparatively more
developed in the hog than in other domesticated animals.
1

90

THE PHARYNX.

The pharynx, to which we just now alluded, is a membranous, mus-
cular, funnel-shaped bag, extending from the root of the tongue to the
larynx and aesophagus, wide in front and becoming gradually narrower
until it terminates in the aesophagus. Its office is to convey the food
from the mouth to the upper part of the gullet, and this it performs by
means of its lining muscles. Properly speaking, we ought perhaps to
have noticed it when speaking of the digestive system, but as we are
proceeding from the head to the neck we have included it in this di-
vision of our subject.

THE OS HYOIDES.

This is a body which embraces the thyroid cartilage of the larynx,
and give support and protection to it, and also affords attachments to
the hyo-glossus longus muscle, or that which draws the tongue into the
mouth ', the brevis, which fulfils a similar office ; the hyo-pharyngeus,
which dilates the pharynx; the anterior constrictor pharyngeus, which
contracts the pharynx, and several others.

This bone in the human being is supposed to resemble the Greek
letter upsilon ; in the horse it may be compared to a spur, but in the
swine it is different. This animal requires a freer use of the tongue.
The shorter cornua are stronger than in the horse, or even the ox and
dog ; the central one is less developed, and the longer cornua is thin .
and insignificant. There is also considerably less ligament interposed
between this bone and the thyroid cartilage, which it almost closely
embraces. We will now proceed to a consideration of the diseases of
the throat and neck.

STRANGLES 0« QUINSY.

These diseases are of very frequent occurrence, and,, as they are
rapid in their progress, generally exceedingly fatal. They chiefly at-
tack fattening hogs.

The. glands agder the throat .begin to swell, and thus affect not only
the respiratory organs but the act of swallowing: impeded respiration,
hoarseness, and debility then supervene ; the pulse becomes quick and
unequal, the head to a certain extent palsied, the neck swells, tumefies,
and rapidly goes on to gangsene; the tongue hangs from the mouth,
and is covered with slaver* and the animal gradually sinks. In the
commencement of the disease very simple treatment, as cooling medi-
cines, attention to diet, and care and warmth, will often suffice to eheck
it; but when the swelling, impeded respiration, and difficulty of swal-
lowing has eome on, recourse must be had to more energetic treatment.
Bleeding and purgatives are first indicated ; setons and puncture of the
swollen glands have also been recommended:, and in extreme cases
there is no reason why we should not have recourse to blisters and ex-
ternal stimulants as counter-irritants.

A diseased animal should never be allowed to remain among healthy
ones, as this malady is so infectious that it may almost be regarded* as
an epizootic.

strang1.es. '91

■ Mr. Cartwright, veterinary surgeon, of Whitchurch, who has paid
much attention to the diseases of swine, gives the following account of
some fatal cases of inflammation of the glands of the throat in the
"■Veterinarian :" — He says that he had six pigs attacked at nearly the
same period. Their respiration was very quick; they husked and
foamed at the mouth. They could not bear to be pressed on the throat,
and swallowed liquids with difficulty. To some of them jalap was
given, and to others castor and goose oil. One was blistered under
the throat, and all bled by cutting off their tails. They died in the
course of eight and forty hours from the commencement of the disease.
On examination he found much inflammation under the jaws and
throat, and also much of swelling with effused serum. In some of
their windpipes, and the branches of the bronchia, there was a great
quantity of mucus, but no apparent inflammation. In one the heart ap-
peared to be inflamed, but most probably sympathetically.

Columella thus speaks of these diseases: — "Such swine as have
swellings of the glands under the throat must be let blood under the
tongue ; and when it has flowed abundantly, it will be proper that their
whole mouth be rubbed over with bruised salt and wheat-meal. Some
think it a more present and effectual remedy when they pour into each
of them, through a horn, three cupfuls of garum, or salt-fish pickle ;
then they bind cloven tallies, or cuttings of fennel-giant with a flaxen
cord, and hang them about the necks so that the swellings shall be
touched with the fennel-giant cuttings.*

If we may judge by the writings of the ancients, the most prevalent
diseases among pigs were those of the glands of the throat; Didymus
gives a long and accurate description of them.

Hurtrel D'Arboval also gives an account of a disease of the glands
of the throat, which he denominates Poit 'pique, maladie piquanle, or
soie, and states it to be peculiar to swine : he thus describes it:. —

It is situated on one or both sides of the neck, between the jugular
rein and the tracheal artery. On the part affected is seen a raised tuft
of hairs, differing from any of the others, being hard, rough, dull, and
discoloured, and exceedingly painful to the touch ; and if one be pulled
out the skin comes away with it. At first there is only a slight de-
pression or concavity of the part ; but the skin soon becomes red, then
voilet-coloured, the hairs conglomerate, the parts become softened,
tumefied, and even proceed to mortification. Meanwhile the animal be-
trays symptoms of thirst, there is dulness, loss of appetite, and grind-
ing of the teeth. As'the malady progresses the patient becomes inert,
deaf, insensible to blows, lies down constantly, and totters and falls if
compelled to rise ; the flanks heave, the mouth is hot and full of slaver,
the tongue red and inflamed, the lower jaw convulsed, and the con-
junctiva injected ; the animal utters plaintive moans, and if not speedily
relieved dies of suffocation, from the effects of the pressure of the tu-
mour upon the air-passages.

D'Arboval attributes this disease to the irritation caused in some of
the cntical tissues by the abnormal growth of the tuft of hair, which
uniting with some internal sympathetic irritation induced by heating
food, damp litter, hot ill-ventilated sties, or such like prejudicial in-

* Columella's Husbandrie, book vi.

92 THE PIG.

fluences, acts locally and determines this disease of the glands. Other
French writers believe it to be epizootic and, to arise from certain mi-
asmatic influences.

Tonics, acidulated drinks, warmth, cleanliness, strict attention to
diet, and the application of actual cautery to the root Of the evil — the
tuft of hair — is the treatment prescribed.*

THE CHEST OR THORAX.

In the human being this constitutes the superior, and in quadrupeds
the anterior portion of the body ; it is separated from the abdomen by
the diaphragm. This latter is of ^museulo-membranous nature, and is
the main agent in respiration ; in its quiescent state it presents its con-
vex surface towards the thorax and its concavity towards the abdomen.
The anterior convexity abuts upon the lungs, the posterior concavity is
occupied by a portion of the abdominal viscera. The diaphragm of the
pig resembles that of the ox and sheep.

The chest is divided into two cavities by a membrane termed the
mediastinum, which evidently consists of a duplicature of the pleura or
lining membrane of the thorax. The pleura is a serous membrane pos-
sessed of little or no sensibility, and acted upon by but few nerves. It
is smooth and polished ; covers the bony wall of the thorax from the
spine to the sternum, and from the first rib to the diaphragm, and
dilating and forming a kind of bag which spreads over and contains the
whole of the lung.

The lungs form two distinct bodies, the right being somewhat larger
than the left one; they are separated from each other by that folding
over of the pleura termed the mediastinum, and hence may be said to
be enclosed in separate bags, or to have distinct pleuras. Each lung is
subdivided. The right one consists of three unequal lobes, the smallest
of which is again subdivided into numerous lobules, differing in num-
ber in different swine. The left lung consists of two lobes, and the
scissure between these is not very deep.

Beneath the left lung the heart is situated and partially enclosed in
another membranous bag termed ihe pericardium, which closely invests,
supports, and protects it. The heart has two sides, the one devoted to
the circulation of the blood through the lungs, and the other to its cir-
culation through the frame generally. Each side is divided into two
compartments, the one above, the other below, which are termed the
auricles and ventricles. The right auricle as well as ventricle is larger
than the left and its parietes are thinner. The longitudinal tendinous
cords of the ventricle are more firm and distinct in the pig than in the
ox or sheep, and the fleshy prominences shorter. The tendinous cords
of the left ventricle are few in number, large, and ill defined. The
aorta of the pig separates almost immediately after its comrnencement
into two trunks, the smaller of which leads forwards and gives forth
those arteries which in other animals arise from the cross of this artery ;
and the other, which is longer in diameter, inclines backwards: these
are usually termed the anterior and posterior aorta. ,,,,.

The beating of the heart may be felt on the left side, whence also the

* Hurlrel D'Arboval's Diclionnaire de Mfaleciue Vetiirinaire.

DISEASE OF THE HEART. 93

pulse may be taken, or from the femoral artery which crosses the inside
of the thigh in an oblique direction. In swine in a state of health the
pulsations are from seventy to eighty in a minute.

DISEASED VALVES OF THE HEART.

This appears to be a more common malady than is generally sus-
pected, for in repeated cases of sudden death, where a post-mortem
examination has been made, there has been found fleshy excrescences
or tumours on the tricuspid valves. We believe Mr. Cartwrighl, whose
name we have already mentioned, was one of the first persons who
drew attention to this disease. The only marked precursory symptoms
appear to be inappetency and very shortly before death difficulty of
breathing and evident distress. In one pig that died thus suddenly,
Mr. Cartwright found several uneven warty excrescences, some as large
as marbles, growing from the edge of the auricula-ventricular valves
of the left side; also several small papillary growths, all of which
served three parts to close up the ventricular opening.

In another case he found a loose, jagged, warty excrescence growing
from the whole surface of the tricuspid valves, closing up, in a great
measure, the ventricular opening, anil projecting at least half an inch
into the left auricle. In a third the valves of the left auricle were
thickened, schirrGus, and presented a ragged uneven surface. The
orifice of the ventricle was almost Closed up by this diseased substance,
and a portion had forced its way into the aorta. This disease was
always found in the left side of the heart, and in no case did it extend
beyond the circumference of the valves; the lining membrane of the
heart always remained intact.*

BRONCHIAL TUBES.

Swine are very susceptible of bronchitis, and also liable to worms in
the bronchia, both of which affections manifest themselves under the
form of cough, inappetency, and loss of flesh. The former may be
subdued by bleeding and cooling medicines, as sulphur, cream of tartar,
or pulv. antimoniaHs : the latter almost invariably cause the death of
the animal from the irritation they create and the inflammation which
is thus set up.

INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS.

This disease is perhaps more generally known under the term of
rising of the lights .- it is one of the most prevalent and too often the
most fatal of all the maladies that infest the sty. It has been supposed
by some persons to be contagious, by others to be hereditary, but there
does not appear to be any actual foundation for either of these opinions.
By far the most probable supposition is, that it arises from some atmo-
spheric influences or agencies which create a tendency to pulmonary
affections, and these, acting upon a system heated and predisposed to
disease by the mode of feeding adopted in most piggeries, give a serious
and inflammatory character to fhat which would otherwise be merely a
simple attack of catarrh ; or it may arise from some irritating influence

* The Veterinarian, 1841.

94 THE PIG.

9

in the food itself, or from damp, ill-ventilated sties: -whatever be its
cause, it generally runs through the whole piggery when it does make
its appearance. The prominent indications of disease are loss of appe-
tite, incessant and distressing cough, and heaving at the flanks.

As soon as the first symptoms are* perceived the animal should be
bled ; the palate perhaps will be the best place in this case to take
blood from; purgatives must then be given, but cautiously; Epsom
salts and sulphur will be the best, administered in a dose of from two
to four drachms of each, according to the size of the animal. To these
may succeed sedative medicines :

Digitalis . . . two grains.

Put v. Antimonialis . . six grains.

Nilrc . . . halfadnichm.

forms a very efficient and soothing medicament for moderate-sized pigs,
and will often produce very satisfactory effects ; cleanliness, warmth,
and wholesome cooling nutritious food, are likewise valuable aids in
combatting this disease. But whatever measures are taken they must
be prompt, for inflammation of the lungs runs its course with rapidity
and intensity, and while we pause to consider what is best to be done,
saps the vital energies of the patient.

In Wurtemberg there is a law of warrantry for this disease, extending
over a period of four weeks and three days.

Columella advises the insertion of a piece of lung-wort into the flaps
of the ears of swine affected with disease of the lungs. We should
be sorry to rely solely upon the effect of this "simple but efficient
remedy."*

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

This disease often breaks out among pigs as well as horses, cattle,
and sheep, and commits great devastation. We shall quote some ac-
counts of its progress, treatment, and post-mortem appearances given
by English and foreign veterinarians, by whom it is classed under the
head of

EPIDEMICS.

M. Saussol narrates that during the summer of 1821 nearly all the
swine in the neighbourhood of Mazametwere attacked by a violent and
mortal disease that spared neither age nor sex, fat nor lean. He rates
its ravages at about one-fifth of every four hundred patients.

The first symptoms were inappetency, thirst, dulness, groaning, and
seeking of moist places ; then followed hardness of the belly, heat of
the skin, constipation, diminution of the urine, difficulty of respiration,
heaving of the flanks, and short cough; the eyes were full of tears and
the mucous membranes inflamed. All these symptoms came on in the
course of twelve hours. If the disease continued the succeeding symp-
toms were still more alarming; the animals begun to stagger about, the
, limbs were stretched out in an unnatural position, rattling in the throat
came on, they supported themselves against the wall, and only fell to
die a few minutes afterwards. Death usually came about the third day,
and was in some cases preceded by convulsions of the face and ex-
tremities.

* Columella's Husbandrie.

EPIDEMICS. 95

Treatment. — Copious bleedings from the sacro-coccygean arteries and
veins, or if these did not yield blood enough, amputation of the tail, hot
baths, a seton covered with blistering ointment inserted in the chest,
camphorated and laxative drenches, and a decoction of borage, mallows,
and lettuces, slightly acidulated, to drink.

Causes* — Exposure to the heat of the sun, -want of water, feeding on
dry plants ; returning, home in the evening exhausted, receiving a hearty
feed, and being then shut up in ill-ventilated sties without drink until
morning.

Preventive treatment. — Troughs of acidulated nitrated water placed in
the sties and frequently renewed ; non-exposure to the heat of the day,
means of bathing, bleeding, cleanliness, and "Ventilation ; moderate feed-
ing, and gentle exercise after the sun had set. These precautionary
measures, M. Saussol says, arrested the progress of the disease.

Post-mortem appearances. — The thoracic cavity was filled with bloody
limpid fluid ; the lungs much inflamed; the pleura thickened, inflamed,
and injected ; the diaphragm covered with black patches of the size of a
shilling ; the mucous coat of the intestines slightly inflamed ; the wind-
pipe and bronchial tubes full of reddish froth ; the brain covered with
reddish serosity.*

The next account we come to gives a description of a somewhat dif-
ferent epidemic which occurred in Aveyron and its environs, attacking
both the respiratory and digestive organs, and running its course with
astonishing vigour and rapidity, frequently sweeping off all the inhabi-
tants of a piggery in from twelve to fourteen hours, and in the more
virulent cases in less than half this time.

Symptoms. — In the worst cases these are sudden loss of appetite,
small and frequent pulse, haggard eyes, the conjunctiva inflamed, the
mouth open,. red; and filled with foam, the respiration laborious, plaintive
cries, convulsions, palsy of the hind limbs, and involuntary discharge
of highly fetid faeces. ' Death here is the inevitable termination, and
that in a short time. But where the progress of the disease is less
rapid the symptoms assume a milder form, and medical aid is available
and often beneficial. Pregnant sows escape the attack of this malady,
but as soon as they have farrowed they lose this immunity and they
and their young take it. It also seems to spare leprous swine. It ap-
pears at all seasons of the year, but is most malignant in the summer
and at the commencement of autumn. There can be no doubt as to its
contagion, and from some experiments made, it can be reproduced in
other animals by inoculation, particularly in sheep. The flesh of pigs
that have died of this disease has been given to dogs and eaten by them
without producing any bad effects.

Causes. — Unwholesome food, ill-ventilated sties, want of attention to
cleanliness, exposure -to heat, wet, Or cold, are the predisposing causes ;
and probably some miasmatic influence develops the disease.

Treatment. — In the most virulent cases almost all modes of treatment
are unsuccessful ; or if they do succeed in rescuing the animal from
death, he generally falls into a state of marasmus, or becomes paralytic.
In the milder cases the following means have often proved efficient : —
Seton in the chest ; a decoction of sorel, with camphor, nitre, and calo-
mel, as a drench ; emollient injections, slightly acidulated ; stimulating

* Journal tie Medecine Vfilerinaire, 1832.

,96 THE PIG.

frictions of the dorsal and lumbar regions, or bathing these parts with
hot vinegar ; and water thickened with oat or barley meal as the sole
diet and drink. Venesection is here dangerous, tending only to under-
mine the strength of the patient, this disease being evidently one which
alters, decomposes, and vitiates the blood. Acetate of ammonia, ad-
ministered in doses proportionate lo the size of the patient, has been of
service. Purgatives should be avoided, as they are of very uncertain
benefit. Directly an animal is attacked he should be removed from the
others, and placed in some comfortable place.

Prevention. — Strict attention to diet, cleanliness, ventilation, and com-
fort; and a plentiful supply of clean water, both for the animals to drink
and to bathe themselves in. In cold and rainy weather they should be
kept in their sties-; and during the heat of summer their drink should
be slightly nitrated, acidulated, or salted. Whey is an excellent thing
for those that are weakly. Small doses of camphor and nitre, with the
addition of a few grains of calomel, administered in some cooling vege-
table decoction, is a useful preventive. If one pig is attacked he should
be removed, and the others taken out. while the sty is well fumigated.*
In 1838 we have accounts of an inflammatory epizootic among pigs,
rapid and fatal in its course, and attacking by preference store pigs
rather than those put up to fatten.

Syinptoms. — Prostration of strength, difficulty of breathing, discharge
from the mouth and nostrils, constant cough, and reddish hue of the
skin. These went on increasing in intensity until death put a period
to them, which usually occurred in from three days to three days and
a-half after the commencement of the attack.

Treatment. — Bleeding and laxative medicines, stimulating frictions
of the trachea and parietes of the thorax, seemed to be the most efficient
remedies. Doses of tartarized antimony and Hydrarg. Sub. Mur. in
three grains of each, administered every twelfth hour, produced vomit-
ing, and appeared to give ease. Sulphate of magnesia relieved those
cases in which there was constipation.

The causes seemed obscure. The epidemic prevailed in the sum-
mer; but whether it arose from the warmth of the weather, from want
of a sufficient supply of water, or from dry and heating food, was not
at all evident.f

Paulet has described a very similar epidemic among swine, which
frequently prevails in one or the other of the arrnndissements of the
south of France. He describes it as highly inflammatory, rapidly going
on to gangrene, and exceedingly contagious, but is at a loss to what
cause to attribute it.

The precursory symptoms are, according to him, restlessness, cough,
loss of appetite, dulness, and a weak tottering gait. These gradually
go on increasing in intensity until the seventh or eighth day, when they
have become very marked. Then alternations of heat and coldness of
the body come on ; the ears droop and are cold, the head is heavy, and
the tongue becomes discoloured ; the breath is fetid, and there is a co-
pious discharge of mucus from the nostrils. The skin is tinged with
red, but the hue is not very evident excepting under the belly : the ani-

* Recueil do Medecine Veteriuaire, ]834.
t Veterinarian for 1838.

EPIDEMICS. 97

raal appears to be in great suffering, and cries out pitifully. This
general inflammation of the integuments rapidly goes on to gangrene,
which alteration is evidenced by the livid violet hue of the diseased
surfaces. Death then rapidly follows.

He too prescribes Bleeding, and from the ears and veins of the belly,
while many authors condemn it as debilitating. The only thing he re-
commends besides is thin oatmeal gruel, acidulated with white-wine
vinegar ; for he appears to consider the malady to be so fatal that medi-
cal treatment avails nothing against it. Here, however, we cannot but
deem him wrong; many of the most virulent, and, if neglected, fatal of
the diseases to which our domesticated animals are subject, will yield
to the influence of a judicious course of treatment, and many a valuable
animal has been saved by the skill and attention of a veterinary surgeon.
We should recommend laxative drenches, stimulating frictions, warmth
and cleanliness, and a seton in the chest.

In the epidemic which prevailed in 1841 throughout the greater part
of England, swine were affected, as well as horses, cattle, and sheep,
and often took it before any of the rest of the stock, but in general had
it more mildly. This malady was of a highly contagious, inflammatory
character, and affected chiefly the mucous and secretory tissues. When
once it entered a farm-yard it spread rapidly, until every ox, sheep, or
pig was infected, and in some instances it passed to the human being.
Damp, wet weather appeared most favourable to its development; and
from all accounts it seems to have arisen from some atmospheric agency.

/Symptoms.— Lameness of one or more of the feet, accompanied with
heat around the hoof and lower part of the leg; discharge of saliva
from the mouth and nostrils ; champing or grinding of the lower jaw ;
ulceration of the mouth and tongue, extending even to the snout; dul-
ness, inappetency, constipation, rapid emaciation, and cough.

Treatment. — The ulcerated portions of the feet and the detached
pieces of horn should be carefully pared, and the parts daily washed
with a solution of blue vitriol, or smeared with warm tar ; the mouths
also dressed with a strong solution of alum ; and from an ounce and a
half to two ounces of Glauber salts, dissolved in water, and given in
their food. Where the malady was attacked in its onset, these simple
remedies sufficed to produce convalescence in from fourteen to one-andr
twenty days.

Post-mortem appearances. — There were patches of inflammation
throughout the whole of the intestines, both externally and internally ;
the liver was sound ; the heart flabby and soft; the lungs shrivelled,
flattened, and diminished to one-half their natural size, and in some
cases hepatized ; the diaphragm, pleura, and bronchial tubes of a green-
ish hue, and evidently gangrenous.

The flesh of pigs that had died of this epidemic was eaten by some
persons without their suffering any ill effects; nevertheless the experi-
ment was hazardous.*

* Veterinarian for 1841.

98 THE PIG.

CHAPTER VIII.

Anatomy of the Stomach — Gullet— Intestines— Duodenum— Jejunum— Ileum— Ccecum
and Colon : Diseases to which these parts are liable — Enteritis— Colic— DiarrbtEa —
Garget of the Maw — Anatomy of the Liver and Spleen: Splenitis — Rupture of the
Spleen — Absorption of the Spleen — Peritoneum — Worms— The Bladder and its dis-
eases — Protrusion of the Rectum.

THE GULLET.

The gullet, or cesophagus, is a musculo-merabranous tube, commencing
at the pharynx, passing down the throat on the left side of the wind-
pipe, entering the chest in company with that tube* penetrating through
the folds of the diaphragm, and terminating in the stomach through an
orifice termed the cardia.

THE STOMACH.

The stomach of the hog is a much more simple apparatus than that
of the ox and sheep; it is a truly omnivorous one, and beautifully
adapted by its pyramidal appendage and glandular structure, as well as
by the villous mucous membrane with which it is lined, for the diges-
tion of the heterogeneous food which it is destined to receive, being
perhaps more analogous to that of the horse than to any other animal.
In form it is globulous. Its large blind cavity is very voluminous,
and is surmounted in front by a hood-like appendage. The narrow
long portion which abuts on the pyloris greatly resembles this hood-
shaped appendage. On each side of the cardia are two transversal
folds, and the cardia itself is half way. between the pyloris and the
large cavity.

The stomach has three coats, — the outermost, or peritoneum, which
constitutes the common covering of all the intestines ; the muscular or
fibrous coat, which acts upon, and mingles the food, and prepares it
for digestion ; and the mucous or villous coat, which is peculiarly de-
veloped in the pig, and into which open the mouths of numerous little
vessels, conveying the gastric juice to the semi-digested food, and by
its action converting it into apultaceous fluid, commonly called chyme.

THE INTESTINES.

The intestines of the hog bear a stronger resemblance to those of the
human being than we find in any other animal. They a,re sixteen times
the length of the body of the animal, and the proportions of the small
intestines to the large are as three to one. They are composed of four
coats or layers. The outer or peritoneal one is formed of that mem-
brane which invests and retains in its proper position every portion of
the contents of the belly. The second layer is muscular, and by its
action propels the contents of the stomach gradually onwards. The
office of the third is to lubricate the innermost coat, and for this pur-
pose, it is supplied with numerous glands surrounded by cellular tis-
sue. The fourth or lining coat is soft, villous, and in a healthy state
always covered with mucus. The food, having been sufficiently con-
verted into chyme by the action of the stomachs, is gradually propelled
through the pyloric orifice by

ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH. 99

THE DUODENUM,

or first intestine, where it is submitted to the influence of two fluids,
the one secreted by .the pancreas, the other by the liver, and the com-
bined action of which separates the nutritious from the worthless por-
tion, causing the former to assume the appearance of a thick whitish
fluid, and the latter that of a yellow pulpy substance. It next passes
into

THE JEJUNUM AND ILEUM,

where it undergoes still further alteration, and whence a considerable
portion of it is taken up by the lacteal vessels which open into these
two small intestines, and conveyed away to nourish the frame, and be-
come mingled with the blood and supply the waste in it. These in-
testines are of equal diameter in the pig throughout their whole extent,
and the termination of the jejunum and commencement of the ileum is
by no means distinctly defined ; the latter is, however, longer than the
former, and opens into

THE CffiCUM,

with a valvular opening close to the aperture into the colon. The
coecum is a kind of bag supplied with numerous secretory glands,
which furnish it with a fluid which once more acts upon those portions
of the digested food which reach it, extracting from them any nutritive
portions which may chance still to remain. The matter having reached
the base of this intestine, is returned by the muscular action of its coat,
and being prevented by the valve from re-entering the ileum, passes
into

THE COLON,

the longest of the large intestines, some of the convolutions of which
equal the stomach in size, while others are as small as the small in-
testines. Here the watery parts of the mass are extracted, and the re-
siduum or hard fecal- portion is retained for awhile, and finally ex-
pelled through the rectum. It will be readily imagined that this com-
plicated and beautiful process must occasionally become deranged by
various causes, and that hence will arise different diseases of a more or
less serious nature. This is, however, less the case in swine than in
most of our other domesticated animals, from the circumstance of their
stomachs and intestines being prepared by the softening power of their
highly mucous villous lining for the reception and digestion of a hete-
rogeneous mass of food, which to other animals would be actually poi-
sonous ; rendering it evident that, although the hog in a state of nature
is a herbivorous animal, he was also destined to become omnivorous
for the service of man.

This disease consists in inflammation of one or more of the coats of
the intestines, and is capable of being produced by various irritating
causes, as the foul air of badly ventilated sties, unwholesome food, &c.

The symptoms are dulness loss of appetite, constipation, spasms, or

100 THE PIG.

convulsions, continued restless motion, either to and fro, or round and
round, staggering gait, evident symptoms of suffering.

The most successful treatment is warm baths, dry litter, and gene-
ral warmth and comfort ; and internally, purgatives and enemas. Cas-
tor oil, calomel, or rhubarb, are the best purgatives for cases of this na-
ture, and the enemas should be of an emollient oleaginous- nature.
The diet should be restricted to the simplest and lightest food ; oatmeal
porridge, skim-milk, or whey are the best things.

The following are cases of gastro-enteritis, apparently combined with
a cerebral affection, which Mr. Cartwright, from whose observation of
disease we have so frequently drawn, gives in the " Veterinarian " for
1841:—

" On the 27th of June last, I was sent for to see a small pig belong-
ing to Mr. Hont, of Whitchurch. It was about three months old, ap-
peared to be unwell, and refused its food. It forced its head against
any thing it came in contact with, and sometimes would walk rourjd
and round repeatedly. It stood up most of the day, and was much .
swollen. Open the bowels with castor oil.

" 28th. — No better. It now lay down on its breast and fore legs,
and continued in this posture the greater part of the day. Its respira-
tion was increased. Repeat the aperient, and administer enema. In
the course of the afternoon it died.

" Examination. — On the villous portion of the stomach, within the
greater curvature, was a patch, at least three inches in circumference,
of intense inflammation of the mucous membrane of the intestines.
The inflammation did not occupy one continuous space, but there were
patches of it from four inches to a foot in size in places that were other-
wise tolerably healthy. The inflammation was also in irregular circu-
lar streaks round the intestine, of one-eighth of an inch in width.
There was a small similar patch of intense inflammation on the mu- '
cous coat, at the blind end of the coecum, as well as in the stomach.

" The rectum had been ruptured by the owner by too forcible clys-
tering. There was, perhaps, half an ounce of serum within the peri-
cardium. The brain and all other parts were sound. A portion of
feecal matter had oozed out through the ruptured part of the rectum,
and there was nearly two quarts of effusion in the cavity of the abdo-
men.

" Observations. — It appears that three large lettuces had been eaten
by this pig the day before, when he appeared quite well. Did they
cause the disease in his head (if any,) and in the bowels ? What pro-
duced the violent inflammation in his stomach ? He had had no other
medicine than the 01. Ricini to produce any fatal purgative action, and
his bowels were quite relaxed."

"In the month of May last, I was. called to look at a pig of Mr.
Kempster's that had been ill a couple of days. . It was lying down in
a high state of fever, and breathing laboriously ; and would not, I think,
have lived long. It had been in a similar state most of the day, and
had a large quantity of pulv. jalapae given to it. I ordered it to be
killed.

" Examination, — I could discover nothing amiss except a patch of
inflammation, as in the last case, in the stomach, and some in the in-
testines."

MARRHCEA. 101

"1 was sent for on December 20th, 1835, to see two pigs belonging
to a Mr. Parker, of Whitchurch.

" Symptom*. — In one there was great stupor, and indifference to move
about. He was very weak and would fall on his knees Or on his side ;
in short, we could do what we would with him. The other was turn-
ing round half his time, or forcing his head against any thing he came
in contact with. Sometimes he would fall upon his knees, or shake
his head convulsively. The head and ears were hot, the pulse very
quick, the respiration natural. The abdomen of one was very
slightly distended, and the sides of the other were flat. I advised that
both should be killed. ;

" Examination. — The stomach of 1 the first was filled with half-di-
gested meat, composed of ground oats, barley, and potatoes, but there
was no distention or disease in it. ,Tbe small intestines looked in-
flamed, and on laying open the abdomen, and cutting into them, they
were found to be so. On the mucous membrane of the large intestines
there were many eminences or tubercles, similar to those that are found
in the stomachs of horses and produced by bols, with a small cavity in
their centre. The lungs were congested, in their anterior small lobes,
but otherwise sound.

"The small intestine of the other was also inflamed, but not so much
as in the first pig ; there was likewise a great deal of secretion in them.
All other parts of the body were sound ; I had no opportunity of exa-
mining the head.

" These pigs ate their supper over night as well as usual, as may be
known by their stomachs being filled. On th& Thursday preceding,
they had had thrown into the tub of meat from which they were fed a
quantity of refuse brine, made of salt and saltpetre. They had been
used for curing some bacon, and on the next day the servant said the
pigs had not eaten their meal as well as usual.

The hog is frequently attacked by this malady, which generally
arises from unwholesome food, cold, or wet filthy sties; and is evi-
denced by restlessness, cries of pain, rolling on the ground, &c. A
dose of castor oil proportionate to the size of the patient, with perhaps
a little of ginger in it, and administered in warm milk, will generally
give speedy relief; or if the first should not, the dose must be repeated.
Some practitioners recommend Glauber's or Epsom salts, but we-con-
sider oleaginous purgatives to be best adapted for attacks of colic.

DIARRHCEA.

This is a disease very common among all our young domegticated
animals, and one that is also repeatedly met with in older ones; a
scanty allowance, or unwholesome food will produce it, as will also
over feeding or too nutritious diet. It consists in a frequent discharge
of the faecal matter in a thin or slimy state, but not actually altered, and
arises from inflammation or congestion of the mucous lining of the in-
testines. What we conceive to be an attack of diarrhoea, is often only
an effort of nature to throw off some offensive matters, and will cease
of itself in the course of twenty-four hours ; but where it goes on for.
any length of time, it must be taken seriously in hand, as it will other-

102 THE PIG.

Wise weaken the animal and impair its value. The best remedy for it
is the compound commonly called calves' cordial, viz. : —

Prep, chalk .. . . one ounce.

Pow. cafechu . . half an ounce.

Pow. ginger. . two drachms.

Pow. opium . . . ' half a drachm.

Mixed and dissolved in half a pine of peppermint water.

From half an ounce to an ounce of this mixture, according to the size
of the animal, should be given twice in the day; and strict attention
paid to the diet, which should consist as much as possible of dry fari-
naceous food.

GARGET OF THE MAW.

This is a disorder arising from repletion, and is found alike in older
animals and in sucking pigs. Its symptoms strongly resemble those
of colic. The remedies, too, are purgatives. Epsom salts is here,
perhaps, as good a thing as can be given, in doses of from a quarter of
an ounce to an ounce. It might as well be termed indigestion, for such
it actually is, the stomach being overloaded with food. In sucking
pigs it usually arises from the coagulation of milk in the stomach.

THE LIVER.

This organ in swine does not appear to be so subject to disease as it
is in most of our other domesticated animals; we have only, therefore,
to glance at its use and, anatomy as we pass. It is smaller in swine
than in sheep, and larger than we find it in the dog, in accordance with
that anatomical law, which seems to be in force in all animals ; namely,
that the size of the liver shall be in inverse proportion to that of the
lungs. It is situated in the anterior part of the abdomen, and its upper
surface rests against the concavity of the diaphragm. Its office is to
receive the blood that is returned from the intestines, separate from it
and secrete the fluid termed bile, and then forward the residue of the
blood onwards to the lungs, where it undergoes the usual aeratino- Dro-
cess, and becomes transmuted into arterial blood.

The fluid or bile thus secreted, when in a healthy state, and not in
undue proportion, stimulates the mucous membrane, and increases the
peristaltic motion of the intestines, excites the secretion of that mucus
requisite to preserve these parts in a healthy state, hastens the process
of separating the nutritious from the innutritious parts of the food, and
facilitates the escape of the faecal matters. It also acts chemically upon
the various substances which are devoured by the animal, and is the
chief agent in neutralizing the acidity which some of these would
otherwise create. The liver of the pig has four distinct lobes.

THE SPLEEN.

In the hog the spleen is very long, and nearly of a uniform breadth
and thickness throughout its whole extent. It lies on the left side of
the abdomen, and is attached to the stomach by the folds of the epi-
ploon. Its texture is almost like that of a sponge in appearance, con-
sisting of innumerable cells of every size and form, yet it is firm to the '
touch. In colour it is a dark, deep reddish brown.

SPLENITIS. 103

There has been much dispute as to the functions and use of this organ.
Some persons, arguing from its situation, contend that it is a powerful'
agent in the process of digestion; but this is strongly negatived by the
fact, that it has been removed from some animals which have existed
for a considerable time afterwards, without apparent injury to that func-
tion. Others, again, and with more probability, assume that it has to
do with the colouring and conversion of the chyle into blood as it passes
through the mesentery, where it becomes mixed with the Ted coagula-
ble fluid furnished by the spleen. But with these physiological ques-
tions we have at present nothing to do : our purpose is simply to con-
sider it with a view to understanding and treating those diseases of
which it is not unfrequently the seat. Little attention has hitherto
been paid to them, probably from their symptoms being somewhat ob-
scure; but, nevertheless, different morbid affections of the spleen are
by no means uncommon among the lower domesticated animals. This
viscus is often ruptured, distended with blood, inflamed, or softened,
from the effects of different causes, but chiefly of damp, heat, or foul
air.

SPLENITIS.

Swine suffering under this malady are restless and debilitated, shun
their companions, and bury themselves in the litter. There is loss of
appetite and excessive thirst, so excessive that they will drink up any
thing that comes in their way, no matter how filthy. The respiration
is short; they cough, vomit, grind the teeth, and foam at the mouth;
the groin is wrinkled, and of a pale-brownish hue, and the skin of the
throat, chest, and belly (which latter is hard and tucked up,) is tinged
with black;

The remedies are copious blood-letting, gentle purgatives, as Epsom
or Glauber's salts, followed up by cooling medicines. . Cold lotions of
vinegar and water to bathe the parts in the neighbourhood of the spleen,
or a cold shower-bath applied by means of a waterhig-pot are also effi-
cacious in these cases.

Columella, in his quaint style, thus treats of this disease: —

" Also the pain of a distempered spleen uses to plague them; the
which chiefly happens when there chances to be great droughts, and,
as the Bucolic poem speaks —

When nn all aides the apples scattered lie,
Each under its own tree;

for it is an insatiable cattle the swine, which beyond all measure
eagerly seek after that which is sweet. They labour and are affected
in the summer and early autumn with a swelling or growth of the-
spleen, from the which they are relieved if troughs be made of tamarisks
and butcher's broom, and filled with water, and set before them when
they are thirsty ; for the medicinal juice of the wood being swallowed
with the drink, puts a stop to the intestinal swelling."

The great difficulty here is, how troughs can be made of the museus
(butcher's broom.) In all probability the true meaning is, that the
troughs should be lined with the branches of this plant; and the tama-
risks signifies doubtless the tamaricus e trwnco mentioned by Pliny, lib.
xxiv. 9, where he speaks of canals and troughs being made of the

104 THE PIG.

tamarix. Translators are given occasionally to make similar mistakes
or alterations of text.

RUPTURE OF THE SPLEEN.

We quote this case from the " Veterinarian" for 1841 : —
" A pig belonging to Mr. Roberts of Whitchurch, died after having
only t>een ill for a day or so, and that unattended by any definite symp-
toms. On post-mortem examination the spleen was found to be of
about three or four times its natural size, and completely congested.
In one place there was a small rupture surrounded with coagulated
blood. All the other viscera were perfectly sound."

ABSORPTION OF THE SPLEEN.

This case is also derived from the same source, and we present it to
our readers as a testimony of the different forms of disease which occur
in the spleen of the swine.

"A fat pig, weighing fifteen score, was killed, and upon cutting it
up, the spleen was found to be almost entirely absorbed. It was of the
usual length, but not above half an inch in width or the eighth of an
inch in thickness in any part, and weighed but seven drachms. What
there was of it, however, appeared to be perfectly sound, and was sur-
rounded by a considerable portion of adepts."

PERITONEUM.

This portion of the contents of the abdomen is composed of cellular
tissue, and amply supplied with absorbent vessels; its office is to sepa-
rate the different viscera from each other, to envelop them, and to attach
them to and support them in their proper position. It is subject to at-
tacks of inflammation, technically termed

PERITONITIS,

the symptoms of which closely resembles those of splenitis; and the
causes too are very similar, being chiefly improper food , repletion, or expo-
sure to extremes of temperature. Oleaginous purgatives are here the
only ones which are admissible, and emollient clysters ; great attention
must also be paid to the diet, and nothing of an acrid or indigestible
nature given to the animal. This disease is too often fatal, gradually
wasting away its victim. The post-mortem appearances are as follows :
the intestines have become so adherent to each other that it is scarcely
possible to believe that any false membranes were ever interposed ; the
peritoneal surfaces present evidences of inflammation, and are often
covered with confluent ulcerations resembling those seen in glanders
of the horse; there is considerable inflammation of the muscular coat
of the intestines, and the whole of these parts are thickened and cor-
rugated.

WORMS IN THE INTESTINES.

These entozoaria are very troublesome in swine, and often exceed-
ingly fatal. The spiroptera strongylina is of the kinds most common to

VESICAL CALCULI. 105

the hog, but the ascarides taenia and echinorhinc are likewise often found
in considerable numbers.

The presence of worms may be inferred when the animal eats vora-
ciously and yet continues lean and out of condition ; coughs, runs rest-
lessly about, uttering squeaks of pain, becomes savage, snapping at his
companions and destroying all rabbits and poultry that come in his way.
The excrements are generally hard and highly coloured, the eyes sunken,
the animal becomes daily more debilitated, and frequent attacks resem-
bling colic tend still further to weaken him. Too often he dies ; for
before these symptoms have been noticed the evil has generally attained
to such a height as to be beyond the power of medicine ; for these para-
sites, and the echinorhinc especially, multiply with incredible rapidity.

Drastic purgatives constitute the most efficient means of combating
worms ; but they must be cautiously administered, as they are but too
apt to dissolve and force away with them the lining mucus of the in-
testinal canals. Turpentine is exceedingly destructive to worms, and,
although to many of our domesticated- animals a dangerous medicine, it
may be administered with perfect safety to the hog. Common salt may
also be given with advantage, and should be mingled with the food.
Nor must it be supposed that because no worms are seen to come away
from the animal the treatment may be discontinued, or that there are
none ; hundreds of them die in the intestines, and there become digested
and decomposed, and go through the same processes as the food.

THE BLADDER.

This organ seems to be but little subject to disease in swine. Its
position beneath, the rectum and genital organs contained in the pelvic
cavity protects it in all animals from external injuries; and the pig
not being exposed to those causes which render the horse and dog
peculiarly liable to disease of the bladder, namely, speed, long and fa-
tiguing exercises, &c, seems to be comparatively exempt from it.

There is, however, a case narrated in the " Veterinarian," by Mr.
Reid, V. S., which we shall quote.

VESICAL CALCULI.

" A barrow-pig that to the seventh month had manifested perfect
health, from that period fell rapidly away (although its appetite re-
mained unimpaired,) so much so in fact that in two months more it
was a mere bag of bones, and the owner had it destroyed. He attri-
buted this decline to a difficulty in passing its urine, which distressed
the animal to such a degree that every time it wanted to stall it quite
moaned with pain, rolling upon its back, arising, and again posturing
itself for stalling, arching its spine, and making violent efforts, which
too often were ineffectual. At other times, and indeed oftenest, he after
much straining succeeded in passing a little urine, but this was speedily
followed by fresh efforts. Occasionally, after having rolled about and
laid on its back, it obtained relief by a flow of urine in a full stream.
The urine was at all times perfectly clear."

This account was sufficient to draw Mr. Reid's attention to the pre-
sence of vesical calculi. He regretted that he had not been called in
8

106 THE PIG.

during the life of the animal, that he might have made it the subject of
operation, and requested permission to examine the carcass.

The bladder was half full of limpid urine, in which floated th« stone.
The internal coat of the bladder about the inferior part exhibited slight
blushes of inflammation. All around the neck it was deeply inflamed,
and thence the reddening spread about an inch into the urethra. The
peritoneum also exhibited a light tint.

INVERSION OF THE BLADDER.

A sow littered in the morning and brought forth ten pigs without any
apparent difficulty, and immediately afterwards something resembling
the bladder, and which appeared to be about half full, came out. The
owner seeing that it did not eome away, became alarmed and sent for
the pig butcher, who said it was the womb, and that it must be put
back, which he accordingly endeavoured to do, and having passed two
or three stitches of small twine across the labia to retain the parts, left
the animal. Mr. Neale, V. S. of Burbage, happening to hear of the
occurrence, called to see the sow. He found the vagina considerably
protruded, or at least that there was a protrusion of the size of a man's
fist, and in a sloughing state there. She appeared, however, in good
condition, got up without apparent pain or difficulty, and was sucking
her young well. The urine was flowing drop by drop. As the owner
declined having any thing done to her, Mr. Neale ordered the parts to
be bathed with a decoction of bark. Four months afterwards she was
killed for bacon, and weighed 160 lbs. Upon opening her the uterus
was found to be perfectly healthy, the vagina as clean as possible, and
the tumour reduced by sloughing to the size of a lemon ; the bladder
was completely gone. The kidneys were full of white purulent matter
of about the consistence of cream. The uterus led directly from the
kidneys to the protruded part, at the inside of which and just below the
anus was a formation of matter about the size of a hen's egg. There
was not the slightest trace of inflammation in any of the surrounding
parts.*

PROTRUSION OF THE RECTUM.

This is an evil of not unfrequent occurrence in swine, arising chiefly
from obstruction of the intestines. Where the cause is simply obstruc-
tion an operation will remedy it; but as the obstruction is too frequent-
ly attended with rupture of some of the intestines, it will perhaps be
as well to have the animal slaughtered at once, especially if it ]3 in
tolerably good condition.

There is little doubt but that umbilical and congenital hernia are of
frequent occurrence among swine ; but as yet the attention devoted to
the diseases of these animals has been so slight that we dare not ven-
ture positively to assert the fact.

* The Veterinarian for 1838.

DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 107

CHAPTER IX.

The Skin and its Diseases— Gangrenous Erysipelas— Lice— Leprosy— Mange— Measles—
Desquamation of. the Skin.

The skin of the hog, like that of most other animals, is composed of
three separate parts or layers. The first or exterior of these is the
cuticle or scarf skin, which covers the whole surface' of the body and
protects the more sensitive parts from the injuries which might result
to them from immediate contact with external agents. It is a thin,
tough, callous texture, perforated with innumerable holes or pores,
through which pass the hairs and bristles, and whence exude those
transpirations by means of which the, body throws off all vapours. in-
jurious to the system. Chemical analysis has proved it to be chiefly
composed of gelatine, and consequently insoluble in water of common
temperature. This layer is considerably tougher and denser in the hog
and other of the pachydermata than it is in the horse, ox, and most of
our domesticated animals.

Beneath this is the rete mucosum, a soft expansion of tissue which
overspreads, and can with difficulty be separated from the layer below
it. Its-purpose appears to be to protect the terminations of the blood-
vessels and nerves of the skin, which it in a manner envelopes or covers.
This layer determines the colour of the body and of the hair.

The third and undermost part is the cutis vera or true skin, an elastic
texture composed of innumerable minute fibres crossing each other in
all directions, fitting closely to every part of the frame,'yielding by its
elasticity to all the motions of the body, and interposing its dense, firm
structure between the more vitalparts of the system and external in-
juries. Innumerable blood-vessels and nerves pass through it, and
appear upon its surface in the form of papillae; it is in fact far more
sensitive than the muscles or flesh.

The skin varies in density in different breeds of swine. In some of
the large, old breeds it is thick, coarse, tough, and almost as impene-
trable, in comparison, as the hide of a rhinoceros ; while in many of
our smaller breeds, and particularly in those which have a considerable
admixture of Asiatic blood, and in the Chinese pigs themselves, it is
soft, fine, and delicate, and bears no slight degree of resemblance to
the skin of the human being. It is not to be wondered at that a struc-
ture so delicately organised as the one we have been describing should
be subject to disease. In the hog it is peculiarly so ; many of the most
serious maladies to which he is subject have their seat in the skin: it
were a point well worthy of study to inquire into the reason of this fact,
but as the present work is devoted to practice rather than theory, we
must leave it to abler hands, and pass onwards to a consideration of
some of the most prevalent diseases of the skin in swine.

GANGRENOUS ERYSIPELAS.

This disease which is frequently spoken of by the ancient writers, as
prevailing' to a greater or less extent, and often almost as an epidemic

108 THE PIG.

among sheep and swine, is now of rare occurrence. Poulet thus de-
scribes the symptoms : —

"The first of these, which last some five or six days, are uneasiness,
inquietude, depression,, loss of appetite, and inertness. About the
seventh or eighth day these gradually increase in intensity; the limbs
totter, the body is alternately hot and cold, the ears droop and are cold,
the head appears heavy, the tongue is discoloured, the breath fetid, a
thick mucus flows from the nostrils, and the whole of the skin becomes
tinged with an erysipelatous redness, whioh is most evident under the
belly; the animal utters almost incessant screams of pain. This in-
flammatory state of the integuments rapidly merges into decided gan-
grene, and the whole of the diseased surface becomes of a livid blue or
violet hue. The skin is first covered with blister^ containing a thin
reddish watery fluid ; and as these break the gangrenous dark coloured
scabs are formed. The disease is however by no means of so fatal a
character in swine as it is in sheep, probably from the former being the
stronger animals. A little blood should be taken from the ears, once
at any rate, and the bleeding should be repeated if it appears at all
necessary. A dose or two of Epsom salts, cooling drinks slightly
acidulated, and strict attention to diet, and cleanliness, are generally
all that will be requisite. Should the skin appear to be very irritable,
a little sweet oil may be rubbed over it, or some sulphur made into a
kind of ointment with sweet oil or palm oil ; but local applications are
not generally requisite."

Exposure to great heat or oold, or any sudden transition from one
extreme of temperature to another, are supposed by some authors to be
the oauses of this disease; while others, and we think with justice,
attribute it to unwholesome or putrid food, and to general inattention
and neglect.

UCE.

Pigs, when allowed to wallow in the mire, and to dwell in filthy
sties, 'are very apt to engender these disgusting vermin, which eat
into the skin and render it scabby and ulcerated, and by the irritation
they keep up worry and fatigue the animals, and effectually prevent
them from thriving. Eric Viborg states that these vermin sometimes
burrow their way into the flesh and come out through the eyes, nostrils,
or mouth, or have even been known to be voided in the urine.

The first step to be. taken towards effecting a cure is thoroughly to
cleanse the skin from every particle of dirt, and to clean outand white-
wash the sties and put in fresh dry litter.

Mercurial ointment, turpentine, or tobacco-water, are the most effi-
cient agents in the destruction of these unwelcome parasites. A little
sulphur or Ethiop's mineral and bay-salt may be given internally.

The preventive means are strict attention io cleanliness both in the
sties and in the animals themselves. Whenever a pig is observed to
be lousy, which will quiekly be perceived by his rubbing himself
against the gates, trees, and walls, he must be immediately separated
from his companions, or they too will become infested with lice, if they
are not already so.

Parkinson is of opinion that " the cause of vermin infesting animals
clearly arises in a general way, from had feeding, which occasions

LEPROSY. 109

weakness of the blood ; for," says he, "if an animal be ever so lousy,
by giving him strong food for a few days the vermin will disappear,
probably because the rich blood is poison to them." He considers that
a free access to water for bathing, and also occasional exposure to heavy
rain, is not only necessary to the general health of swine, but a most
excellent preservative against vermin.*

This disease has apparently existed in swine from the remotest pe-
riods, and Tacitus gives it as his opinion that it was because the hog
was subject to leprosy that the Jews were forbidden to eat of its flesh.
It consists in the development of certain vesicles, or whitish granula-
tions, in all parts and portions of the cellular tissue; which vesicles
have been proved to be neither more nor less than a species of worms
termed the cysticercus cettulosa, supposed by some French authors to be
of the same species as that found in the brain of sheep. There
are however considerable differences between these two. The cysti-
cercus is found in all the cellular tissues and soft parts throughout the
whole of the body ; in the fat, in the adipose matter, in the interstices
between the muscles, in the viscera, and, in short, in every crevice into
which they can insert themselves. The thigh or ham has been men-
tioned by some authors as the principal seat of these vesicles, but they
are also found on the shoulders, around the jaws, along the neck and
belly, and even underneath and around the root of the tongue, where
alone can any outward lesions indicative of leprosy be in general dis-
covered ; and even here they are not constant, but are chiefly evident
in those animals in which the disease has attained to a great height.
The progress of leprosy is very insidious, and the early symptoms so
little marked that a practised eye only can detect them.

In the onset all that is observable is a certain marked stupidity or
obstinacy in the animal ; a state of languor and apparent general debil-
ity ; an evident thickening of the skin ; a slight adhesion of the bristles ;
a tendency in the hair to fall of, caused by the development of a greater
or less quantity of those vesicles of which we have spoken, as being
scattered in different parts of the fatty tissue, either on its surface or in
the interstices of the muscles ; under the coats of the viscera, or on the
sides of the tongue.

In its successive progress this disease attacks the animal economy
more or less profoundly without the functions appearing otherwise
troubled. There is ulceration of the cellular tissue, and even of the .
organs that surround or penetrate it: the animal does not however
appear to be generally and seriously ill. Far from losing his ap-
petite, he is occasionally extremely voracious. He does not appear to
suffer in the lungs ; his breath is not embarrassed, nor is his voice
hoarser than usual.

Such is at least what may be observed to take place when the leprous
vesicles are not numerous. It is when they increase in quality and the
disease increases that they begin to affect the health of the patient. He
then becomes indifferent to everything; moves'about slowly ; totters
as he walks : his eyes are dull ; the buccal membrane is pale, and some-

* Parkinson's Live stock, vol. ii.

110 THE PIG.

times strewed with violet spots. The expired air is fetid, the breathing
slow ; the pulse small and irregular, the bristles easily plucked, and
sometimes a little blood accompanies them. Strength begins to aban-
don the patient; he can no longer sustain himself on his hind legs ; the
posterior part of the trunk becomes paralyzed, the body exhales an un-
pleasant smell ; the skin is thicker, and the cellular tissue is raised in
different parts, especially about the kernals of the neck. There is swell-
ing about the roots of the hair, which often proceeds to ulceration; the
skin comes off in patches; large tumours are developed; the teeth are
ground convulsively together ; the tongue is dark coloured, hot, thick-
ened, and covered with slime ; the body swells ; the animal utters feeble
cries of pain, and seldom survives many hours.

This is a very obstinate disease, probably from its having usually taken
so great a hold of the system before it is suspected, and numerous have
been the medicaments recommended for it. Antimony, sulphur, small
and repeated doses of Epsom salts, and general bleedings, seem to be
the course of treatment most likely to be attended with success; and
these must be aided by strict attention to diet and cleanliness ; cooling
wholesome food alone should be given, and water, in which barley-
meal has been dissolved. Nothing of a rich or heating nature should
be allowed to come within reach of the animal. As external applica-
tions, mercurial ointment may be moderately applied to the ulcerated
parts, or the common mange ointment composed of sulphur and anti-
mony.-

In all probability the reason why this and many other diseases of
swine have hitherto been regarded as incurable, is that men of science,
educated veterinarians, have as yet given but little of their attention to
these useful animals, and deemed the study of their diseases and of the
means of treating them beneath their notice. Nor is the owner without
his share of blame, for he too often either abandons the poor brute to its
fate, or calls in the aid of the pig-butcher or some ignorant empiric.

In France the pig-gelder, or langueyeur des pores, is the privileged
medical attendant of swine. He attends daily wherever there are any
pigs to be sold, and examines the tongue to see that in its frsenum there
is no worm or cysticercus, the presumed cause of leprosy. Should he
find, or fancy that he finds, some little vesicles on the sides of the
tongue, he pierces them with his scissors, and bruises them with a
silver coin, a proceeding which, according to him, will infallibly cure
the animal and effectually preserve it from leprosy. But should it, as
is too often the case, unfortunately happen that in the struggle attending
this operation the animal receives some serious injury, of which it after-
wards dies, the langueyeur's excuse is, that the bechigos or vesicles
were in a state of inflammation, and consequently incurable when he
first saw them.

There have been numerous opinions advanced relative to the predis-
posing causes of leprosy ; some authors attribute it to exposure to the
inclemency of the weather, insufficient food, and damp marshy locali-
ties ; and urge in support of their opinion that the disease was much
more prevalent and fatal when swine were turned into the woods and
forests during certain periods of the year to seek their own food than it
is now when they are comfortably lodged and more care devoted to their
feeding. Others have attributed it to some pernicious qualities in the

MANGE. Ill

water which the animals drink, or in the food which is given to them;
and with both these parlies we are inclined to agree, and to attribute
this disease in a great measure to vitiation of the blood.

The wild boar appears to be exempt from it; nor is leprosy known
in America, Russia, or Spain, if we may believe the testimony of
various authors and travellers.

Some have asserted it to be hereditary; but there are numerous facts
on record in which some of the progeny of a perfectly healthy boar and
sow have proved leprous, while a diseased sow has produced sound
and healthy young.

Another question has likewise been much discussed, namely, the
propriety or safety of eating the flesh of pigs that have died of this
disease. These animals, however good condition they may appear to
be in, are rather bloated than fat; the flesh is soft, and flabby, and
tasteless, and will not keep ; the bacon pale in colour and wanting con-
sistency. Soup made with such flesh is white, greasy, and insipid,
and has been known to produce vomiting and diarrhoea. We are not
aware that there are any records of disease or other evil resulting from
the eating of the flesh of leprous pigs ; nevertheless it stands to reason
that it cannot be wholesome and should not be made use of, for although
no immediate ill effects may follow the eating of it, we cannot tell what
insidious evils such vitiated and diseased food may engender in the
human frame.

This cutaneous affection, which was formerly attributed to want of
cleanliness or to some peculiar state of the blood, is now generally
admitted to arise from the presence of certain minute insects termed
acari. It is identical with the scab in sheep and the itch in the human
being, which also were supposed to arise from corruption of the blood
or acrid humour subsisting in it, or from filthiness, but which arise
from this scabious insect. As far back as the twelfth century these
acari scabiei were described by an Arabian physician ; subsequently
they were noticed and described by several German and Italian writers,
and in 1812 and 1814 Herr Walz, a German veterinarian, and M.
Gohier, an eminent French veterinary surgeon, found these insects in,,
and gave drawings of, and described those peculiar to, almost all our
domesticated animals.

There is a very interesting translation from a pamphlet by Dr. Hert-
wig, given in the "Veterinarian" for 1838, in which a detailed account
of the habits and history of these insects will be found.

The hog does not appear to suffer so much from mange or scab as
the horse, sheep, and dog; in swine the pustules are usually chiefly
developed under the arm-pits and on the interior of the thighs; They
at first consist simply of red»spots, vesicles, or pimples; but these
gradually become connected together by minute burrows, or furrows
existing beneath the skin, and eventually unite in the form of large
scabs, which the animal, irritated by the itching, rubs into large blotchy
sores.

Where the mange is recent, a tolerably slrong decoction of tobacco
or digitalis will often prove an efficacious wash for the diseased parts,
or a solution of corrosive sublimate; but if the eruption is of long

112 THE PIG.

standing and has degenerated into scabs, a solution of arsenic in the
proportion of one ounce to a gallon of water, or, what is still better,
sulphur and mercurial ointment in the proportion of an ounce of the
former to a drachm of the latter, carefully and thoroughly rubbed into
the skin, must be resorted to. A decoction of soot has also been re-
cently discovered by an eminent French physician to be exceedingly
^efficacious in cases of cutaneous disorders. Two handfuls of soot are
boiled during half an hour in a pint of water, the fluid is then strained
off, and the lotion when cold used two or three times in the day. Cre-
osote has also been used with success in the treatment of cutaneous
eruptions. If the animal is in high condition, blood should be taken,
and two cr three doses of cooling physic given, or sulphur mingled
with the food. Strict attention must be paid to cleanliness, and the
animal kept apart from the rest of the herd. Mange is both hereditary
and infectious. There are numerous instances of its having been com-
municated from one animal to another of a different species, and even
to the human being.

In Austria, if mange appears in the hog within eight days after the
sale it is presumed to have existed at the time of the said sale, and the
animal is returnable to the vendor; and when it can be proved that he
■was aware of the unsoundness he not only has to return the purchase-
money, but also to indemnify the purchaser for any loss or inconve-
nience he may have sustained, besides paying a fine equal to one-tenth
of the value of the animal.

That the actual disease, namely, the scab and the irritation, arises
from the presence and proceedings of the acari, there can be no shadow
of doubt; but the question is, whence do these acari arise 1 Are they
the product of some morbid state of the skin arising from constitutional
derangement, or created by miasma or affluvia! We find mange in
animals that are fed on too stimulating food, we also find it in others
that are neglected and badly fed. How can these contradictions be
reconciled? Here is a vast field for scientific research and experiment.
As every grain of earth, and every drop of water, and every particle of
air, is peopled with living beings, developed by certain causes, it is by
no means an improbable theory to suppose that the germs of the acari may
exist in a dormant state in the skin, and only be called into actual life
by some of the vitiating influences which neglect or mismanagement
produces, and once existing they follow the law of every created be-
ing, and propagate and multiply, and pass from one animal to another
either by actual contact or by the intermediation of some other substance
which both had touched. We admit, however, that this is mere the-
ory, and call upon our professional brethren to aid us by their researches
in our endeavours to discover the actual truth.

This is rather a sub-cutaneous than an actual disease of the skin, con-
sisting in a multitude of small watery pustules developed between the
fat and the skin, and indeed scattered throughoutthe cellular tissue and
adipose matter. It has, by many, been regarded as a milder form of
leprosy ; and so far as our present limited knowledge will allow us to
judge, this supposition appears by no means an erroneous one.

DESQUAMATION OF THE SKIN. 113

The external appearances attending it are the development of reddish
patches, somewhat raised above the surface of the skin, on the groin,
the arm-pits, and the inside of the thighs at first, and subsequently on
other parts of the body. The attendant symptoms are acceleration of
the pulse, heat of the skin, cough, discharge from the nostrilR, loss of
appetite, nausea, swelling of the eyelids, feebleness of the hinder ex-
tremities, and the formation of blackish pustules under the tongue : even-
tually the skin usually comes off in patches.

The measles in swine is seldom fatal, and will gradually yield to
the simplest cooling treatment, or even to mere attention to diet, tem-
perature, and ventilation. Didymus tells us that Democrates prescribed
bruised asphodile roots to be mingled with the food given to hogs, as
an excellent remedy for this disease.* It sadly injures the quality of
the meat, rendering it insipid, flabby, pale, and indisposed to take the
salt. We should say that the flesh of measly pigs is positively un-
wholesome, although perhaps there are no cases on record in which it
is proved that bad effects have resulted from the use of it.

The following was a remedy for this disorder used by the ancients: —
"A hog having measles must be put into a sty and kept there three
days and nights without food. Then take five or six apples, pick out
the cores and fill up the holes thus made with flour of brimstone ; stop
up the holes and cast in the apples to the measly hog. Give him first
one or two, then one or two more, and then, as being hungry he will,
eat them, give him all. Let him have nothing more to eat until the
next day, and then serve him so again. Thus use him for five or six
days, and he will become as well and as wholesome as ever." In our
opinion it is one very likely to be beneficial.

In, Bavaria, Wurtemburg, and Baden, there is a warranty of four
weeks and three days given against measles and other cutaneous erup-
tions in swine.

It yet remains to be discovered whether measles in swine is an epi-
demic, like that disorder in. the human being, or whether it is heredi-
tary, or whether, as many suppose, it arises from the development and
presence of a variety of the cysticercus.

DESQUAMATION OF THE SKIN.

The following singular case, communicated to " The Veterinarian"
by Mr. J. Sherwood, of Sittingbourn, appears to us not unworthy of
record here.

" A few weeks ago the skin became hard on either side about nine
or ten inches from the spine, and afterwards kept gradually separating
towards the. centre of the spine from the shoulder to the insertion of
the tail. The bailiff cut off portions from time to time of the weight
of nearly 10 lbs. in order to make the load with which the animal was
encumbered the lighter, until the last week, when the hog lay down,
and after taking his rest with his brethren (for he fed and looked as
well as the rest, with the exception of the load on his back) he got up
and left the substance behind him. It consisted of the entire skin so
far as it had sloughed, with about two inches of adeps adhering to it

* Didymus, ful. 470.

114 THE PIG.

in the middle, getting gradually thinner towards the sides, and weigh-
ing 20 lbs., which, added to the portions before removed, made a total
of 30 lbs. The hog is now computed to weigh twenty score. He had
not any medicine administered, as he did well the whole of the time."

CHAPTER X.

Operations — Bleeding— Castration — Catching and Holding— Drenching— Ringing

This is a most useful and necessary operation, and one which in many
diseases is of vital importance. The common and vulgar mode of
getting blood from the pig is by cutting off portions of the ears or tail ;
but these modes of proceeding should only be had recourse to when
local and instant blood-letting is requisite. The jugular veins of swine
lie too deep and are too much imbedded in fat to admit of their being
raised by any ligature about the neck; it is therefore useless to attempt
to puncture them — we should only be striking at random. Those veins,
however, which run over the interior surface of the ear, and especially
towards its outer edge, may be opened without much difficulty : if the
ear is turned back on to the poll, one or more of them may easily be
made sufficiently prominent to admit of its being punctured by pressing
the fingers on the base of the ear near to the conch ; when the necessary
quantity of blood has been obtained, the finger may be raised and it
will cease to flow.

The palate veins which run on either side of the roof of the mouth
are also easily opened by making two incisions, one on each side of the
palate, about halfway between the centre of the roof of the mouth and
the teeth. The flow of blood may be readily stopped by means of a
pledget of tow and a string, as in the horse.

M. Gohier, who had considerable practice in bleeding swine, was of
opinion that the cephalic and sephena veins might be opened without
any great exertion of skill by any one who possessed a little knowledge
of anatomy. The lancet should be used somewhat obliquely, and a
sufficient quantity of blood having been obtained, the flow arrested in
the usual manner.

Mr. Cupiss recommends the brachial vein of the fore-leg (commonly
called by farriers the p/a/e-vein) as a favourable place for bleeding.
This vein runs along the inner side of the fore-leg under the skin, and
the best place for puncturing it is about an inch above the knee, and ,
scarcely half an inch backwards from the radius. No danger need be
apprehended from cutting two or three times if sufficient blood cannot
be obtained at once. The vein will become easily discernible if a liga-
ture is tied firmly round the leg just below the shoulder.

Columello tells us " to let blood from the ear," or " strike a vein be-
neath the tail at the distance of two inches from the buttocks, where it
attains sufficient size for the purpose, and it must first be beaten with
the sprig of a vine; then, when swelled up by the stroke of this rod,
opened with a lancet, and, after enough blood has been drawn, the vein
must be bound up with the rind of the willow or elm-tree."

CASTRATION OR SPAYING. 115

This operation should always be performed with the lancet if possi-
ble : in cases of urgent haste, when no lancet is at hand, a small penknife
may be used ; but the fleam is a dangerous and objectionable instrument.

CASTRATION OR SPAYING.

This operation is performed on many of our domesticated animals,
with the view of increasing their docility and usefulness, and on others
to dispose them to fatten and attain to earlier maturity; it consists in
removing the testicles of the male, and the ovaries, and sometimes a
more or less considerable portion of the uterus, of the female.

Pigs are chiefly castrated with a view to fattening them, for it is gene-
rally asserted that a sow that has not been spayed will never gain flesh : —

" The plaguy pias nre never worth their meat.
They neither feed nur are they fit to eat" —

when left in a state of nature, says an old north-country rhyme ; and
doubtless castration has the required effect, and therefore is less objec-
tionable when performed on the pig, than when the horse or dog is sub-
jected to it ; for at the same time that it increases the quiescent qualities
of the animal, it diminishes his courage, spirit, and nobler attributes,
and even affects his form. The tusks of a castrated boar never grow
like those of the natural animal, but always have a dwarfed, stunted
appearance.

If possible, this operation should be performed in the spring or
autumn, as the temperature is then mote equable, and care should be
taken that the animal is in perfect health. Those which are fat and
plethoric should be prepared by bleeding, cooling diet, and quiet. Pigs
are castrated at all ages, from a fortnight to three, six, and eight weeks,
and even four months old. There are various modes of performing
the operation: we will begin by quoting those described by Professor
Vatel:— *

" Castration by simple division of the spermatic cord. — If the pig is
not more than six weeks old, an incision is made at the bottom of the
scrotum, the testicle pushed out, and the cord cut without any precau-
tionary means whatever. But when the animal is older, there is reason
to fear that hemorrhage to a greater or less extent will supervene ; con-
sequently it will be advisable to pass a ligature round the cord a little
above the spot where the division is intended to take place.

" Castration by tearing the cord. — Swine are thus operated on by some
cutters : — An assistant holds the pig, pressing the back of the animal
against his chest and belly, keeping the head elevated, and grasping all
the four legs together ; or, which is the preferable way* one assistant
holds the animal against his chest, while another kneels down and se-
cures the four legs. The operator then grasps the scrotum with his
left hand, makes one horizontal incision across the base of it, opening
both divisions of the bag at the same time. Then laying down his
knife, he presses the testicles out with his finger and thumb, grasps
them between his teeth and. tears them out. He then closes the wound
by pressing the edges gently together with his fingers ; the tearing
prevents all hemorrhage, and the wound speedily heals. This mode

* Vatel'a Eleineris de I'atheologie Veterinaife.

116 THE PIG.

of operation is sometimes performed on animals two and three years
old. Some break the spermatic cord without tearing it: they twist it,
and then pull it gently and firmly until it gives way.

" Castration by sawing or scraping. — Here a portion of the base of the
scrotum is cut off, the testicles forced out, and the cord sawn through
by a somewhat serrated but blunt instrument. The hemorrhage, if any
there be, is arrested by introducing ashes into the wound. The animal
is then dismissed, and nothing further done with him. Fromage de
Feagre has castrated many pigs of three or four months old by dividing
the spermatic cord in this way. This mode of operating, however,
should only be practised on very young animals.

" Castration by ligature. — Here a waxed cord is passed as tightly as
possible round the scrotum above' the epididymes, which completely
stops the circulation, and in a few days the scrotum and testicles will
drop off. This mode of operating should never be performed on pigs
more than six weeks old, and the spermatic cord should always be first
of all uncovered."

We cannot approve of the tearing or gnawing the testicle with the
teeth; it is a disgusting practice, and inflicts unnecessary pain on the
patient: the use of a blunt knife is far preferable, as this lacerates the
part equally as much without so bruising it and rendering it painful ;
and it is the laceration only we require, in order to prevent the subse-
quent hemorrhage which would occur if the cord were simply severed
with a sharp instrument.

The castration by ligature requires great nicety and skill, otherwise
accidents will occur, and considerable pain and inflammation be caused.
Too thick a cord, a knot not tied sufficiently tight, or a portion of the
testicle included in the ligature, will prevent the success of the opera-
tion.

The most fatal consequence of castration is tetanus, induced by the
shock communicated to the nervous system by the torture of the
operation.

In spaying the sow the animal is laid upon its left side and firmly
held by one or two assistants ; an incision is then made into the flank,
the fore-finger of the right hand introduced into it, and gently turned
about until it encounters and hooks hold of the right ovary, which it
draws through the opening; a ligature is then passed round this one,
and the left ovary felt for in like manner. The operator then severs off
these two ovaries, either by cutting or tearing, and returns the womb
and its appurtenances to their proper position. This being done, he
closes up the womb with two or three stitches, sometimes rubs a little
oil over it, and releases his patient, and all generally goes on well ; for
the healing power of the pig is very great, as the following fact will
testify : —

Mr. Thomson, veterinary surgeon at Beith, N. B., was castrating a
pig, and while cutting through the peritoneum one of the assistants
lost his hold, and the animal sprang up. The scalpel was plunged
deep into the belly, entered one of the convolutions of the ileum, and
divided one of the guts almost through, besides making a wound in the
mesentery. Mr. Thomson sewed up the mesentery with a fine needle
and thread and restored it to its place, and secured the side with firm
stitches — not, however, with much hope of seeing his patient recover.

CATCHING AND HOLDING THE PIG. 117

But, to his surprise, two days afterwards little appeared to be the mat-
ter, and in a short time the animal was well.*

The after treatment is very simple. The animals should he well
littered with clean litter, in sties weather-tight and thoroughly venti-
lated; their diet should be attended to; sour milk or whey, with bar-
ley-meal, is an excellent thing to give at these times ; it is well to con-
fine them for a few days, as they should be prevented from getting into
cold water or mud until the wound is perfectly healed, and also from
creeping through hedges or fences.

The best age for spaying a sow is about six weeks ; indeed, as a ge-
neral axiom, the younger the animal is castrated the better it gets over
the operation, which is seldom attended by fatal results. Some per-
sons, however, have two or three litters from their sows before they
operate upon them ; where this is the case the consequences are more
to be feared, as the parts have become more susceptible, and are conse-
quently more liable to take an inflammation. Lisle says : — " Where
this is done, it is best to spay a sow two or three days before her litter
of pigs are weaned, because then, if harm follows the operation, the
young ones will draw off the venom."f

The following extraordinary expertness at pig-spaying is worthy of
mention : — Mr. J. Bowman, V. S. at Howden, undertook for a wager
to spay one hundred sows and pigs in two hundred minutes. That
number being procured, and umpires chosen from among the neighbour-
ing practitioners, Mr. B. commenced at ten o'clock in the morning at
the Wellington Inn.

The first eleven were disposed of in twelve minutes; the next five-
and-forty in fifty-nine minutes and thirty seconds ; and the remaining
four-and-forty in seventy-nine minutes and fifty seconds; thus com-
pleting the task in two hours, thirty-one minutes, and twenty seconds,
being forty minutes and forty seconds within the given time, and
averaging a minute and a-half for each one.

The ninety-third occupied only fifty-six seconds. The task would
have been completed in even less time, but the forty-fifth pig, from
some malformation of the ovaria which made it difficult to extract it,
took six minutes to operate on.£

CATCHING AND HOLDING THE MS.

Swine are very difficult animals to obtain any mastery over, or to
operate on or examine. Seldpm tame or easily handled, tbey are at
such periods most unmanageable, kicking, screaming, and even biting
fiercely. Hurtrel d'Arboval recommends the following means of get-
ting hold of them : — " Fasten a double cord to the end of a stick, and
beneath the stick let there be a running noose in this cord ; tie a piece
of bread to the cord and present it to the animal, and when he opens
his mouth to seize the bait, catch the upper jaw in the noose, run it
tight, and the animal is fast."§

Another means is to catch one foot in a running noose suspended from
some place., so as to draw the imprisoned foot off the ground j or to en-
velope the head of the animal in a cloth or sack.

* The Veterinarian fur 1*44.. t Lisle'a Husbandry. 1 The Veterinarian for 1838-
$ Uictionnairi> dt Afcdeciue et de Chirurgerie Veteri naire, vol. i.

118

THE PIG.

But, so far as it can he, all coercion should be avoided, for the pig;
is naturally so averse to being- handled, that in his struggles he will
often do himself far more mischief than the disease we seek to investi-
gate or remedy would effect.

DRENCHING.

Here again the observations with which we closed the preceding pa-
ragraph are applicable, for there are more instances than one on record
in, which the pig has, in his struggles, ruptured some vessel and died
on the spot, or so injured himself as to bring on inflammation and sub-
sequent death. Whenever it is possible, the medicine should be
mingled with a portion of food, and the animal thus cheated or coaxed
into taking it. Where this cannot be done, the following is the best
method : —

Let a man get the head of the animal firmly between his knees,
without, however, pinching it, while another secures the hinder parts.
Then let the first take hold of the pig's head from below, raise it a
little, and incline it slightly towards the right, at the same time sepa-
rating the lips on the left side so as to form a hole into which the fluid
may be gradually poured, not more being introduced into the mouth at
a time than can be swallowed at once. Should the beast snort or
choke, the head must be released for a few moments, or he will be in
danger of being strangled.

The operation of ringing is performed in order to counteract the pro-
pensity swine have to dig and furrow up the earth. The operator is
usually the village farrier or blacksmith —

" And pigs he rung, iiirJ hells he hung,
And horses shod and cured."

The ring is passed through what appears to be a prolongation of the
septum, between the supplemental, or snout-bone, and the proper nasal.
The animal is thus unable to obtain sufficient purchase to use his snout
with any effect without causing the ring to press so painfully upon the
part that he is speedily compelled to desist. But the ring is apt to
break, or it wears out in process of time and has to be replaced. The
operation is most painful, and the shrill squeaks of the animal under-
going it cause it to be a perfect nuisance to the neighbourhood.

John Lawrence gives the following directions concerning this ope-
ration : " The snouts of pigs should be perforated at weaning-time, after
they shall have recovered from castration ; and it will be necessary to
renew the operation as they become of large growth. It is too gene-
rally neglected at first; but no pigs, young or old, should be suffered
to roam at large unrung. It should be ascertained that the sow's rings
are sufficiently strong previously to her taking the hog, on account of
the risk of abortion from the operation being renewed while she is in
pig. Care must be taken by the operator that he go not too close to
the bone, and that the ring turns easily."

The far better mode of proceeding is, when the pig is young, to cut
through the cartilaginous and ligamentous prolongations by which the

BREEDING. 119

supplementary bone is united to the proper nasals. The divided edges
of the cartilage will never unite again, and the snout always remain
powerless.

CHAPTER XI.

Breeding : Principles of— Choice of the Boar and Sow — Best Breeds — Age at which the
Sow may be used for Breeding— Proper Age for the Boar to commence at — Period of
Gestation— Fruitfulness of Sows — Treatment of them during Pregnancy — Abortion—
Parturition— Caesarian Operation — Monstrosities — Treatment of the Sows while
Nursing— Treatment of the Young while Sucking — Weaning and after Treatment —
Prolific power of Swine.

We now approach one of the most difficult and important divisions of
our subject' — breeding.

The object of the farmer or breeder is to produce and retain such an
animal as will be best adapted to the purpose he has in view, be that
the consumption of certain matters Which could not be otherwise so
well disposed of; the converting into hams, bacon, and pork ; or the
raising of sucking-pigs and porkers for the market. Almost all farmers,
nay, we might almost say, every cottager who has a bit of ground,
keep one or more pigs to devour the offal and refuse which would other-
wise be wasted; and the farmer finds a sufficiency for their keep, while
the cottager begs wash and other matters, or turns the beast out into
the lanes to forage for himself. But this is a matter totally distinct
from "breeding swine." In the former case thennimal or animals are
purchased young, for a small price (each person buying as many as he
considers he shall have food enough for,) and then sold to the butcher
when in proper condition to be killed ; and thus a certain degree of
profit is realised. In the latter many contingencies must be taken into
calculation, viz. the available means of feeding them ; whether or not
that food might be more profitably disposed of; the facilities afforded
by railways, by the vicinity of towns, or large markets, &c. for dis-'
posing of them. And the rapid growth of railways is now affording
these facilities to all parts of the United Kingdom. Formerly the in-
habitants of remote localities had no means of conveying their swine to
a favourable market except the tedions one of driving them, or the ex-
pensive one of conveying them in carts.

Agricultural writers seem to be very much divided in their opinions
as to the relative advantages of breeding or buying, but all allow that
the keeping of swine is one of the most profitable parts of the business
of a farm. Whoever determines upon breeding must make up his mind
in the first place what is the shape and what the qualities he wishes to
obtain, and then steadily bear this in mind as he pursues his object;
not with wavering caprice, now selecting a cross of one sort, now one
of another, but adhering to a system well laid down, and then he will
find his efforts attended with success. The great desideratum in almost
all establishments is an animal that will grow rapidly, and attain to the
earliest maturity and greatest weight in the shortest period, and on the
smallest and most economical amount of food.

It is a generally admitted fact in the principles of breeding that the
offspring usually inherit the bodily and constitutional qualities of one

120 THE PIG.

or both parents ; and in swine it is the boar whose qualities chiefly pre-
dominate in the offspring; hence it will be necessary most carefully to
select the male animal. Thaer, in his admirable work, says —

CHOICE OF THE BOAR AND SOW.

" In the breeding of swine, as much as in that of any other live stock,
it is important to pay great attention not only to the breed, but also to
the choice of individuals. The sow should produce a great number of
young ones, and she must be well fed to enable her to support them.
Some sows bring forth ten, twelve or even fifteen pigs at a birth, but
eight or nine is the usual number, and sows which produce fewer than
this must be rejected. It is, however, probable that fecundity depends
' also on the boar ; he should therefore be chosen from a race which mul-
tiplies quickly.

" Good one-year bacon-hogs being much in request, we must do all
we can to obtain a breed well adapted for producing them. Swine of
such a breed may be known by their long bodies, low bellies, and short
legs. Long pendulous ears are usually coupled with these qualities
and attract purchasers. If, however, as is often advisable in large
dairies and cheese factories, hogs are to be sold at all seasons to the
butchers, great attention must be paid to quickness of growth and facil-
ity of gaining flesh, so that the animals may. attain their full growth
and be ready for killing before they are a year old. This quality is
particularly prominent in the Chinese and African breeds; but among
our ordinary varieties, hogs are often met with which are better adapted
for this purpose than for producing large quantities of bacon and lard.

" The boar should be selected from a breed well suited to these
several purposes ; he must be sound and free from hereditary blemishes ;
he should be kept separate from the sows till he is about a year old,
and has finished his growth or he will begin to leap too early. He is
usually casirated before completing his third year, otherwise his flesh
becomes uneatable, if, however, he is of a peculiarly excellent breed,
one which cannot be easily replaced, his flesh may be sacrificed for the
sake of preserving him for breeding from a few years longer.

"A boar left on the pasture at liberty, with the sows, might suffice
for thirty or forty of them ; but as he is usually shut up, and allowed
to leap at stated times only, so that the young ones may be born nearly
at the same time, it is usual to keep one boar for ten or twelve sows.
Full grown boars being often savage, and difficult to tame, and attack-
ing men and animals, must be deprived of their tusks.

" The sow must be chosen from a breed of proper size and shape,
. sound and free from blemishes and defects. She should have at least
twelve teats; for it is observed that each pig selects a teat for himself
and keeps to it, so that a pig not having one belonging to him would
be starved. A good sow should produce a great number of pigs, all of
equal vigour. She must be very careful of them, and not crush them
by her weight; above all, she must not be addicted to eating the after-
birth, and what may often follow, her own young ones. If a sow is
tainted with these bad habits, or if she has difficult labours, or brings
forth dead pigs, she must be castrated forthwith. It is therefore proper
to bring up several young sows at once, so as to keep those only which

CHOICE OF THE BOAR AND SOW. 121

are free from defects. Breeding sows and boars should never be raised •
from defective animals."

According to Varro and Columella; the ancients considered the dis-
tinguishing marks of a good boar to be — a small head, short legs, a
long body, large thighs and neck, and this latter part thickly covered
with strong erect bristles.

Our most experienced breeders prefer an animal with a long cylin-
drical body, small bones, well-developed muscles, a wide chest — which
denotes strength- of constitution, a broad straight back, short head and
fine snout, brilliant eyes, a short thick neck, broad well-developed
shoulders, a loose mellow skin, fine bright long hair and few bristles,
and small legs and hoofs. Some give the preference to long flapping
ears; this is the case especially in several of our western counties, but
experience seems to demonstrate that those animals are best which have
short, fine erect ears. The boar should always be vigorous arid mas-
culine in appearance.

That quaint old writer Lisle, in his " Husbandrie," gives the follow-
ing advice on this subject — advice more saited to swine "as they
were" than to the improved breeds which are now so generally re-
placing the heavy old races, but still worthy of some degree of atten-
tion : —

" In all kinds' of four-footed beasts, the shape and form of the male is
chosen with great care, because the progeny is frequently more like the
father than the mother ; wherefore, in swine-cattle also, certain of them
must be approved, which are choice and singular for the largeness of
their whole body, and such as are rather square (than those that are
long or round,) with a hanging-down belly, vast buttocks, but not so
long legs and hoofs, of a large and glahdulous neck, with short snouts,
and turned upwards ; and especially, which is more to the purpose, the
males must be exceeding salacious and such as are proper for gender- »
ing from the age of one year till they come to their fourth year : never-
theless they can also impregnate the female when they are six months
old. Sows of the longest size and make are approved, provided they
be, in the rest of their members, like the boars which have been al-
ready described.

"If the country is cold, and liable to hoar-frost, the herd must be
chosen of an exceeding hard, thick, and black bristle. If it be tempe-
rate, and lie exposed to the sun, the cattle that is smooth and has no
bristles, or even that which is white, and proper for the mill and the
bakehouse, may be fed."

But although the chief care must be bestowed on the selection of the
male animal, we must not be led to imagine that the female may be
chosen at random. One of good form and breed, free from constitu-
tional defects, and from disease of any kind ; not addicted to vice, and
especially not to feeding on flesh or carrion, or destroying rabbits, or
poultry, should be chosen. Also those which produce the finest and
most numerous progeny should be kept for breeding, especially if at
the same time they are good nurses; and the comparatively barren
animals spayed and fattened. Sows that have very low bellies almost
touching the ground, seldom produce large or fine litters. A good-
sized sow is generally considered more likely to prove a good breeder
and nurse, and to farrow more easily and safely, than a small delicate
9

122 THE PIG.

animal. Few of our domesticated animals suffer so much~from being
" bred in-and-in as swine. Where this system is pursued, the number
of young ones is decreased at every litter, until the sows become, in a
manner, barren. As soon as the slightest tendency to this degeneracy
is observed, the breed should be crossed from time to time, keeping
sight, however, while so doing, of the aim in view. The Chinese and
Siamese pigs will generally be found to be the best which can be used
for this purpose, as a single, and even two crosses, with one of these
animals, will seldom do harm, but often effect considerable improve-
ment. The best formed of the progeny resulting from this cross must
be selected as breeders, and with them the old original stock crossed
back, again.

" Selection, with judicious and cautious admixture, is the true secret
of forming and improving a breed," says an old and well-established
axiom ; and so it is. Repeated and indiscriminate crosses are as in-
jurious as an obstinate adherence to one particular breed, and as much
to be avoided ; and of this most persons seem to be fully aware, for a
systematic alteration is extending itself throughout all our English
breeds of swine ; the large, heavy, coarse breeds are almost extinct,
and a smaller race of animals — more apt to fatten, less expensive to
keep, attaining earlier to maturity, and furnishing a far more delicious
and delicate meat — have taken their place.

It. would be useless to point out certain breeds as being the roost
profitable or advantageous, so much depends upon the object for which
the animals are raised ; and besides, each breeder of any experience
has in general his own pet stock breed, frequently one that has been
" made," if we may be allowed the expression, by himself or his pro-
genitors. This will be found to be the case in all great pig-breeding
localities, and it frequently happens that the actual stock from which
some of the present choicest races of swine sprang cannot be traced
farther back than some ancestor or ancestress celebrated for the num-
ber of prizes he or she, or their immediate decendants, have won. At
least we have found this to be the case in almost every instance in
which we have endeavoured to arrive at a knowledge of the actual
parent stock of some of the most perfect and valuable animals we have
met with or heard of. The Berkshire, the Improved Essex, and the
New Suffolk and Bedfordshire breeds may, however, with the Chinese
and Neapolitan, be instanced as the best stocks from which to raise
a small-boned, thriving, profitable race, adapted for almost every pur-
pose.

A sow is capable of conceiving at the age of from seven to ten months,
but it is always better not to let her commence breeding too early, as
it tends to weaken her when she does. From ten to twelve months
old will be about the best age. Thaer says, " Sows are almost always
in heat until they have received the boar ; this state commences even as
early as at the age of four or five months, but they are usually a year
old before they are allowed to be put to the boar."

The boar should be at least a twelvemonth old before he is employed
for the purpose of propagating his species, and during that time should
have been well and regularly fed and exercised. One boar may be
allowed to serve from six to ten sows, but on no account more. The
best plan is to shut up the boar and sow in a sty together ; for whea

BREEDING. 123

turned in among several females, he is apt to " ride " them so often
that he exhausts himself without effect.

The period of gestation averages from seventeen to twenty weeks,
according to the age, constitution, &c, of the mother ; young or weakly
sows farrow earlier than those of more mature age or stronger constitu-
tions. It is commonly asserted that three months, three weeks, and
three days, is the period of gestation ; but, from M. Tessier's observa-
tions on twenty-five sows, it appears that it varies from 109 to 123 days*

A good breeding sow will produce two if not three litters in a year,
but two should be the outside number; for where she is suffered to
have more, the pigs are not so fine or so many in number, nor can she
suckle them so well. How many years they would continue to breed
is scarcely known, as it is generally considered to be most advanta-
geous to spay them in their second, or at any rate early in their third
year, and then fatten them for the butcher, especially where there is
always a stock of young sows to replace them ; for after the just-men-
tioned period the litters are seldom so fine, and the animal herself
deteriorates in value. Some breeders, indeed, only suffer a young
sow to have one litter, and then immediately spay and fatten her, as
the bacon is then supposed to be equally as good as that of an animal
spayed in the very onset. This is mainly a question of choice or econo-
my. An agricultural author of some repute states that " a sow is fit
for pigging up to her seventh year, and many will continue to be so
even longer. The more prolific, however, the animal is, the sooner
does she grow old and her fruitfulness decay."

But they doubtless would go on farrowing- for many years, for there
are instances on record of sows that have produced as many as eight or
ten pigs at a litter when in their eighth and tenth years. Selboume,
in his "Natural History," gives an account of a half-bred bantam sow,
kept by a friend of his, more from curiosity than with any view to
profit, " 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 showed 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 saga-
cious and artful. When she'found occasion to converse with a boar, she
used to open all the intervening 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 exhibit-
ed when in her fatting-pen. She proved, when fat, gpod 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 quadru-
ped. She was killed in the spring of 1775,"

Although we should by no means advise the keeping of an animal to
such an age, still, notwithstanding that it is the fashion or custom to do
otherwise, we would advise every breeder never to part with a sow
while she continues to bring forth a numerous and fine progeny, which

124 THE PIG.

many will do for years, and to be a good nurse ; and in general these
animals become better nurses the oftener they farrow : her value he
knows; the value of the young animal that he intends should succeed
her, has yet to be tested ; and if one of the two must be fattened for the
butcher, we should decidedly recommend that it were the untried one.
Varro states that we may judge of the fruitfulness of a sow from her
first litter, the subsequent ones being generally all of about the same
number.

A sow that brings forth less than eight pigs at a birth the third or
fourth time she farrows is worth little as a breeder, the sqpner she is
' fattened the better; but a young sow that produces a great number at
her first farrowing cannot be too highly valued.

Whenever it is practicable, it should always be so arranged that the
animals shall farrow early in the spring, and at the latter end of the
summer or quite the beginning of the autumn. In the former case the
young pigs will have the run of the early pastures, which will be a
^benefit to them and a saving to their owners; and there will also be
"more whey, milk, and other dairy produce which can be spared for
them by the time they are ready to be weaned. And in the second
case there will be sufficient time for the young to have grown and ac-
quired strength before the cold weather comes on, which is always
very injurious to sucking pigs.

TREATMENT OF SOWS DURING PREGNANCY.

Sows with pig should be well and judiciously fed ; that is to say,
they should have a sufficiency of wholesome nutritious food to main-
tain their strength and keep them in good condition, but should by no
means be allowed to get fat, as when they are in high condition the
dangers of parturition are enhanced, the animal is more awkward and
liable to smother or crush her young, and besides, never has as much or
as good milk as a leaner sow. She should also have a separate sty :
for swine are prone to lie so close together, that if she were amongst
others her young would be in great danger ; and this sty should be per-
fectly clean and comfortably littered, but not so thickly as to admit of
the young being able to bury themselves in the straw.

As the time of her farrowing approaches she should be well sup-
plied with food, especially if she be a young sow, and this is her first
litter, and also carefully watched in order to prevent her from devour-
ing the after-birth, and thus engendering a morbid appetite which will
next lead her to fall upon her own young. A sow that has once done
this is never afterwards to be depended upon. Hunger, thirst, or irri-
tation of any kind, will often induce this unnatural conduct; and this
is another reason why a sow about to farrow should have a sty to her-
self, and be carefully attended to, and have all her wants supplied.

This accident is by no means of so common occurrence in the sow as
in many of our other domesticated animals. There are various causes
which will tend to produce it; insufficiency of food, eating too much
succulent vegetable food, or unwholesome unsubstantial diet; blows
and falls will also induce it; and one very prevalent cause arises from
this animal's habit of rubbing itself against hard bodies in order to allay

PARTURITION. 125

the irritation produced by the vermin or cutaneous eruptions to which
swine are subject.

Reiterated copulation does not appear to produce abortion in the sow,
at least to the extent it does in other animals.

The symptoms indicative of approaching abortion are similar to those
of parturition, only more intense. There is generally restlessness, irri-
tation, and shiverings ; and the cries of the animal testify the presence
of severe labour-pains. Sometimes the rectum , vagina, or uterus be-
comes relaxed, and one or the other protrudes, and often becomes in-
verted at the moment of the expulsion of the fcetus, preceded by the
placenta, which presents itself foremost.

Nothing can be done to prevent abortion at the last hour; all that we
can do is, from the first to remove every predisposing cause.

The treatment will depend upon circumstances. Where the animal
is young, vigorous, and in high condition, bleeding will be beneficial,
not a copious blood-letting, but small quantities taken at different
times ; purgatives may also be administered. If, when abortion has
taken place, the whole of the litter are not born, emollient injections
may be resorted to with considerable benefit; otherwise the after-treat-
ment should be much the same as in parturition, and the animal should
be kept warm and quiet and clean, and allowed a certain degree of
liberty.

Whenever one sow has aborted, the breeder should immediately look
about for the causes likely to have induced this accident, and endeavour,
by removing them, to secure the rest of the inhabitants of his piggery
from a similar fate.

In cases of abortion the foetus is seldom born alive, and often has
been dead for some days ; where this is the case — and whether it is so
or not will be easily detected by a peculiarly unpleasant putrid exha-
lation and the discharge of a fetid liquid from the vagina — the parts
should be washed with a diluted solution of chloride of lime, in the
proportions of one part chloride to three parts water, and a portion of
this lotion may be gently injected into the uterus if the animal will
submit to the doing so. Mild doses of Epsom salts, tincture of gen-
tian, and ginger will also act beneficially in such cases, and with at-
tention to diet, soon restore the animal.

PARTURITION.

The approach of the period of farrowing is marked by the immense
size of the belly, by a depression of the back, and by the distention of
the teats. The animal gives evident symptoms of acute suffering, and
wanders restlessly about, collecting straw and carrying it to her sty,
grunting piteously the while,

As soon as this is observed, she should be enticed into a separate sty
and carefully watched. On no account should several sows be per-
mitted to farrow in the same place, as they will inevitably irritate each
other, and devour their own or one another's young.

The young ones should be taken away as soon as they are born, and
deposited in a warm spot, for the sow being a clumsy animal, is not
unlikely in her struggles to overlay them ; nor should they be returned
to her until all is over, and the afterbirth has been removed, which

126 THE PIG.

should always be done the moment it passes from her; for, young
sows especially, will invariably devour the afterbirth if permitted, and
then, the youngbeing wet with a similar fluid and smelling the same,
will eat them ioiie after lanether. Some persons advise washing the
backs of the young pigs, with a decoction of aloes, colocynth, or some
other nauseous substance, as a remedy for this; but the simplest and
easiest one is to remove the little ones until all is over and the mother
begins to recover herself and seek about for them, on which they
should be put near her.

It has been frequently observed that each little pig has its own pe-
culiar teat, and will not willingly suck from any other; therefore, as
the front teats yield most milk, the smallest pigs should be placed to
them. If more young are farrowed than the mother has teats, the most
weakly-looking must be destroyed, unless it should so happen that
there is another sow at hand which has fewer pigs than teats, in which
case they may be put to hein if this can be done without her know-
ledge; though some writers affirm that a sow will give her teats indif-
ferently to her own offspring or to that of a stranger.

It does not, however, always happen that the parturition is effected
with such ease. Cases of false presentation, of enlarged foetus, of de-
bility in the mother, often render it difficult and dangerous. The womb
will occasionally become protruded and inverted in consequence of the
forcing pains of difficult parturition, and even the bladder has been
known to come away. These parts must be returned as soon as may be,;
and if the womb has come in contact with the dung or litter and ac-
quired any dirt, it must be first washed in luke-warm water, and then
returned and confined in its place by means of a suture passed through
the lips of the orifice. Some foreign veterinarians place a pessary high
up the vagina, snd secure it in its situation by means of an iron ring or
wire ; but this is a complicated operation, and could not be performed
without great difficulty on so obstinate an animal. The easiest and
perhaps the best way is not to return the protruded parts at all, but
merely tie a ligature around them and leave them to slough off which
they will do in the course of a few days, without effusion of blood or
further injury to the animal. No sow that has once suffered from pro-
trusion of the womb should be allowed to breed again.

Mr. Ramsden, of Rippon, gives the following account of a case of
difficult parturition : —

" About the middle of August, 1840, 1 was called in and requested to
assist a sow that was in labour, could not rise, and seemed to be in
great suffering. I relieved her of one, gave her some gruel, and hoped
that she would be able to effect the parturition of the remaining ones
without aid.

" On my return she was perfectly senseless. The young pig was
endeavouring to suck. The parturition had not in the least degree ad-
vanced. I pressed with my left hand over the diaphragm, which
recallerPina slight degree the pains, and empounded my right hand
gradually. I then drew out a second pig ; it lay about four inches an-
terior to the pelvis. The stupor of the mother was a little removed,
and at length I got the whole litter of ten pigs, and also the placental
membrane. This was the first case of the kind that ever came under
my notice."*

* The Veterinarian, vol. xiv.

PARTURITION. 127

Another and still more interesting case is given by Mr. Cartwright,
veterinary surgeon : —

" On the 11th of July, 1839, 1 was requested to attend a sow, the
property of a farmer near this town. The poor animal had been in
labour six days. During the last three days she was not able to stand,
nor had she taken any food, and her death was expected every hour.
She was a very fat animal, and the owner informed me that she was
about ten days past her time of pigging, and that he was confident the
pigs were dead. I was of the same opinion ; and, after a minute ex-
amination, felt confident that nothing short of the Cesarean operation
could save her ; at the same time informing the owner that she might
die in consequence of, or during, the operation.

" The operation was consented to ; and I proceeded first to secure her
legs, and to have them firmly extended their full length, and retained
there by assistants. I next placed a bundle of straw underneath heri
which gave the belly a round and prominent position, rendering it more
tense and firm, and at the same time giving me considerable advantage
in operating.

" My first proceeding was to clear away the hair in the direction of
my intended incision, in which I, at the onset, had made up my mind
to follow the theory taught in operative surgery, viz. always to make
the incisions in the same direction as the muscular fibres, and, above
all, never to sever a muscle if it could be avoided. The hair being re-
moved, I was about to make the incisions lengthways, in the course of
the linea alba, when it suddenly occurred to me that I should not, in
this case, be able to keep the lips of the wound approximated by su-
tures or bandages, on account of the depending state of the abdomen and
its contents. I therefore determined to make the incisions more on the
side, and across the oblique externus abdominis. I accordingly cut
freely through the integuments for about eight inches in length, which
I accomplished with a common scalpel. Next 1 penetrated througkr*
the adipose or fatty matter underneath, of which there was no lack ;
and then cut down on the muscle, at the superior part of the incision,
quite through, and exposing the peritoneum. I now introduced my
forefingers as directors, and with the curved bistoury laid the abdomen
freely open.

" The lips of the incision or wound of course receded from each other
to a great distance, and a slight arterial hemorrhage ensued, which I
thought proceeded from the circumflex artery of the ilium. If the inci-
sion had been made longitudinally, this might have been prevented;
but as the hemorrhage soon ceased, it was of little consequence. The
intestines were much inflated with gas, and protruded as far as the
wound of the peritoneum extended.

" I now introduced my right hand, and distinctly felt the situation of
the uterus, when the animal made a desperate struggle, and some of the
small intestines escaped. I found it necessary for an assistant to in-
troduce his hand, to prevent a repetition of this. The bladder was
distended with urine, which proved somewhat troublesome, and I had
no catheter at hand. I was now about to make a second attempt to
open the uterus, when I accidentally felt the pulsation of a large arte-
ry. Had I divided the uterus in the same direction as the incision in
the abdomen I should have cut the artery. Was it the uterine or va-

128 THE PIG.

ginal artery ? I placed my hand inferior to the vessel, and felt a young
one. Next, with a scalpel in my right hand, guarded at the point with
my forefinger, fearing that the sow might struggle and the instrument
wound some of the intestines, I cut through the uterus, introduced my
finger guarding the scalpel, and effected an opening into it about six
inches in length. I then introduced my hand, laid hold of one of the
foetal pigs, and drew jt out. In this way I proceeded until I removed
the whole number, which amounted to seven.

" The operation being thus far completed, her legs were drawn to-
wards each other, which brought the lips of the wound into approxi-
mation, and I retained them there by strong adhesive plasters, over
which I placed a roller passing three times round her body. I now
proceeded to examine my patient: she was, as might be expected, in
a very weak state ; and when her head was raised, it fell again upon
my hand as if she was dead. As she lay in this exhausted state, not
a muscle except the involuntary ones moving, I gave her a little brandy
and water, and then closed the door and left her. The general opinion
of the by-standers was, that in a few minutes she would be dead : this
was about 4 p. m. Indispensable business prevented me from seeing
her until ten o'clock, when I was glad to find my patient somewhat re-
vived. I gave more brandy and beef-tea, and left her for the night.

"At 6 a.m. there was a decided improvement; the extremities were
warm, the respiration tranquil, with an occasional grunt and pricking or
moving of the ears ; some feces had passed during the night. T doubted
whether the bladder had been emptied, and therefore introduced a small
catheter which I use for sheep, &c, and took away a great quantity of
water. I ordered more weak brandy and water and broth.

"At 6 p.m. the symptoms were improving, excepting that the side
surrounding the incision was a little swelled ; I therefore, ordered fo-
mentations to be applied, using hot cloths, with but little water.

" 18th. — Doing well ; the secretions regular ; and she for the first
time voluntarily took a little milk, with a drachm of brandy, of which
she appeared fond. From this time she continued to improve daily ; and
on the fifth day from the operation she was able to stand, and fed well.
The roller round her body was not removed for a month, and the plas-
ter remained for nearly three months. When it came away the wound
was beautifully healed. This animal has attracted considerable atten-
tion in the neighbourhood, and she is how as fat as she can be, and a
fine specimen of the short-eared breed."*

MONSTROSITIES.

Monstrosities are often farrowed by swine. It would be difficult to
assign any cause for this, did we admit, with most persons, that these
are peculiarly stupid and unimaginative animals ; but as in Chapter III.
we have already declared our opinion to be a contrary one, the inexpli-
cability of the matter is done away with.

Mr. Ellis, V. S., of Liverpool, gives an account of six sows belong-
ing to one person which all produced blind young ones, the greater
part of which were without the least semblance of an eye, the orbit

,* The Veterinarian, vol. xiii.

TREATMENT OF THE SOWS WHILE SUCKLING. 129

being quite empty. Some of them had four ears each. Only four out
of the whole lot lived; they were either brought forth dead or died
immediately after birth.

One of the sows could not farrow any of her young ones, they being
three times the proper size, and in a state of* decomposition. The
Cesarean operation was therefore performed, as the only means of
saving her; but it had been delayed too long; she only lived three
hours after it.

These pigs were all got by one boar, but the sows were of different
breeds.

TREATMENT OF THE SOWS WHILE SUCKLING.

More depends upon this than many persons seem to have the least
idea of, both as regards the mother and the young ; and many a fine
sow and promising litter have been ruined for want of proper and judi-
cious care at this period.

Immediately after farrowing many sows are apt to be feverish ; where
this is the case, a light and sparing diet only should be given them for
the first day or two, as gruel, oatmeal-porridge, whey, and such-like.
Others, again, are very much debilitated, and require strengthening ;
for them strong soup, bread steeped in wine or in a mixture of brandy
and sweet spirits .of nitre, administered in small quantities, will often
prove highly beneficial.

Gradually the rations must be increased and given more frequently;
and they must be composed of wholesome, nutritious, and succulent
matters. All kinds of roots — carrots, turnips, potatoes, and, beet-root —
well steamed or boiled, may be given, but never raw ; bran, barley and
oatmeal, bean-flour, Indian corn, whey, sour, skim, and butter-milk, all
are perfectly well adapted for this period ; and, should the animal ap-
pear to require it, grain well bruised and macerated may also be added.
Bean-flour is 'considered by many persons to create an abundance of
milk; and there are many who deem barleymeal too stimulating, and
advise that it should never be used alone, but always one-third oatmeal
to two-thirds of the barleymeal. Whenever it is possible, the*sow
should be turned out for an hour each day to graze in a meadow or
clover-field, as the fresh air and exercise and herbage will d» her an
infinity of good. The young pigs must be shut up for the first ten days
or a fortnight, after which they will be old enough to follow her and
take their share of the benefit.

The rations should be given regularly at certain hours ; small and
often-repeated meals are far preferable to large ones, for indigestion or
any disarrangement of the functions of the stomach vitiates the milk,
and produces diarrhoea and other similar affections in the young.

The mother should always be well but not over-fed ; the better and
more careftrlly she is fed, the more abundant and nutritious will her
milk be, the better will the* sucking-pigs thrive, and the less will she
be pulled down by suckling them.

When a sow is weakly, and has not a sufficiency of milk, the young
pigs must be taught to feed as early as possible. A kind of gruel, made
with skim-milk and bran or oatmeal, will be the best thing for this pur-
pose; or a soup composed of potatoes, boiled, and then mashed in milk
or whey, with or without the addition of a little bran or oatmeal.

130 TtfE PIG.

Towards the period when the pigs are to be weaned the sow must be
less plentifully fed, otherwise the secretion of milk will be as great as
ever; and it will accumulate, and there will be hardness, and perhaps
inflammation, of the teats. Should it appear requisite, a dose of physic
may be given to assist in carrying off the milk ; but in general a little
judicious management in the feeding and weaning will be all that is
requisite.

TREATMENT OF THE YOUNG WHILE SUCKING.

For the first ten days or fortnight the mother will generally be able
to support her litter without assistance, unless, as has been already ob-
served, she is weakly, or they are too many in number ; in either of
which cases they must be fed from the first. When the young pigs
are about a fortnight old warm milk should be given to them. In ano-
ther week this may be thickened with some species of farina ; and after-
wards, as they gain strength and increase in size, boiled roots and ve-
getables may be added. As soon as they begin to eat, an open frame
or railing should be placed in the sty, under which the little pigs can
run, and on the other side of this should be the small troughs contain-
ing their food ; for it never answers to let them eat out of the same
trough with the mother, both because the food set before her is gene-
rally too strong and stimulating for them, and, besides, the chances are
they would not geta mouthful. Those intended to be killed for " suck-
ing-pigs " should not be above four weeks old ; most persons kill them
for this purpose on the twenty-first or twenty-second day. The others,
excepting those which are kept for the purpose of breeding, should be
castrated at the same time.*

The age at which pigs may be weaned with the greatest advantage
is when they are about eight or ten weeks old ; many persons, how-
ever, wean them as early as six weeks, but then they seldom turn out
so well. They should not be taken from the sow at once, but gradu-
ally weaned. At first they should be removed from her for a certain
number of hours each day, and accustomed to be driven by hunger to
eat from the trough ; then they may be turned out for an hour without
her, and afterwards shut up while she is turned out also by herself.
Subsequently they must only be allowed to suck so often in the twenty-
four hours ; perhaps six times at first, then four, then twice, and at last
only once; and meanwhile they must be proportionally better and more
plentifully fed, and the mother's diet in a like manner diminished; thus
will the weaning be accomplished without danger or evil consequences
to either. Some persons have advised that the whole litter should not
be weaned at once ; we do not, however, agree with thejn, unless it
should happen that one or two of the young ones are much weaker and
smaller than the others ; in such case, if the sow remains in tolerable

* Our friend and fellow-practitioner, Mr. Horsefield, of Wenlworth, informs us that
" sucking-pigs kept in piggeries having stone pavements are apt to have the white flux,
a bowel-complaint very prejudicial to their growth. To prevent or cure them of this
malady,'* he says, " let there be plenty of fresh earth strewn for them in the inner pig.
gery, which they will eat with avidity, and thus be kept alive and in good condition."

WEANING. 131

condition, they might be suffered to Buck for a week longer ; but such
a mode of proceeding should be an exception, not a general rule.

Pigs are more easily weaned than almost any other animals because
they learn to feed sooner ; but nevertheless this is always a somewhat
critical period, and great attention must be paid to them if we would
have them grow up strong, healthy animals. Their sties must be warm,
dry, clean, well ventilated, and weather-tight. They should have the
Tun of a grass meadow or paddock for an hour or two every fine day,
in the spring and summer, or be turned into the farm-yard among the
cattle in the winter, as fresh air and exercise tend to prevent them from
becoming rickety or crooked in the legs.

Butter-milk, whey, "and the refuse of the dairy, with boiled or steamed
potatoes, pollard, and oat or barleymeal, may be given as food ; also
boiled cabbage and lettuce, macerated and bruised oats, barley, and
even wheat ; in short, the most nutritious and succulent food that cir-
cumstances will permit of, and a daily run at grass wherever it is pos-
sible. At first their food should all be given to them warm, and be
tolerably soft, in order better to assimilate with the state of the diges-
tive functions ; gradually and soon they must be accustomed to take it
cold, it being far better for them so when once they are used to it; and
they must also learn to masticate their food.

Newly-weaned pigs require five or six meals in the twenty-four hours.
In about ten days one may be omitted ; in another week, a second ; and
then they must do with three regular meals each day.

But let it be understood that, while we would enforce the necessity
of good and ample feeding, we highly deprecate all excess, and all
stimulating, heating diet, such tending to vitiate the animal powers,
often to lay the foundation of disease, and never to produce good, sound,
well-flavoured flesh.

A little sulphur mingled with the food, or a small quantity of Epsom
or Glauber's salts dissolved in the water, will frequently prove benefi-
cial.

A plentiful supply of clear cold water should always be within their
reach; the food left in the trough after the animals have done eating
should be removed, and the trough thoroughly rinsed out before any
more is put into it. Strict attention should be paid to cleanliness ; in-
deed, many persons assert that there is no comparison in point of
thriving between an animal well cleaned and repeatedly brushed and
another that is left to itself; although both shall be in feeding and all
other respects treated exactly the same, the latter will not weigh so
much as the former by many pounds.

This treatment will bring them on to the time when the owner must
separate those he intends for breeders from those which are to be fat-
tened for the market. The boars and sows should be kept apart from
the period of weaning.

The question of which is most profitable — to breed swine, or to buy
young pigs and fatten them — will best be determined by the indivi-
duals who have to study it, for they know best what resources they can
command, and what chance of profits each of these separate branches
offers.

There was an interesting paper published some little time since in
the " Farmer's Magazine," calculating the number of pigs, which, in the

132 the Pie.

coarse of ten years, may be raised from two one-year old sows. We
give it verbatim, as many of our readers have probably never entered
into such a calculation, or formed the least idea of the amazing quantity
of animal food which may be derived from this kind of stock : —

" I am indebted to a worthy and sensible friend, and a friend also of
the poor, for the following estimate of what I shall term ' pig popula-
tion,' and set it in array against the increasing demands of the home
population, which goes on at the rate of not quite 1£ per cent, per an-
num — nay, little more than 1£ by the last ten years' census. I think,
with the assistance of my above-mentioned friend, I can feed the super-
numeraries well, and in this way, at all events, save their bacon.
Would you credit the assertion that in ten years — ten short years — and
from two breeding sows, many millions can be produced ? Would you
suppose (for I certainly had no conception of the fact) that more than
the present or even anticipated population of the country for ten years
to come is not equal to the number of pigs to be thus born and bred in
the same period, if we choose? But I shall proceed to the proof and
give the figures, which are unanswerable arguments when well founded.
His calculation, then, is as follows, viz. that in one year two sows (one
year old) will breed ten each, of which we shall assume that one-half
are females, and so proceed on that assumed equality. ,

" The first year there will be males and females - - - 20

From which take the males ... 10

And we have the result as breeders - - 10

At the second year, then, wc may fairly take the same ratio of ten

to each, viz. ---.-.-10

2)100

And it gives us a hundred males and females, leaving, con- — - —

quently, for the third year, breeders . . -50

I shall now drop the text, and merely give the figures, the same

principle applying throughout - 10

Third year ...... - 2)500

250
10

Fourth year - .... 2)2,500

1,250
10

Fifth jear - . .. . 2)12,500

6,250
10

Sixth year ..... 2)62,500

31, 250
10

312,500

FECUNDITY. 133

Seventh year ...... 2)312,500

156,250
10

Eighth year ...... 2)1,562,500

781,250
10

Ninth year ..... 2)7,812,500

3,906,250
10

Tenth year, males and females .... 39,062,500

" I hope my friend has brought his pigs to a good market; but to
equalize the supply, I shall, for the present purpose, take only the male
half of the pig population for food, leaving the breeders to go on. In
this way we can kill and eat ten the first year — no bad increase from
two sows recollect ; the second year, 5Q ; the third, 250 ; the fourth,
1250 ; the fifth, 6250 ; the sixth, 31,250 (pork in abundance now ;) the
seventh, 156,250 (still more abundant;) the eighth, 781,250; the ninth,
3,906,250 ; and the tenth, when divided in like manner, the enormous
number of 19,531,250 for food, without interfering with the breeders,
who, I presume, by this time will probably require killing also. Now,
I am not aware that much commentary is required on this prolific sub-
ject ; every man who reads this short paper will at once draw his own
conclusion from the facts. They are, however, of a very cheering de-
scription, and drawn from the breeding of one domestic animal only,
and amply prove what abundant stores nature and the God of nature
have provided for human subsistence. I shall close this paper with the
sensible practical observation of my friend in reference to this subject,
as, after all, it is in practice only that the benefits open to all are to be
received by any. In the county of Kent, he informs me, there are
31,000 agricultural families or farmers. It is a very easy matter for
each to keep two breeding-sows, which in three years would produce
in round numbers 15,000,000 of pigs.

" In the fifty-two counties of England, he also adds, the number of
agricultural families is 760,000; so that, by the same mode of calcula-
tion as for Kent, of every farmer keeping two sows, the produce would
be, in the like period, 380,000,000 pigs. One good breeding sow to
each would consequently produce 15,000,000. As I have said, and say
again, is this all true? for if so, what prevents the immediate use of the
same beneficial proceeding to every one, not even omitting the allot-
ment tenant? What more easy and practicable than to breed on a
small scale, or to join two or three families together, and thus diminish
expense and increase profits! I throw out the hint, and hope that good
may arise from a due consideration of the. prominent facts already
stated.''

With the following valuable remarks by that well-known practical
agriculturist and grazier, Arthur Young, we will conclude this chap-
ter: —

134 THE PIG.

" The breeding of swine being one of the most profitable articles in
the whole business of a farm, the husbandman cannot pay too much
attention to it. I shall, in as few words as the subject will admit, give
an account of the best system to be pursued in this branch of his busi-
ness. The farmer who would make a considerable profit by hogs must
determine to keep a proper number of sows in order to breed many
pigs ; but this resolution ought to be preceded by the most careful de-
termination to prepare crops proper for supporting this stock. The
proper ones for that purpose are barley, buck, beans, peas, clover, pota-
toes, or carrots. In the common management, a farmer keeps only a
sow or two because his dairy will do no more; but in the system of
planting crops purposely for swine, a different conduct must necessarily
be pursued. Potatoes, carrots, Swedish turnips, and cabbages, must
be provided for the sows and stores from October till the end of May,
by which time clover, chicory, or lucerne should be ready to receive
them, which will carry them till the stubbles are cleared ; so that the
whole year is filled up with these plants, and the common offal of the
barn-door and the corn-fields. When the sows pig, meal must be pro-
vided to make wash by mixing it with water. This in summer will
be good enough for their support, and in winter it must be mixed with
boiled roots, oats, and pea-soup, for the young pigs. If cows are kept,
then the dairy-wash is to he used in the above mixtures.

" Upon this system, a farmer may proportion his swine to his crops,
or his crops to his swine ; and he will find that for the whole year he
should have about an equal quantity of roots and grass, and half as
much corn as potatoes. For carrying the profit to the highest advan-
tage, the sows should pig but twice a-year, that is, in April and Au-
gust, by which means there will never be a long and expensive season
for rearing pigs before they are put to the staple food of clover or po-
tatoes, &c; but this circumstance is much removed by the provision
of crops raised expressly for the swine.

" Upon this plan the annual sale of lean hogs should be in October,
the litters of April sold then as stores, and those of August kept till
October twelvemonth to sell for baconers, if the farmer feeds none
himself. The stock upon hand this month will therefore be the sows,
and the pigs littered in the preceding August, all which should have
roots from the store, and run at the same time in the farm-yard, for
shacking the straw of the barn-doors. In proportion to what they find
in this, you must supply them with roots, giving enough to keep them
in growth."*

CHAPTER XII.

On Feeding Swine— Fat Pigs— Callle Shows— Whpy, Milk, and Dairy Refuse— Refuse
and Grains of Distilleries and Bleweries — Residue of Starch Manufactories — Vege-
tables and Roots— Fruits— Gram— Soiling and Pasturing Swine— Animal Substances
as Food for them— Genertil Directions fur Feeding and Fattening.

The establishment of agricultural societies and cattle-shows formed
the commencement of a new era in the breeding of all domesticated

* Farmer's Calendar, 1804.

BREEDING. 135

animals, and especially of swine, which had, previously to that epoch,
been very much neglected. There cannot be a doubt but that the com-
petition, the assembling together of breeders from all counties and even
from abroad, the comparison of the different animals brought together,
and the conclusions drawn in many minds, tend materially to the eluci-
dation and advancement of the science of breeding. Persons resident
in remote localities are apt to set up for themselves some particular
standard of excellence, and make it the whole aim of their endeavours
to obtain arid develop certain points in an animal, and having done this
they rest satisfied ; but when the annual cattle-show places before them
other and evidently superior animals, they perceive how much too
limited, and often how erroneous, have been their views, and set to
work afresh to improve upon the knowledge thus acquired.

But there is no good without its attendant evil. It was, doubtless,
originally intended by those who established the distribution of prizes
for certain kinds of stock, that the prize animal should be the most ex-
cellent as to its points, the most useful to the farmer, breeder, and
butcher, and altogether the most profitable ; but not that it should be the
fattest ! It is reported that, on Hannah More being asked what was
the use of cattle-shows, she replied, "To induce people to make beef
and mutton so fat that nobody can eat it." This certainly is the abuse
of them, and in no class of animals is it carried to such an extent as in
swine. The greedy propensities of the poor animal are worked upon ;
he is shut up, often in darkness, and fed and suffered to gorge himself
until he can scarcely move or breathe, and often dies of suffocation, or
is obliged to-be killed, from the simple exertion of being brought to the
show in the most easy and careful manner. A premium would be far
better bestowed upon the most useful and profitable animal, the one
most likely to make good bacon or pork, than on these huge masses of
obesity, whose superabundance of fat is fit for little else but the melting-
pot. As much money is often wasted on one of these monsters as would
purchase food for half dozen really profitable animals. And to what
purpose ? Simply to test the elastic power of a pig's skin ? "No,"
reply the advocates of this species of monomania, "but to discover
which breeds can be fattened to the greatest , size in the shortest time,
and on the smallest amount of food." And to this plea we can only
reply, that while we admit the value of such knowledge, we think it
might be attained without the sacrifice of a fine animal, at much less
expense, and far more satisfactorily. Let the animals be fat, but do
do not let them be a mere bladder of lard, " of shape undefined," every
point lost and buried. It is fine and profitable breeds we require, not
monstrosities. The grand aim of agricultural societies is to promote
the improvement of the breeds, and consequently the profit of the
breeder, and general advantage. We trust that this will shortly be
fully understood and carried out, and the cattle-shows become, as it
were, model-rooms, instead of, mere exhibitions of over-fed, panting,
unshapely beasts. But it is not our feeble voice alone which is raised
against this unnatural stuffing : public attention has latterly been much
called to this point ; and among others, our merry critic Punch, who
fails not to lash each passing folly of the age, has, as will be seen by
the following epitaph, not been unmindful of this one: —

136 THE PIG.

"Epitaph on a Prize Pig.

" here lies

all that was eatable

of a prize pig.

he was born

on february 1, 1845 :

he was fed

on milk, potatoes, and

barley-meal:

he was slaughtered

on december 24, 1846,

WEIGHING 20st. 91bS.

STOP, TRAVELLER !

AND REFLECT HOW SMALL A PORTION

OF THIS VAST PIG

WAS PORE SUITABLE

FOR HUMAN FOOD."

Hurtrel D'Arboval, treating of Obesity, says, " There is, however no
animal so liable to become over-fat, as the pig, and especially the Chi-
nese and Siamese swine. Naturally inclined to corpulence and glut-
tony, they easily acquire an enormous bulk; and when fat has once
begun to accumulate, the animal eats little, breathes with difficulty, be-
comes inert, unable to sustain his own weight, and deficient in sensa-
tion. We have seen wretched pigs so fat that they were obliged to be
lifted or dragged out of the sty whenever it was necessary to move them.
We have also made incisions in their buttocks, and even taken off por-
tions of skin from their backs, without their betraying any sense of
pain. We saw one hog that had lain for a considerable period on one
side, too powerless or too inert even to shift its position, and when it
was raised a large hole was perceived in that part of the back which,
had been undermost. This had been made by rats feeding and gnaw-
ing into the fat of the beast, evidently without its being in the least
conscious of their proceedings.

"Animals that have been castrated are always more disposed to
obesity."*

We will now proceed to consider the various modes of keeping and
feeding swine and their relative value, and the other incidental matters
which may develope themselves as we proceed.

Swine are generally fattened for pork at from six to nine months old,
and for bacon at from a twelvemonth to two years. Eighteen months
is generally considered to be the proper age for a good bacon-hog.

The feeding of pigs will always, in a great measure, depend upon the
circumstances of the owner, upon the kind of food which he has at his
disposal and can best spare, and the purpose forVwhich he intends the
animals. It will also be in some degree regulated by the season, it
being possible to feed pigs very differently in the summer to what they
are fed in the winter. During the former they can either be sty-fed or
pastured, or both; and there is also a greater variety of vegetables and

* Hirrtnl D'Arboval : Dictionnaire de MiSdecine et de Chirurgie VSWrinaire, vol. iii.

RESIDUE OF STARCH MANUFACTORIES. 137

green food for them, as well as of dairy refuse ; while in the winter they
must be home-fed, and in most oases their diet limited to roots, peas,
beans, or other such dried food, and wash composed of the scanty re-
sidue of the dairy, or supplied from the house 01 brewery.

WHEY, MILK, AND DAIRY REFUSE.

For sty-fed pigs the washings of the dairy, as butter and skim-milk,
whey, &c, are excellent, and especially whey thickened with barley,
or oat, or pea-meal, whey being more nourishing than skim-milk ; the
animals thrive and make flesh so well on it, that many farmers are of
opinion that this mode of employing their sour milk is more profitable
than making cheese. But when the swine have once become habi-
tuated to this kind of diet it must be continued, as they would fall off
if put upon any other. There was a beautiful lot of Coleshill pigs ex-
hibited at the last Smithfield Club Cattle-Show, belonging to the Earl
of Radnor, aged twenty-one weeks, which had been fattened on forty-
eight-bushels of barley-meal and six bushels of potatoes, with an ade-
quate quantity of whey. Wherever, therefore, there are large dairies,
swine may be most advantageously kept, the excellence of dairy-fed
pork being incontestable. '

WASH, GRAINS, AND REFUSE OF BREWERIES AND DISTILLERIES.

The refuse wash and grains and other residue of breweries and
distilleries may also be given to swine with advantage, and seem to in-
duce a tendency to lay on flesh, but not in too large quantities, or un-
mixed with other and more substantial food ; as, although they gain
flesh rapidly when fed on it, the meat is not firm, and never makes
good bacon.

Thacr advises that the refuse of brandy-distilleries should always be
diluted with water at first, otherwise the animals will reject it, or, if
they take it, become giddy, and be unable to keep their feet; after-
wards, the quantity of this food may be gradually increased till they
are completely accustomed to it. Neuenhahn says that the refuse of
the brandy-distillery cannot be given to the pigs too warm, or too soon
after its removal from the still, and that it never heats their blood ; but
that, if it be allowed to get cold and stale, it is rather injurious than
beneficial to them. On the other hand, many experienced distillers,
who fatten large numbers of hogs, assure us that it requires great atten-
tion, and the employment of a man on whose care we can rely, to pre-
vent this residue from being given to the animals while too warm, for
it is then that it injures and materially retards their growth. It should
be sometimes thick, sometimes diluted with water, and at others mixed
with meal or pollard, in order, by thus varying the food, to keep up the
appetite of the animals.

RESIDUE OF STARCH MANUFACTORIES.

The residue of the manufacture of starch, the products of the various

washings which this precaution involves, and the refuse of wheat, are

far superior to brewers' and distillers' refuse. Hogs fed upon these

articles fatten more quickly, produce firmer flesh, more substantial

10

138 THE PIG.

bacon, and a greater quantity of lard. At first the animals will often
eat these matters with great avidity, and even to excess, and when this
is the case they invariably become disgusted and refuse them after a
time. The quantity must therefore be carefully regulated, and the
troughs kept very clean. If this kind of food be used alternately with
one of a different nature, the fattening will be effected with greater cer-
tainty. The quantity of this refuse collected at once is often greater
than can be consumed at the time, and it is difficult to store it up,
because its animal portions so soon putrefy. The only mode of pre-
servation is to dry it, make it into cakes, and bake it.*

VEGETABLES AND HOOTS.

Cabbage and lettuce-leaves, turnip-greens, and bean and pea-haulm,
may be given to pigs in moderate quantities with advantage, but these
substances should be chopped up small and mingled in the wash, as
the animals, being very fond of such food, will otherwise devour it too
ravenously to be able properly to masticate it.

Almost all our common roots are well adapted for feeding pigs ; car-
rots, turnips, parsnips, beet-root, and last, but not least, the potato, are
all exceedingly nutritive, even whqn given in a raw state, but that
cooking tends materially to increase their nourishing powers is a fact
well attested by numerous experiments and general experience. Pota-
toes should be steamed, the other roots boiled. In Guernsey the
parsnip is extensively used in the feeding of pigs, especially from
September to Christmas, and eight perches of land, each producing on
the average 250 lbs. of this root, are considered as the general allowance
for fattening a pig in store order. But the flesh of animals thus fed is
not so firm as that of pigs fed on pea or barley-meal with a slight addi-
tion of corn, and shrinks when boiled, instead of plumping. Carrots
are considered by some persons to fatten swine more rapidly than any
other root, and to impart a particularly delicate flavour to the flesfi ;
they may be given raw. Potatoes are, however, the staple food in by
far the greater part of England, and the whole of Ireland. They should
be steamed, and then mashed with meal or pea-flower in whey or sour
milk (where it can be had,) or in wash or clear water, and made of the
consistence of porridge. The water in which the potatoes have been
cooked should always be thrown away. This root should, however,
only be given for a short time, as it is by no means a rapid fattener,
and does not make firm good fat, — and never alone if it can be avoided.
Turnips should never be given while any other kind of food can be
obtained, as their effects are far from beneficial, and often quite the
contrary. Beans and peas, both green, dried, and ground, or bruised
and macerated, form excellent food. Peas are considered to produce
firmer flesh, and to fatten quicker than beans. The grey pea is gener-
ally allowed to be the best adapted for swine, and to contain most
nutrition. Experiments have been made with the blue pea, but hogs
fed on it had always a tendency to diarrhoea. Every part of the pea,
the haulm, the cods, and the peas themselves, may be used in feeding
pigs. Sir John Sinclair found green beans also very advantageous
food for swine ; he gives pre ference to the Windsor bean, and advises

* Thiier's Principles of Agriculture.

FRUITS. ] 39

that two or three successive crops of them should be sown in order to
secure a constant supply from July until September.

In the " Quarterly Journal of Agriculture " we find an account of
some experiments made with the view of testing the relative fattening
powers of carrots, potatoes, peas, wheat, and buckwheat.

Five couples of pigs were separately put up to fatten : —

Increase of Weight.
To couple 1 was given 55 decalitres * of peas . . , 22 st. 7 Ins.

,,2 ,, 2 SI ,, balls of wheat . 24 St. 3 lbs.

,,3 , , 96 ,, buckwheat . 28 st. 10 lbs.

,,4 ,, 98 ,, boiled potatoes . 20 st. 4 lbs.

..5 , , 175 , , carrots . . 213 st. 2 lbs.

These results of the experiment are, however, unsatisfactory, because
it is not mentioned whether the pigs were all of the same age and
weight, nor is it stated whether the quantity of food marked in the table
was as much as the pigs could consume.

We have always believed that peas were the most nutritious food
that could be given to pigs, and this experiment confirms the belief, as
may be seen on comparing the relative increase of weight obtained
from the various kinds of food, viz. :— .55 decalitres of peas gave an
increase of 22 stone 7 lbs., or nearly 6 lbs. of increase of pork from 1
decaliter of peas ; whereas from boiled carrots oply 28 stone 2 lbs. of
increase were obtained from 175 decalitres, or about 2£ lbs. from 1
decalitre, giving the advantage over the peas in the ratio of 2£ : 1. The
next most nourishing food is buckwheatjTwhich nearly gives 4 lbs. of
pork from 1 decalitre. Boiled potatoes are next, giving nearly 3 lbs.
of pork from 1 decalitre ; and the lowest quantity of pork is that obtained
from the balls of wheat, which is as low as 1 lb. from 1 decalitre.
Flour would no doubt fatten better than wheat, especially if the feeds
were made into small dry balls of dough and frequently administered.

With the exception of the acorn we have seldom a sufficiently abun-
dant crop of fruit of any kind to admit of our making it an article of food
for swine. When England was rich in forest land, the mastage or pan-
nage of swine in these localities was a valuable privilege, for if the
animals did not absolutely get fat, they were kept in fair condition at no
expense to the owner beyond that of paying a person to look after them.

Hogs will eat the acorns and beech-mast greedily, and certainly thrive
to a certain extent on this food, so far that it is an easy matter to fatten
them afterwards. Parkinson says, — " When I lived with my father,
acorns were so plentiful in the woods one year, that they made the pigs
sufficiently fat for bacon withoutany other food. The flesh was equally
as good and as well-flavoured as that of other animals that had been fed
on beans and peas." Acorns that have become dry in the sun and air
are far more profitable than those which'are fresh fallen and green ; but
the way in which they may be most advantageously employed is to
bake or roast them, and then crush them, and either boil them to a pulp,
or pour boiling water upon them and let it stand until cool: the addition
of a little salt makes an exceedingly palatable food, which the animals

* A decalitre is equal to 15 pints.

140 THE PIG.

greedily suck up, and which tends far more to fatten them than the raw •
acorn would.

Beech-mast eaten alone makes the fat oily and impoverishes the lean,
but when taken in conjunction with acorns the one fruit qualifies the
other and the combined effect is good.

In many parts of the Continent where chestnuts are grown in large
quantities they constitute a considerable item in the feeding of swine,
and are exceedingly nutritious, especially when given at the latter part
of the fattening process. They impart firmness and a delicate flavour
to the meat. Few persons give chestnuts in a raw state ; they are either
roasted in an oven or macerated in boiling water. The same reason
may be given here as will apply to all kinds of roots and fruits, not
only when used as food for swine, but also for other animals, and even
for the human being: they are rendered more digestible by cooking,
divested of their crudeness, and thus better calculated to nourish the
system without fatiguing or disordering its powers. Besides which
there is a decided saving effected. Some even go so faras to calculate
that cooked, or ground, or bruised food, goes as far again as that which
is given in its natural state or merely cut up.

In America, where there is an abundance of apples and pumpkins,
these fruits are given to swine : we quote an account related by a great
breeder of these animals, who attaches much value to these two articles
of food, which seems to testify their utility: —

" On the 10th of October twenty swine were put up to fatten, all of
which were only in middling store order, in consequence of the scarcity
of feed. The cows producing very little wash from the dairy, and the
crop of apples heing scanty this season, nothing had been given them
during summer but a small orchard containing one acre and a-half of
land (with the premature apples which fell,) in which was a pond of
water, a very essential requisite to hogs, and one to which, under the
powerful influence of the sun, they will resort for their chief comfort. ,

"The above twenty swine were divided into three lots and closely
confined ; we proceeded to fatten them by steaming 4 bushels of small
potatoes, 12 bushels of appte pomace, 4 bushels of pumpkins, and 1 cwt.
of buckwheat cornel, adding a little salt, the whole being well incorpo-
rated together while hot from the steamer, with a wooden pounder, and
suffered to undergo fermentation before it was used as food : they were
at the same time supplied with plenty of charcoal and pure water.
While feeding them with the first steamer of the compound a more than
ordinary moisture was observed on their litter, which was occasioned
by urine : a knowledge of animal nature convinced the owner that any
more than an ordinary flow would weaken the system, and retard the
progress of fattening; and he attributed this evil to the steamed pump-
kins acting as a diuretic, stimulating the kidneys and increasing the
evacuation of urine. In the next steamer, therefore, 4 bushels of ruta-
baga were substituted for the pumpkins, which had the desired effect.
This experiment afforded proof that a mixture thus compounded contains
a larger mass of nutritive material ready prepared for the action of the
stomach, and therefore producing flesh more rapidly than any other com-
bination of food made use of. All the waste apples being used up, and
there being a greater quantity of soft corn on hand than usual, that was
given to the hogs, but instead of their condition improving they fell off,

GRAIN. 141

.and the owner was under the necessity of procuring two loads of apple
pomace from his neighbours, and commencing the steaming and feeding
again; it was continued with the same good effect until eight days be-
fore the animals were killed, during which latter period they were fed
with sound corn; they were slaughtered on the 1st of December. The
expense of fattening and the produce of pork were as follows : —

Dr.

32 bushels of small potatoes, at 2s.

32 bushels of rutabaga, including pumpkins, at -s.

10 bushles of soft corn, at 45. . .

10 cwt. of buckwheat, at $1 per cvvt.

20 bushels of sound corn, at os. Cd.

Cr.
By 40 cwt. of pork, at $7£ per cwt.
Deduct expense.

Dolls.

Cts

8

00

8

00

5

Oil

10

00

16

25

47

25

Dolls.

Cts.

. 300

00

. 47

S5

2S2 75" *

It is true that we have not often a superabundance of apples ; but still
in years when the crop is plentiful, the windfalls, diseased or injured
apples, and the refuse left after the making of cider, may be given to
the pigs, and will prove a fair substitute for more expensive food, if
not in itself peculiarly advantageous; especially when economy in the
keep is more studied than a rapid system of fattening.

Nuts should never be given to swine ; they make the fat soft and
greasy, and impart a sweet, unpleasant flavour to the flesh. Pigs are,
however, exceedingly fond of them ; so much so, that when they can
get nuts they care little to touch any other kind of food.

There is nothing so nutritious, so eminently and in every way adapt"
ed for the purpose of fattening, as are the various kinds of grain ; the
only drawback is, that they are too expensive to be used to any great
extent for this purpose, otherwise no animal should be considered as
properly fattened unless some kind of grain had been given during the
latter part of the time; as nothing tends more to create a firmness as
well as delicacy in the flesh. It has been calculated that for every
bushel, half of peas and half of barley, that a hog eats, it gains from
nine to ten or eleven pounds of flesh.

Two pigs of about eight months old, were purchased and put up to
fatten on the 23d of December, 1834 ; they then weighed 316 lbs. They
were put into a warm sty and fed on rye and corn-meal, having three
regular feeds per diem, of two quarts each, up to the following October,
when they received three quarts at each feed, or nine quarts a-day for
about a month. From that time until the 7th of December, 1835, a
period of five weeks, their feeds were raised another quart, making now
twelve quarts a-day. Besides this they had the refuse of the milk of
two cows, and occasionally a very little green meat. When slaughtered,
they weighed 81 St. 4 lbs. of 14 lbs. to the stone, which, allowing for
one-third of offal, will amount to the gain of about 3 J lbs. of live weight

* The Cultivator, vol. ii. American Agricultural Magazine.

142 THE PIG.

per day. They ate in the whole fifty bushels of rye and corn ground ;
in cold weather it was scalded and given to them warm, and in the
summer put into thei trough and milk poured upon it.*

There are also repeated instances in which the animals have in-
creased in weight 2 lbs., 2J lbs., and even 3 lbs. a day, while fed
on barleymeal only, or barleymeal and peas, or potatoes ; the relative
prices, however, of grain and pork will always decide the question of
the advantage of this mode of feeding far better than volumes of
experiments or comments.

Barley and oats are considered to be best adapted for fattening swine.
Some persons give the preference to oats, and where the grain is given
whole they certainly are more digestible and less heating; but ground
barley or barleymeal is universally allowed to be the roost nutritious of
all food.

There are various ways of giving grain to swine: — Raw and dry,
roasted or malted, bruised and macerated, boiled, green, and growey or
germinating wheat; and, lastly, ground to meal or farina. Of these the
first two are the least advantageous, as the grain is then often but im-
perfectly masticated, and consequently produces indigestion. Where-
ever it is thus given the animals must be well supplied with water. A
little whole grain given once a-day, or every other day, to pigs fed on
barleymeal, is considered to be beneficial and add to the firmness of
the flesh.

Macerated grain is better, or rather would be if the animals would
eat it freely, which they seldom will do. Its fattening properties are
increased if, after maceration, it is suffered to lie and germinate, and
then dried or malted; or left to stand in the water until the whole
turns sour.

Many persons consider that grain boiled until the husk bursts is
better adapted for feeding swine in this form than when ground, and is
likewise more economical ; the only difference, however, in this latter
respect, will depend upon whether the expense of having it ground be
greater or less than that of the fuel necessary to boil it.

It is our opinion that the best, most economical and advantageous
form in which grain can be used is that of meal moistened with water,
whey or sour orskim-milk, into a kind of soup or porridge. The fluid,
whatever it may be, which is in the first place poured upon it, should
never be more than lukewarm, and had better be quite cold; hot or
boiling liquid will cause the meal to conglomerate into lumps of paste,
not easily dissolved, and very likely to bring on indigestion. The Rev.
Arthur Young, in his work on fattening cattle and swine, gives the
following directions as to the best method of employing this kind of
food :— " The most profitable method of converting corn of any kind
into food for hogs is to grind it into meal, and mix this with water in
cistern?, in the proportion of five bushels of meal to one hundred gal-
lons of water; stir it well several times a-day, for three weeks in cold
weather, or for a fortnight in a warmer season, by which it will have
fermented well and become acid, till which time it is not ready to give.
It should bestirred immediately before feeding. Two or three cisterns
should be kept fermenting in succession, that no necessity may occur

* The Cultivator, vol. ii.

GRAIN. 143

of giving it not duly prepared. The difference in profit between feed-
ing in this manner, and giving the grain whole, is very great, so great
that whoever tries it once will not be apt to change it for the common
method."

Thaer informs us that ground corn or coarse meal made into sour
dough (by mixing the farina or meal with warm water and a little yeast,
and then suffering it to sland in a high temperature until it turns sour,
which it will do in the course of a day,) is a better and more profitable
mode of feeding swine on grain than any other. A portion of the sour
dough is then softened with water and given to the pigs, with a small
portion of ground corn or barleymeal stirred up in it. The animals
relish this food exceedingly, and thrive rapidly upon it; but if the
dough is given alone, although they seem to make flesh as quickly, the
meat is flabby and the fat porous. Peas might be added instead of the
farina or meal, or a little whole barley or oats.

The same author likewise says:— r" Some persons appear to be ex-
ceedingly successful in fattening their pigs on bread made of coarse
rye or barleymeal. They cut this bread in pieces, dry it in an oven,
then soak it in water, mash it, and give it to the animals in the form of
porridge. Where sour milk or whey can be substituted for water, this
food is said to surpass all others for quickness and efficacy in fattening,
and for the goodness of the flesh and fat it produces."

Indian corn has latterly been employed in England with great suc-
cess in feeding swine, and that it is highly nutritive and well adapted
for the purpose there can be no question; here, as inmost cases, the
price will in a great measure decide, the advantage or non-advantage of
using it.

Maize is equal if not superior to any kind of grain for fattening, and
is extensively used on the Continent and in America, where this article
can readily be obtained. The best way is to give it quite at the latter
end of the fattening period in small quantities, as a handful or a few
ears. It may be given in its natural state, as pigs are so fond of it that
they will eat up every seed. The pork and bacon of animals that have
been thus fed is peculiarly firm and solid.

Rice is another valuable adjunct in fattening swine; we will quole
in support of its properties the following account, given by an amateur
pig-breeder : —

" We purchased from the government stores several tons of damaged
rice at a very cheap rate ; with this we fattened our pigs, and such
pork I never saw before or since; the fat was as firm ana solid as the
lean, and the flavour of the meat very superior.

" The way in which the rice was prepared for- food was as follows : —
My copper held forty gallons ; in the afternoon it was filled or nearly
so, with water; as soon as the water boiled, the fire was raked out,
two pails of rice immersed in the water, and the whole covered closely
down and left to stand until the morning. On the following day the
copper was emptied of its contents, which consisted of a thick jelly, so
firm as only to be taken out with a shovel ; and on those contents the
pigs were fed. The effect was perfect.

" As to the economy of the plan, thdt of course must be a matter de-
pendent upon circumstances ; we found»it more profitable than almost
any other kind of food we could have given, from the price at which

144 THE PIG.

we were able to purchase the rice, and its goodness. From some slight
experiments, I am induced to think that equal parts of rice jelly and
mashed potatoes would constitute an excellent food."

Another person who tried rice as a food for pigs put up two weigh-
ing five stone each, and fed them entirely on equal parts of boiled rice
and steamed potatoes. At first they progressed but slowly, but even-
tually attained the weight of fifteen stones each. Their flesh was fine
and delicate, the fat white and firm, and the flavour of both was excel-
lent.

Under the head of grain some writers consider beans, peas, and tares ;
we have already spoken of the first two when treating of vegetables, and
given it as our opinion that pea-meal is little if at all inferior to barley
and oatmeal. The addition of a few dry peas to the porridge made of
barleymeal and whey is advantageous; and many persons consider
good pea-soup to be equal to any thing in its fattening powers.

Bran or pollard, unmixed with any farinaceous particles, conduces
but little to fatten an animal ; it has been considered that fermentation
will increase and develop their nutritive properties, but we should be
sorry to be compelled to rely solely on either of these two substances.

SOILING AND PASTURING SWINE.

We have already spoken of the advantage of a run at grass to swine
of all ages, and permanent pastures are those best adapted to this pur-
pose. Soiling, or feeding pigs on cut green meat, has also its advan-
tages, and is very much practised wherever there are crops and facilities
for so doing. The best artificial grasses and green meat for swine are
clover, lucerne, chicory, sainfoin, vetches, tares, and bean and pea-
haulm. Some persons feed their swine on these matters in the fields ;
but it is a far better practice to turn them into yards or small enclosures,
and there have the green meat brought to them, as by this means the
animals are not able to wander about so much, exhausting their strength,
and feeding in a desultory manner, hut are kept quiet, and their dung
more concentrated, especially if good litter or earth is laid down to re-
ceive and absorb it.

This feeding on green meat for awhile cools and purifies the blood,
3nd keeps the animals in fair store condition, though it tends but very
little to fatten them : where it is intended that it shall perform that office
as well, it must not be simply cut green from the field and thrown to
them, but chopped up small and salted, and mixed with the screenings
of corn, or pollard, or meal, or roots, and moistened with some kind of
wash, and left to ferment.

Clover, hay, or dried vetches may be also given to swine, chopped
up small, and in wash ; the former with undoubted advantage, for clover
and lucerne are allowed to be exceedingly nutritive to swine ; but many
persons consider vetches, whether green or dried, as heating,

ANIMAL SUBSTANCES.

There cannot be a doubt but Jhat these are highly fattening in their
nature, and also that swine, being somewhat allied to the carnivora,
will greedily devour them ; but the question is, Do they not tend to
make the flesh strong and rank, to inflame the blood, to create in the

%

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR FEEDING AND FATTENING. 145

animals a longing for more of such food, and thus lead them to destroy
fowls, rabbits, ducks, and even the litters of their companions ? Many
will give blood, entrails, scraps of refuse meat, horse-flesh, and such
like, to swine, but we should decidedly discourage such practices ; the
nearest approach to animal food we would admit should be pot-liquor,
and dairy refuse. Animal food is bad for every kind of swine ; and
tends to make them savage and feverish, and often lays the foundation
of serious inflammation of the intestines.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR FEEDING AND FATTENING.

Regular hours of feeding rank among the first of the rules which ought
to be observed ; the pigs will soon learn to expect their meals at cer-
tain times, and the stomach will be ready for it ; irregularity will there-
fore irritate the digestive powers, and prevent so much benefit being
derived from the meal when it does come.

Small meals, and many of them, are preferable to few and large ones,
for swine are very apt to gorge and over-eat themselves, or,' if any be
left in the trough, to return to it by fits and starts until it is all gone ;
in both cases the digestive functions are impaired, and the process is
not fully and beneficially performed. The best remedy for indigestion
is to let the animals fast for four-and-twenty hours, and then to give
them a small quantity of dry food, as barley or peas, whole and salted,
and let them fast four or five hours more before resuming their usual
food.

Pigs always eat more when first put up to fatten* than they do after-
wards ; therefore the most nutritious food should be reserved until they
are getting pretty fat. And at that period the food must be varied, for
the appetite being diminished, it becomes necessary to excite it by va-
riety ; and, besides, the same aliment constantly given palls upon the
stomach, and is incapable of supplying in itself all the various kinds of
nutriment required by the increased and altered state of the body.

It will be found advantageous occasionally to mingle a little sulphur
or powdered antimony with the food of swine put up to fatten; about
half an ounce once in ten days will usually be sufficient. These me-
dicines tend to purify the blood, facilitate digestion, and maintain the
appetite.

An American writer states that he has found gall-nuts, bruised and
mingled with charcoal, to act most beneficially on the health of swine
while being fattened ; and also recommends that they should always be
allowed to root in the earth of a small yard attached to the sty each day,
and, if they will, eat some of the earth, which will be good for them.
An intelligent writer in the "Quarterly Journal of Agriculture " states,
that on the Duke of Montrose's estate, the pigs have ashes .and cinders
given them occasionally to correct the acidity of the stomach ; and that
they are frequently turned out to a piece of ground sprinkled with lime,
which they root in and eat ; or else, if this is not possible on account of
the weather, a little magnesia is now and then mingled in the milk.
These simple precautions are always more pr less necessary to animals
that are highly fed and have little or no exercise, and we should recom-
mend them to the attention of all owners of pigs.

Cleanliness is another sine qud non.* There is no idea so utterly

I p<

146 THE PIG.

without foundation as the common one "that pigs love dirt." and that
'.hese animals thrive best in the midst of filth. We will quote one
anecdote out of the many which have come to our knowledge, in refu-
tation of this absurd. opinion : — " A gentleman in Norfolk put np six
pigs of almost exactly equal weight, and all in equal health, to fatten ;
treated them, with one exception, all exactly the same, and fed them
on similar food, given in equal quantities to each, for seven weeks.
Three of these pigs were left to shift for themselves so far as cleanli-
ness went, and the other three were carefully curried, brushed, and
washed. These latter consumed in the seven weeks less food by five
bushels than the other three, and yet, when killed, weighed more by 2
stone 4 lbs. on the average."

It should be the duty of some one person to keep the skins of the
pigs put up to fatten— indeed we would rather say, of all the pigs kept
— perfectly free from mud, dust, or filth of any kind ; and this will best
be done by taking care that they always have clear water to bathe in
within their reach, clean litter to lie upon, are occasionally combed and
brushed, and that the sty is always kept free from filth. Nothing is so'
likely to engender lice and diseases of the skin as for it to be suffered
to remain in a dirty state. It is true that the maintenance of cleanliness
will cost some trouble and expense, but every owner of pigs will best
consult his own interests by attention to this point.

The best period for fattening pigs is the autumn ; then almost every
kind of food is to be had in plenty, as well as in perfection ; the weather
is neither too hot nor too cold ; and the humidity generally prevalent at
this season acts beneficially upon the skin and tissues, and as it were
lubricates the whole animal economy. Besides, they are ready to be
slaughtered at the period when this can be done with most advantage;
when the lowness of the temperature allows more time, and conse-
quently ena*bles the owner to turn the flesh to the greatest advantage ;
whereas in hot weather the meat must be salted or pickled, eaten or
disposed of immediately, or it turns off and is spoiled. In the imme-
diate neighbourhood of large towns alone will it be; found advantageous
to fatten pigs so as to have them ready to kill in the summer; there the
prices which can often be obtained may compensate the dealer for the
difficulty and risk he undergoes ; but even the facilities afforded by
railways will hardly do this to those who reside in remote localities, as
here the expense of the transmit has to be added' to the other items, and
the risk is increased by close packing.

The best kinds of food for fattening pigs are : —

Milk or whey mixed with barley, oat, corn, or pea-meal, or with boiled
and mashed potatoes.

Potatoes and rice ; potatoes and meal of any of the above kinds, or
mashed potatoes and whole grain.

Peas given whole, or crushed, or in the fqrm of soup, and either
alone or mixed with barley meal or potatoes.

Carrots and parsnips; and especially boiled carrots, which some
persons consider to be the most nutritious and fattening food that can
be given to swine.

Pasturage on clover, lucerne, or sainfoin, or a run in the stubble of
corn-fields immediately after the^ crop has been cut and got in.

CONSTRUCTION OF PIGGERIES. 147

Beet-root and ruta-baga are good; tat should only be given when
other roots cannot be easily obtained.

And lastly, grain itself, as corn, barley, and oats, but not rye.

An American correspondent gives the following recipe i for " an ex-
ceeding nutritious food for hogs ;" but it is one which circumstances
will not often permit us to make use of: — Boil Irish potatoes, pump-
kins, and apples until they are soft; mash them all together, taking
care thoroughly to mix and incorporate them, and add a little salt to
tfie compound ; swine will be found to relish' this food highly, and
thrive uncommonly well upon it."

A small portion of salt should always be mingled in whatever food
is given, as it tends to stimulate the appetite as well as the digestive
functions; and an ample supply of good water for drinking be kept
within the reach of every animal.

Indian corn, buckwheat, rice and maize, may doubtless be given
with advantage, and are in themselves highly nutritious; but they can-
not be reckoned as among the kinds of food generally in use, as, unless
under peculiar circumstances, they are tob expensive, and not always
to be obtained at all.

Turnips, cabbage, lettuce, and beans, are not so much adapted for
fattening as the kinds of food above enumerated, although these mat-
ters often form valuable additions to the keep of store-pigs.

CHAPTER XIII.

On the Prnjipr Construction of Piggerips — Ventilation — DPscriptinn of Mr. Henderson's
Plies — Cooking Apparatus — Curious Contrivance for Feeding Pigs — Description of the
Piggery at Prince Albert's Home Farm — Description of'a Piggery at* Lascoed — Ad-
vantages i.f Cleanliness — Pig-keeping in Mexico.

There are few things more conducive to the thriving and well-being
of swine than airy, spacious, well-constructed sties, and, above all,
cleanliness. The old prejudices — that any place was good enough to
keep a pig in, and that filth and pigsties were synonymous terms —
are now passed away, and the necessity of attention to this branch of
porcine economy generally recognised.

Formerly swine were too often housed in damp, dirty, close, im-
perfectly built sheds ; this was an error, and a fruitful source of disease,
and of unthrifty animals.

In large establishments where numerous pigs are kept, there should
be divisions appropriated to all the different kinds of pigs; the males,
the breeding sows, the newly weaned, and the fattening pigs should
all be kept separate ; and it were as well that in the divisions appro-
priated to the second and last of these four classes, there should be a
distinct apartment for each animal, all opening into a yard or enclosure
of limited extent. As pigs require warmth, these buildings should face
the south, and be kept weather-tight and well drained. Good ventila-
tion is also important, for it is needless to expect animals to make good
flesh and retain their health unless they have a sufficiency of pure air.
The blood requires it to give it vitality and free it from impurities, as
much as the stomach requires wholesome and strengthening food, and

148 THE PIG.

when it has it not, becomes vitiated, and impairs all the animal func-
tions.

*' The blood, the fountain whence the spirits flow,
Tile generous stream that waters every part,
And motion, vigour, and warm life conveys
To every moving breathing parlicle,"—

becomes contaminated by those aerial poisons given out by the decay-
ing vegetable matter, rotten or damp litter, accumulations of dung, and
animal exhalations engendered by ill-ventilated sties. These noxious
gases are inhaled by the breath, and absorbed by the skin, until they
enter the circulation, and impair its vivifying fluid. It is by the action
of the atmospheric air that venous blood is converted into arterial, freed
from all its impurities, and rendered fit to sustain all the vital func-
tions ; hence it must be at once evident that if this important agent is
in the first place contaminated, its action must be impaired and its ef-
fects empoisoned. Besides, bad smells and exhalations injure the
flavour of the meat.

Damp and cold floors should also be guarded against, as they tend
to induce cramp and diarrhoea ; and the roof so contrived as to carry off
the wet from the pigs.

The walls of a well constructed sty should be of solid masonry; the
roofs sloping, and furnished with spouts to carry of the rain.; the floors
either slightly inclined towards a gutter made to carry off the rain, or
else raised from the ground on beams or joists, and perforated so that
all urine and moisture shall drain off. Bricks and tiles are much used
for the flooring of sties, but are objectionable, because, however well
covered with litter, they still strike cold ; wood is far superior in this
respect; as well as because it admits of those clefts or perforations be-
ing made which we have just recommended, and which not only serve
to drain off all moisture, but admit fresh air as well. The value of the
litter and dung as manure, must always be borne in mind, and all
things so arranged that none of it shall be wasted.

The door of each sty ought to be so hung that it will open inwards
or outwards, so as to give the animals free ingress and egress ; and to
do this it should be hung across from side to side, and the animal push
it up to effect its entry or exit, for if it were hung in the usual way it
would derange the litter every time it opened inwards, and be very
liable to hitch. If it is not intended that the pigs shall leave their sty,
there should be an upper and lower door, the former of which should
always be left open when the weather is warm and dry, while the
latter will serve to confine the animal.

There should also be windows or slides which can be opened or
closed at will, to give admission to the fresh air, or exclude rain or
cold.

Mr. Henderson's description of his sties is more lucid and practical
than mere vague directions, we will therefore give it in his own
words : — "The plan which I recommend is as follows. Have a house
thirty feet by fifteen, with four doors all opening outwards, and three
partition walls through the house, viz. a wall between each of the doors,
dividing the house into four compartments. The two middle ones I
use for eating-rooms, and the others for sleeping apartments, having
an inner door between each eating and sleeping apartment. By this

CONTRIVANCES FOR FEEDING. 149

plan the keeper is enabled to get the eating-chambers swept out, the
troughs cleaned, and the food put into them without disturbing the
swine or being disturbed by them. There should be a division wall
having a door in it through each sleeping apartment; in the hinder part
should be the litter; and the front and smaller compartment, through
which the animals must pass to get to their food, may be used by them
as a kind of necessary, for these animals will never defile their beds
if they can avoid it.

" The following is the most convenient manger for their food. Let
it be as long as the house is wide, and fixed, against the middle wall ;
in form similar to a horse manger, but not so deep, and it must be
divided into twelve divisions by partition boards four feet in length or
height, and a little broader than the manger is wide ; thus a number
will feed as well and as quietly together as two or three. Before every
meal the trough should be well^washed and the place swept, and once
in the day a little fresh litter pllbed in the sleeping-chambers. Each
of these sleeping and eating-rooms may be temporarily divided into
two, should it be requisite.' The sleeping-rooms should be dark, as
animals fatten much more rapidly when they lie down and sleep after
each meal than they do when they wander about. There should be a
square yard to each piggery, well paved and drained, as should the.
sties also be ; and, where it is possible, an enclosure or a small piece of
ground adjoining is exceedingly useful.

"Those who have space to admit of it will find it advantageous to
have five apartments instead of four, and in the fifth or central one to
have a boiler to prepare the food, and chests and lockers to contain the
various stores."*

Parkinson advises that in the yard or enclosure before every piggeTy
should be "a rubbing-post, or, what is still more beneficial, two posts
having a pole between them similar to a horse's leaping-bar, but not
revolving ; this pole should be raised or let down to the height of the
pigs, as the rubbing of the animals against it causes a freer circulation
of blond, the same as the flesh-brush does to human-bodies."f

In all large establishments there should be a proper apparatus for
cooking, mixing, and preserving the food. For this a boiler and
steamer will be requisite, and some two or three tanks which may be
made of bricks plastered over on the interior to prevent leakage, and
fixed in the ground. Wherever it can be managed, the troughs should
be so situated that they can be filled and cleaned from the exterior
without interfering with or disturbing the animals at all, and for this
purpose the following very simple contrivance has been recommend-
ed : — " Have a flap or door w^th swinging hinges made to hang hori-
zontally over the trough, so that it can be moved to and fro, and alter-
nately be fastened by a bolt to the inside or outside of the manger.
When the hogs have fed sufficiently, the door is swung inwards and
fastened, and so remains until feeding-time, when the trough is cleaned
and refilled without any trouble, and then the flap drawn back and the
animals admitted to their food." Some persons cover the trough with
a lid having as many holes in it as there are pigs to eat from it. This

* Henderson on Swine. t Parkinson's Live Slock, vol. ii.

150 THE PIG.

is by no means a bad plan, for then each pig selects his own hole and
eats away without interfering with or incommoding his neighbour.

We cannot deny a place to the following curious method of feeding
swine, although we by no means recommend it, as it would encourage
a desultory mode of feeding — a thing always to be avoided : —

" The ingenious Rich. Fermore, of Tnssmore," says Dr. Plot,
" showed me a curious contrivance he had for feeding his swine, which
constantly have their meat from a vessel like the hopper of a mill
placed over the sty, into which a certain quantity of beans having been
put sufficient fat to so many hogs, these continually descend about half
way down the styjn a large square pipe, which then divides itself into
six smaller ones,'which terminate each of them in a small trough just
large enough to admit the nose of a hog, and come all of them with
their ends so near the bottom that there is never more than a handful
of beans in the trough at a time, which being taken away by the hog,
there follows another, and so on: and he having drawn a rivulet of
water through the sty, the daily trouble of waiting on the hogs is saved,
the animals are constantly kept supplied, and are unable to waste or
dirt their food."* _ !

We are indebted to the kindness of a friend for the following account
of the Royal piggery, at the Home Farm at Windsor. It consists of
an oblong slated shed, of sufficient length and breadth to contain about
two dozen sties, of somewhat larger dimensions than ordinary pig-sties,
and arranged in two rows with a broad walk between them, from which
the spectator looks into the sties on the right and left of him. Each
sty has an in-door and an out-door apartment, the former having a
wooden coverlid to it, going upon hinges like the lid of a cornbin, in-
stead of a roof, which may be raised to any height in hot or close
weather, so as to admit any influx of air required, or even be thrown
back if necessary. The sties are paved with brick, both within and
without doors, and their floors slightly declivitous.

The following is a description of a piggery at Lascoed Pont Senny,
planned and executed by Mr. J. Donaldson, land steward to A. M.
Storley, Esq., Brecon, South Wales : — " This piggery is constructed
for the purpose of breeding and feeding on a scale to suit a farm of six
hundred acres of turnip soil in an inland situation, where convenient
markets render easy -the disposal both of fat and lean stock. There
are seven sties at the end of the steaming-house which accommodate
a boar and six brood sows, which are calculated to produce yearly one
hundred pigs, sixty of which will be fattened from September to April
in fifteen sties, placed in two parallel rows, and made to contain two
hogs in each apartment. The rest are sold as stores. The yearly
rental is from 200/. to 250/., according to the prices of the produce.
The steamed food consists of potatoes and meal, with grain to finish,
and is conveyed to the sties along a paved road or path, in a small four-
wheeled wagon. The steamer also cooks potatoes for the working
horses, and chaff for milch cows, and thus applies the original cost to.
several purposes, and fully employs a man. The store pigs are fed in
summer with clover and vetches, and in winter with roots either raw
or steamed. Water is brought to the steaming-house in a pipe from

* Plot's Natural History of Oifordshire, 1677.

PIG-KEEPING IN MEXICO. 151

the farm-yards, which are all supplied by ball-cocks from elevated casks
fed by a forcing-pump. A pipe underneath conveys the water from the
potato-washer to the pond in the store-yard, where it passes to the lower
curve of the yard, and then meeting with "the collected moisture of the
whole area of the piggery, falls through an iron grate into a paved
culvert, and is conveyed to the manure-pit, to which the liquid of the
farmery is collected and brought by a drain; along the side of the road
are sheds opening into the store-yard. The cost of erecting a piggery
like this will vary from 80/. to 100/. according to the price of labour
and materials, and to whether the roofs be tiled or slated. The steam-
mg-house has an upper floor to serve as a store-house for grain, meal,
roots, &c.

The piggery should always be built as near to that part of the esta-
blishment from which the chief part of provision is to come as possible,
as much labour will thus be saved. If trie dairy is to supply this, let
it be as near as may be to that building ; or if it is to come from a
brewery or distillery, then let it be near to them.

Care most also be taken to preserve the dung and urine, and some
place fixed in which these matters can be stored for manure. Where-
ever the swine are regularly and well managed, this will not be diffi-
cult, for the animals will always, if they can lay theirdung at a distance
from the place where they sleep or feed. A small paved yard, some-
what sloping, and with a gutter to serve as a recepticle, will best an-
swer this purpose, and thence it can be daily removed to the proper
heap or tank.

We have been told of a gentleman who keeps only a few pigs for
his own use, and has a double sty for them, by which means he is
enabled to keep them exceedingly clean and sweet. Every morning
the pigs are changed from one into the other, so that each sty remains
unoccupied for four-and-twenty honrs, during which time it is thoroughly
cleaned out, and of course becomes well aired and free from all un-
pleasant smell. And well do we remember the pleasure with which
we used to view the pigs and sties of an old friend of ours, now no
more. A door leading out of his beautiful flower-garden brought us to
these equally well-tended objects of his pride. The sties were always
kept whitened on the inside, the slooping floor carried off all moisture
to a deep gutter running between the sty'and the square-paved yard,
each of which inclined towards it; a trough ever stood with watercleaT
as crystal for them to drink, and the animals themselves were, by
washing, currycoriibing, and perfect cleanliness about them, as neat and
sleek as a lady's lap-dog. They were, in fact, pet pigs. Nor are we
without pleasurable reminiscences of delicate spare ribs, loins, and legs
of pork and delicious sucking-pigs.

Washings, combings, and brushings are valuable adjuncts in the
treatment of swine ; the energies of the skin are thus roused and the
pores opened, consequently the healthful functidns are aided, and that
inertness so likely to be engendered by the lazy life of a fattening pig
counteracted. We cannot close this chapter without quoting the fol-
lowing account of the mode of keeping pigs in Mexico : —

" Fine breeds of these useful animals are kept by many persons of
wealth, as an article of trade, in the city of Mexico ; and the care and
attention paid to their cleanliness and comfort so far exceed any thing I

152 THE PIG.

have seen elsewhere, that a short account may be useful by furnishing
hints to our farmers, brewers, distillers, &c, by whom large numbers
of these valuable animals could be and are conveniently kept. The
premises where the business is carried on are extensive, consisting in
general of a gopd dwelling-house, with a shop, slaughter-house, and
places for singeing the pigs, large bowls for rendering the lard, salting
and drying rooms, and lard-rooms, with wooden bins for containing
the rendered fat, which is an article of great consumption in Spanish
cookery, being used as a substitute for butter. There is also a soap
manufactory, in which the offal fat is manufactured, and apartments
where the blood is made into a kind of black-pudding, and sold to the
poor. Behind all these are the sties for the hogs, generally from eight
hundred to one thousand in number, which occupy a considerable range
of well-built sheds about thirty feet deep, with the roofs decending
very low, and having the entrance through low arches, before which is
an open space the whole length of the yard, and about twenty-four feet
wide, in the centre of which is a kind of aqueduct built of stone, and
filled with clear water supplied from a well at the end of the premises.
The hogs can only put their noses into this water through holes in the
wall, which prevents their dirtying it, as it passes through the whole
division of the yard. This is the only liquid given them, and their food
is maize or Indian corn, slightly moistened, and scattered at stated
hours on the ground, which in the yard, as well as the place where they
sleep, is kept perfectly dry and clean. They are attended by Indians with
every possible care. There is a cold bath on the premises, which they
are obliged frequently to use, as cleanliness is considered essential to
their acquiring that enormous load of fat from which the principal profit
is derived. Their ease and comfort seem also in every respect to be
studiously attended to; and the occupation of two Indian lads will
cause a smile on the countenances of my musical readers, when they
are informed that they are employed from morning till night in settling
any disputes or little bickerings that may arise among the happy inhabi-
tants of this community, either in respect to rank or condition, and in sing-
ing them to sleep. The boys are chosen for the strength of their lungs,
and their taste and judgment in delighting the ears and lulling the
senses of this amiable harmonic society ; they succeed each other in
chanting during the whole day, to the great delight and gratification of
their bristly audience, who seem fully to appreciate the merits of the
performers."

SUCKING-PIGS. 153

CHAPTER XIV.

Pics, Profirof, to the Butcher— Sucking-pigs— Pork-bulrhprs— Pig-killing at Rome-
Pickling Pork— Bacon : Mode of Curing in Hampshire— Buckinghamshire— Wiltshire
— -Yoi-kshire — Westphalia — America — Brine a Poison for Pigs— Quantity of Buctin,
Bain, and Salt Pork imported during the last Three Years — Importation of Swine—-
Pig's Dung as Manure.

There is perhaps no animal so entirely profitable to the butcher as
the pig. Scarcely an atom of it but is useful'. The offal is so small
as not to be thought of in comparison with that arising from cattle and
sheep. The feet, the head, and even portions of the intestines are
saleable for food and eagerly purchased by epicures ; the scraps and
trimmings of the meat make delicious sausages, pork pies, and other
such savoury dishes; brawn, too, is another of the delicacies we owe
to the much despised pig ; the fat, or lard, is invaluable to cooks, con-
fectioners, perfumers, and apothecaries; pigs' bladders meet a ready
sale; the skin is available for pocket-books and several purposes; and
the bristles form by no means an inconsiderable item in the tables of
imports and exports, and are used by shoemakers, as well as in the
manufacture of brushes, &c. Lastly, the flesh in the form of fresh or
pickled pork, ham, and bacon, constitutes the chief food of thousands
of human beings in all parts of the globe. ,

In France, from one-half to two-thirds of the meat consumed by the
poorer and middling classes of the provinces is pork. In Ireland, the
peasantry and many of the middle-men " scarcely know the taste of
any other kind of meat. In most of our Channel Islands pork consti-
tutes the staple animal food of the labouring classes and small farmers;
and in America, and especially among the new settlements and back-
woods, it is often the only animal food for the first few years of the
settler's life. .

SCCKING-PIGS.

In our own country, " sucking-pigs" too are in great esteem, and
will, at their season, fetch a very high price. Charles Lamb, in one
of his inimitable 'Essays of Elia,' declares, " 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 —
these hobbydehoys ; but a young and tender suckling, under a moon old,
guiltless as yet of the sty ; with no original speck of the amor immun-
dilix, the hereditary failing of the first parent, as yet manifest ; his
voice as yet not broken, but something between a childish treble and
a grumble, the mild forerunner or prseludium of a grunt.

" He must he roasted. I am not ignorant that our ancestors ate them
seethed or boiled ; but what a sacrifice of the exterior tegument!

"There is no flavour comparable, I will contend, to that of the crisp,

tawny, well watched, not over-roasted, crackling, as it is well called ;

the Very teeth are invited to their share of the pleasure at this banquet,

in overcoming the coy, brittle resistance, with the adhesive oleaginous

11

154 THE FIG.

*

— Oh, call it not fat! — but an indefinable sweetness growing up to it —
the tender blossoming of fat — fat cropped in the bud — taken in the shoot
— in the first innocence — the cream and quintescence of the child-pig's
yet pure food ; the lean, no lean ; but a kind of animal manna, or rather,
fat and lean (if it must be so) so blended arid running into each other,
that both together make but one ambrosian result, or common sub-
stance.

" Behold him while he is doing ! it seemeth rather a refreshing
warmth than a scorching heat that he is so passive to. How equally
he twirleth round the string. Now he is just done. To see the ex-
treme sensibilityof that tender age ; he hath wept out his pretty eyes
— radiant jellies—shooting stars, i^ee him in the dish, his second
cradle; how meek he lieth! wouldst thou have this innocent grow up
to the grossness and indocility which too often accompany maturer
swinehood? Ten to one he would have proved a glutton, a sloven, an
obstinate, disagreeable animal, wallowing in all filthy conversation —
from these sins he is happily snatched away.

Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade,
Death came with timely care.

. His memory is odoriferous : no clown curseth ; whilst his stomach
half ejectetlt the rank bacon; no coalheaver bolteth him in reeking
sausages : he hath a fair sepulchre in the grateful stomach of the judi-
cious epicure, and for such a tomb might be content to die.

" Pig — let me speak his praise — is no less provocative of the appetite
than he is satisfactory to the critical ness of the censorious palate. The
strong man may batten on him, and the weakling refuseth not his mild
juices.

" Unlike to mankind's mixed characters, a bundle of virtues and
vices, inexplicably intertwisted and not to be unravelled without hazard,
he is — good throughout. No part of him is better or worse than ano-
ther. He helpeth, as far as his little means goeth, all around."

Sucking-pigs should be killed at from a fortnight to three weeks old.
The Chinese breed furnishes the most delicate and delicious "pork-
lings." They should be stuck ; all the blood suffered to drain out ;
scalded and scraped gently ; and the bowels taken out, and the inside
sponged dry and clean f

The alterations latterly effected in the breeds of swine have tended
materially to improve pork, and to render it more sought for and valued.
We can recall to mind when the thought of pork was associated in our
minds with visions of coarse-grained meat and oily fat, and with fore-
bodings of a fit of indigestion. Nothing could tend more effectually
to banish such fancies than a sight and taste of the small, fine-grained
joints, delicate as poultry, and of excellent flavour, which have taken
the place of those ungainly legs and Brobdignagian loins and hands of
" olden times."

■ And with the improvement of the meat has grown an increased de-
mand for it. Formerly, ay, as lately as within the last five and twenty
years, the trade of " pork-buteher " was unknown in almost all our
country towns, even in those of some considerable importance ; it is no
longer so ; there are nqw few places of any size or note which have npt
on-an. average one pork-buteher to every two or three meat-butchers;

PIG-KILLING. 155

and in all smaller places pork is generally to be procured wherever
other meat is sold.

PIG-KILLING.

A pig that is to be killed should be kept without food for the last 12
or 16 hoars ; a little water mast, however be within his reach. Mr.
Henderson advises that in order to prevent the animal from struggling
and screaming in the agonies of death, it should in the first place be
stunned by a blow on the head. Some advise that the knife should be
thrust into the neck so as to sever the artery leading from the heart,
while others prefer that the animal should be stuck through the brisket
in the direction of the heart, care however being taken not to touch the
first rib. The blood should then be suffered to drain from the carcass,
and the more completely it does so the better will be the meat, say our
English pork-butchers, but those of some parts of the Continent dis-
agree with them, probably because there the pig's flesh is eaten for the
most part fresh, or spiced, or cooked in other savoury modes, and but
seldom pickled or dried, therefore the superabundance of blood in it
communicates to it a juicy richness agreeable to their palates. .

Mr. Waterton gives a very graphic description of the slaughter-house
for swine at Rome, and the proceedings of the pig-killers : —

"As you enter Rome at the Porta del Popolo a little on your right is
the great slaughter-house, with a fine stream of water running through
it., It is, probably, inferior to none in Italy for an extensive plan and
for judicious arrangements. Here some 700 or 800 pigs are killed on
every Friday during the winter season. Nothing can exceed the dex-
terity with which they are despatched. About 30 of these large and
fat black pigs are driven into a commodious pen, followed by three or
four men, each with a sharp skewer in his hand, bent at one end, in
order that 'it may be used with advantage. On entering the pen, these
performers, who put you vastly in mind of assassins, make a rush at
the hogs, each seizing one by the leg, amid a general yell of horror on
the part of the victims. Whilst the hog and the man are struggling on
the ground, the latter with the rapidity of thought pushes his skewer
betwixt the fore-leg and the body quite into the heart, and then gives
it a turn or two. The pig can rfee no more, but screams for a minute
or so and then expires. This process is continued until they tare all
despatched, the brutes sometimes rolling over the butchers, and some-
times the butchers over the brutes, with a yelling enough to stun one's
ears. In the mean time the screams become fainter and fainter,and thert
all is silence on the death of the last pig. A cart is in attendance ; the
carcasses are lifted into it, and it proceeds through the street, leaving
one or more dead hogs at the different pork-shops. No blood appears
outwardly, nor is the internal haemorrhage prejudicial to the meat, for
Rome cannot be surpassed in the flavour of her bacon or in the sound-
ness of her hams."*

* Waterloo's Easaya on Natural History.

156 THE PIG.

PREPARING THE DEAD PIG.

As soon as the hog is dead, if it is intended for pork let it be laid on
aboard or table, and scalded with water nearly but not quite on the
boil, and well scraped to get off all the hair and bristles. Bacon hogs
may be singed by enveloping the body in straw and setting the straw
on fire, and then scraping it all over ; but when this is done care must
be taken not to burn or parch the cuticle. The next thing to be done
is to take out the entrails and well wash the interior of the body with
luke-warm water so as to remove all blood and impurities, and
afterwards dry it with a clean cloth ; the carcass should then be hung
up in a cool place for eighteen or twenty hours to become set and firm.

On the following day the feet are first of all cut off, so that they shall
not disfigure the hams or hands, and plenty of knuckle shall be left to
hang them up by ; the knife is then inserted at the nape of the neck and
the carcass divided up the middle of the back bone ; the head is then
separated from each side close behind the ears, and the hams and
shoulders taken off and trimmed ; some take out the chine and upper
part of the ribs in the first place, but almost every locality has its
peculiar way of proceeding.

PICKLING PORK.

For pickling pork the sides should be rubbed over with sugar and
salt, and then laid in a brine-tub, in which a thick layer of salt has
already been strewn, and a slighter one of sugar; the pork must be cut
into such pieces as will admit of its lying quite flat in the tub ; the
rind must be placed downwards, and between each layer of pork a
layer of salt and sugar. When the tub is quite full a layer of salt suf-
ficiently thick to exclude the air must be spread over the whole, and
the tub covered closely up and left for a week or ten days ; if by this
time the brine has not begun to rise, warm water should be sprinkled
over the top layer.

Pork pickled in this way will be ready for use in about three months,
and with proper care will be as good at the end of two years as it was
when first begun. The sugar is considered to impart a finer and richer
flavour than saltpetre, although the latter is most commonly used.
There is no reason why both sugar and saltpetre may not be advan-
tageously combined with the salt in pickling pork as well as in salting
beef, for in this latter process there can be no question that a pickle
composed of three parts salt, one part saltpetre, and one sugar, is the
very best that can be used, making the meat tender, juicy, well flavoured,
and fine coloured.

CURING BACON.

Bacon is the next form in which we eat pig's flesh. There has been
some dispute as to the derivation of this word ; someauthors have sug-
gested that it may be a corruption of the Scotch baktn (dried 1 ), while
others suggest that it is derived from beechen, as the finest flitches were
considered to be those furnished by animals that were fattened on the
fruit of the beech-tree, and this opinion is borne out by the fact that in
the old Lancashire dialect the word bacon is both spelt and pronounced

CURING BACON. 157

beechen. A bacon hog will in general be fit for killing at about a
twelve-month old, when he will weigh some ten ot twelve score : those
persons who care most about the hams will find it answer their purpose
best not to let the animals be too fat, or so fat as a bacon-hog, and
after having taken off the hams to cut up the carcass for fresh or
pickling pork.

There are various methods of curing bacon and hams practised in the
different counties of England, as well as in Scotland, America, and the
Continent. We will proceed to describe a few of the best and most
successful.

In Hampshire and Berkshire the practice is to choose a dry day,
when the wind is blowing from the north, and kill the hog early in the
morning (it having fasted the day before.) When dressed hang him
up in some airy place for 24 hours, then proceed to cut him up. This
being done, lay the flitches, on the ground, and sprinkle them with salt
lightly, so let them remain for six or eight hours ; then turn them up
edgeways, and let the brine run off. In the mean time take two or
three gallons of best salt, and two ounces of saltpetre, .pounded very
fine, and well-mixed together; and the salting bench being made of
the best seasoned oak, proceed to salt the flitches by rubbing in the
salt on the back side of the flitch. This being done, turn the inside
upwards, and lay on the salt about a quarter of an inch in thickness:
in like manner treat every flitch. On the third day afterwards change
the flitches, viz., take off the uppermost and. reverse them, at the same
time lay on salt a quarter of an inch in thickness. There will be no need
of rubbing as before mentioned, neither should the saltpetre be repeated,
otherwise the lean of the bacon will be hard, The changing and salt-
ing should be done every third day for six successive times, when the
bacon will be sufficiently salt. Then proceed to rub off all the stale
briny salt, and lay on each flitch a covering of clean fresh bran or saw-
dust, and take it to the drying loft. It should be there hung by means
of crooks fastened in the neck of the flitch, and remain for 14 or 16
days. The fuel most proper for drying bacon is cleft oak or ash, what
is commonly called cord wood.

In Buckinghamshire, as soon as the flitches are cut from the hog
they lay them on a form or table in a slanting position, and, supposing
the whole hog to have weighed 12 or 14 score, take a quarter of a
pound of saltpetre, pounded very fine, and sprinkle it all over the
flitches, rubbing it well into the shoulder parts especially ; they then
suffer them them to remain twelve hours, after which they should be
rubbed dry, and in the mean time seven pounds of salt mixed with one
pound and a quarter of coarse brown sugar put into a frying-pan and
heated on a clear fire, stirring it well that it may all be of the same
temperature. This mixture, as hot as the hand can possibly bear it,
may now be rubbed well, into the flitches, which are then put one upon
the other and laid in a salting pan or other contrivance, in order that the
brine may form and be kept from wasting. The ba'con must be kept
in this situation four weeks, turning it and basting it well with the
brine twice or thrice a week. At the expiration of this time take it
from the brine, hang it up to dry, and smoke it, if preferred, which in
the absence of a regular smokehouse may be done as follows :— Hang
up the bacon in a chimney or other orifice, then underneath put down a

158 THE PIG.

layer of dry straw, upon this a layer of mixed shavings, fceeping orit
those from deal or fir, next a good layer of sawdust and some juniper-
berries, or branches where procurable, and over all a mantle of wet
straw or litter, which makes the fire give ont much smoke without
burning away too rapidly. This smoking must be repeated three or
four times, or till the bacon appears thoroughly dry, when it may be
hung up in the kitchen, or any dry place convenient.

In Kent the hog is swa/ed or singed, in preference to scalding and
scraping the skin, as this latter process, it is considered, tends to soften
the rind and injure the firmness of the flesh. The flitches are rubbed
with dry salt and saltpetre in the proportion of one-third of the latter
to two of the former, and laid in a trough, and there each one sprinkled
over with this mixture. Here they continue for three weeks or a month,
according to their Bize, during which time they are taken out once in
two or three days and well rubbed with the brine and turned.

They are dried before a slow fire, and this process occupies about
the same time that the salting has done. When it is completed the
flitches are either hung up in a dry place, or deposited on stone slabs
until wanted for domestic use.

In Somersetshire and Wiltshire the following is the common pro-
cess : —

When the hogs are prepared the sides are first laid in large wooden
troughs and sprinkled over with Tock salt, and there left unmoved for
four-and-twenty hours in order to let all the blood and other superfluous
juices be completely drained off from them.

After this they are taken up and thoroughly wiped, and some fresh
bay-salt, previously heated in an iron frying-pan, is rubbed into the
flesh until it has absorbed a sufficient quantity. This rubbing is con-
tinued for four successive days, during which the flitches are usually
turned every second day. Where the large hogs are killed it becomes
necessary to keep the flitches in brine for three weeks, and after that
interval to turn them out and dry them in the common manner.

In the county of Westmoreland, which is celebrated for the flavour of
its hams, the following method prevails: — First they are thoroughly
rubbed, usually with bay-salt alone, after which some curers advise that
they shall be closely covered up, while others leave them on a stone
for the purpose of draining off" the brine. At the expiration of five days
this friction is repeated with equal diligence, but the bay-salt is then
combined with somewhat more than an ounce of saltpetre to each ham.
They are next suffered to lie about a week either in hogsheads among
the brine, or on stone benches, after which they are hung up in the
chimney to dry. In this last part of the process there is a difference
of practice. By some they are suspended so that they shall be dried
solely by the heat arising from the fire below, without being exposed
at all to the smoke, while by others they are hung up in the midst
of the smoke, whether this arises fron\coals or peat.

In Yorkshire, after the pig has been killed, it is allowed to hang
twenty-four hours previous to being cut up ; one pound of saltpetre is
then rubbed into a twenty-stone pig (of fourteen pounds to the stone,)
and one and a half or two stones of common salt, taking care that it is
well rubbed in; it is then put into a tub kept for the purpose: After
having lain a fortnight it is turned over, and a little more salt applied

CURING BACON. 159

—say half a stone; itthen remains a fortnight longer in the pickle-tub;
whence it is taken and hung up in the kitchen, inhere it remains two
months to dry, but should the winter be far advanced, and dry weather
set in, a shorter period might suffice. After being taken from the top
of the kitchen, the inside is washed over with quicklime and water to
preserve it from the fly ; it is then removed into a room not used by the
family, away from heat, and where it will be kept perfectly dry and is
ready for use at pleasure. Trie smoking system is rarely adopted.

Mr. Henderson, in his "Treatise on Swine," gives the following ac-
count of the mode of curing bacon and hams in Scotland : —

" In killing a number of swine, what sides you may have dressed the
first day lay upon some flags or boards, piling them across each other,
and giving each flitch a powdering of saltpetre, and then covering it
with salt. Proceed in the same manner with the hams themselves,
and do not omit giving them a little saltpetre, as it opens the pores of
the flesh to receive the salt, and besides gives the harn a pleasant
flavour, and makes it more juicy. Let tnem lie in this state about a
week, then turn those on the top undermost, giving them a fresh salt-
ing. After lying two or three weeks longer, they may be hung up to
dry in some chimney or smoke-house. Or, if the curer chooses, he
may turn them over again, without giving them any more salt; in
which state they may lie for a month or two, without catching any harm,
until he has convenience for drying them. I practised for many years
the custom of carting my flitches and hams through the country to
farm-houses, and used to hang them in their chimneys, and other parts
of the house, to dry, some seasons to the amount of five hundred car-
casses. This plan I soon found was attended by a number of incon-
veniences, yet it is still common in Dumfriesshire.

"About twenty years ago I contrived a small smoke-house of a very
simple construction. It is about twelve feet square, and the walls about
seven feet high. One of these huts requires six joists across, one close
to each wall, the other four laid asunder at proper distances. To re-
ceive five rows of flitches, they must be laid on the top of the wall. A
piece of wood, strong enough to bear the weight of one flitch of bacon,
must be fixed across the belly end of the flitch by two strings, as the
neck end must hang downwaTds. The piece of wood must be longer
than the flitch is wide, so that each end may rest upon a beam. They
may be put so near to each other as not to touch. The width of it will
hold twenty-four flitches in a row, and there will be five rows, which
will contain one hundred and twenty flitches. 1 As many hams may be
hung at the same time above the flitches, contrived in the best manner
one can. The lower end of the flitches will be within two and a half
or three feet of the floor, which must be covered five or six inches thick
with sawdust, which must be kindled at two different sides. It will
burn, but not cause any flame to injure the bacon. The door must be
kept close, and the hut must have a small hole in the roof, so that part
of the smoke may ascend. That lot of bacon and hams will be ready
to pack up in a hogshead, to send off, in eight or ten days, or a little
longer if required, with very little loss of weight. After the bacon is
salted, it may lie in the salt-house, as described, until an order is re-
ceived.

" I found the smoke-house to be a great saving, not only in the ex*

160 THE FIG.

pense and trouble of employing men to cart and hang it through the
country, but it did got lose nearly so much weight by this process. It.
may be remarked, that whatever is shipped for the London market, or
any other, both baeon and hams, must be knocked hard, and packed
into a sugar hogshead, or something similar, to hold about ten hundred-
weight. Bacon can only be cured from the middle of September until
the middle of April."

The annexed system is the one usually pursued in Westphalia : —

" Six pounds of rock salt, two pounds of powdered loaf sugar, three
ounces of saltpetre, and three gallons of spring or pure water, are boiled
together. This should be skimmed when boiling, and when quite cold
poured over the meat, every part of which must be covered with this
brine. • Small pork will be sufficiently cured in four or five days ; hams,
intended for drying, will be cured in four or five weeks, unless they are
very large. This pickle may be used again and again, if it is fresh
boiled up each time with a small addition to the ingredients. Before,
however, putting the meat into the brine, it must be washed in water,
the blood pressed out, and the whole wiped clean.

" Pickling-tubs should be larger at the bottom than at the top, by which
means, when well packed, the pork will retain its place until the last
layer is exhausted. When the pork is cool it may be cut up, the hams
and shoulders reserved for bacon, and the remainder salted. The bot-
tom of the tub or barrel should be covered with rock salt, and on it a
layer of meat placed, and so on until the tub is filled. The salt should
be used liberally, and the barrel filled with strong brine boiled and
skimmed, and then cooled.

" The goodness and preservation of hams and shoulders depends on
their smoking as well as their salting. Owing to some misconstruction
of the smoke-house, and to the surface of the meat not being properly
freed from saline matter, or other causes, it not unfrequently happens
that during the process of smoking, the meat is constantly moist, and
imbibes a pyroligneous acid taste and smell, destructive of its good
qualities.

" The requisites of a smoke-house are, that it should be perfectly
dry ; not warmed by the fire that makes the smoke ; so far from the fire,
that any vapour thrown off in the smoke may be condensed before reach-
ing the meat; so close as to exclude all flies, mice, &c, and yet capa-
ble of ventilation and admitting the escape of smoke.

" The Westphalian hams, the most celebrated in Europe, are princi-
pally cured at and exported from Hamburg. The smoking of these is
performed in extensive chambers, in the upper stories of high buildings.
Some are four or five stories high, and the smoke is conveyed to these
rooms from fires in the cellar through tubes, on which the vapour is
condensed and the heat absorbed, so that the smoke is both dry and
cool when it conies in contact with the meat. They are thus kept per-
fectly dry, and acquire a colour and flavour unknown to those smoked
in the common method.

" Hams after being smoked may be kept any length of time by being
packed in dry ashes or powdered charcoal, or by being kept in the
smoke-house if that is secure against theft, or a smoke is made under
them once a-week. When meat is fully smoked or dried, it may be
Jcept hung up in any dry room by slipping over it a cotton bag, the

CURING BACON. 161

neck of which is closely tied around the string that supports the meat, and
thus excludes the bacon-bug, fly, &c. The small part of a ham or shoul-
der should always be hung downward in the process of smoking, or
when suspended for preservation."*

The following method of curing bacon — which has been practised in
Virginia and Kentucky by one person with perfect success for five-and-
thirty years, during Which time he states that he has cured on the
average from six to eight thousand pounds every year, or, in the whole,
the enormous quantity of from a hundred to a hundred and twenty-five
tons — will conclude what we have to say on this division of our sub-
ject.

" The hogs should be killed when the weather is sufficiently cold to
ensure that when they are hung up, after having been cleaned, they
shall not only become quite cold to the touch, but feel hard and stiff.
They should be killed on one day, and cut up and salted on the next.
When the weather is,very cold they should be hung in a cellar or some-
where where they are not likely to become frozen, but if there be no
danger of this let them hang in the open air. ^

" The process of cutting up is too well known to need description*
nothing further need be said than that the backbone or chine should he
taken out, as also the spare-ribs from the shoulders, and the mouse-
pieces and short-ribs or griskins from the middlings. No acute angles
should be left to shoulders or hams. In salting up in Virgina, all the
meat except the heads, jowls, chines, and smaller pieces, is put into
powdering-tubs (water-tight half-hogsheads). In Kentucky, large
troughs, ten feet long and three or four feet wide at the top, made of the
lAriodendron tulipifera, or poplar-tree, are used. These are much the
most convenient for packing the meat in, and are easily caulked if they
should crack so as to leak. The salting-tray, or box in which the meat
is to be salted, piece by piece, and from which each piece, as it is salted,
is to be transferred to the powdering-tub or trough, must be placed just
so near the trough that the man standing between can transfer the piece
from one to the other easily, and without wasting the salt as they are
lifted from the salting-box into the trough. The Salter stands on the
off-side of the salting-box. Salt the hams first, the shoulders next, and
the middlings last, which may be piled up two feet above the top of
the trough or tub. The joints will thus in a short time be immersed
in brine.

"Measure into your salting-tray four measures of salt (a peck mea-
sure will be found most convenient,) and one measure of clean dry
sifted ashes; mix and incorporate them well. The Salter takes a ham
into the tray, rubs the skin with this composition and the raw hock
end, turns it over, and packs the composition of salt and ashes on the
fleshy side till it is at least three-quarters of an inch deep all over it,
and on the interior lower part of the ham, which is covered with the
skin, as much as will lay on it. The man who stands ready to transfer
the pieces as they are salted takes up the piece, and deposits it care-
fully, without displacing the composition, with the skin side down, in
the bottom of the trough. Each succeeding ham is thus deposited side,
by side, so as to leave the least possible space unoccupied.

* Albany Cultivator.

162 THE PIG.

" When the bottom is all covered, see that every visible part of this
layer of meat is covered with the composition of salt and ashes. Then
begin another layer, every piece being covered on the upper or fleshy
side three-quarters of an inch thick with the composition. When your
trough is filled even full in this way with the joints, salt the middlings
with salt only, without the ashes, and pile them up on the joints so
that the liquified salt may pass from them into the trough. Heads,
jowls, backbones, &c, receive salt only, and should not be put in the
trough with the large pieces.

" Much slighter salting will preserve thern if they are salted upon
loose boards, so that the bloody brine from them can pass off". The
joints and middlings are to remain in and above the trough without be-
ing re-handled, re-salted, or disturbed in any way, till they are to be
hung up to be smoked.

" If the hogs weighed not more than 150 lbs., the joints need not re-
main longer than five weeks in the pickle ; if they weighed 200 or up-
wards, six or seven weeks is not too long. It is better that they should
jjfey in too long rather than too short a time.

F"In three weeks, jowls, &c, may be hungup. Taking out,of pickle,
and preparation for hanging up to smoke, is thus performed : — Scrape
y off the undissolved salt (and if you had put on as much as directed,
there will be a considerable quantity on all the pieces not immersed in
the brine ; this salt and the brine is all saved ; the brine boiled down,
and the dry composition given to stock, especially to hogs.) Wash
every piece in lukewarm water, and with a rough towel clean off the
salt and ashes. Then put the strings in to hang up. Set the pieces
up edgewise, that they may drain and dry. Every piece is then to be
dipped into the meat-paint, and hung up to smoke. The meat-paint is
made of warm, not hot, water and very fine ashes stirred together until
they are of the consistence of thick paint. When they are dipped in
this, they receive a coating which protects them from the fly, prevents
dripping, and tends to lessen all external injurious influences. Hang
up the pieces while yet moist with the paint, and smoke them well."

POISONOUS PROPERTIES OF BRINE.

It is a fact worthy of notice that the brine in which pork or bacon
has been pickled is poisonous to pigs. Several cases are on record in
which these animals have died in consequence of a small quantity of
brine having been mingled with the wash, under the mistaken impres-
sion that it would answer the same purpose and be equally as beneficial
as in the admixture of a small quantity of salt.

IMPORTATION OF BACON AND PORK.

163

j IMPORTATION OF BACON, HAM, AND SALTED PORK.

From a reference to' the accounts furnished by the Board of Trade, it
appears that there Have been imported during the last three years, —

1844.

1845.

1846.

Bacon . . .... owls.

36

51

2,768

Hams "

6,732

5,462

11,252

PoKK, Salted : —

Of British Possessions . "

Foreign ..."

Fresh "

2,153

28,627
63

1,517

38,128

133

(72,519
133

Total of Pork . .

30,843

39,878

72,652

And of these three articles there were entered for home consumption,-

. cwts.
J,

1844.

1845.

1846.

Bacon

36

54

2,768

3",568

' 2,603

8,385

Pork, Salted :—

Of British Possessions
Foreign
Fresh ....

248

1,073

63

172

1,289

133

(72,519
133

Total of Pork .

1,384

1,594

72,652

These tables demonstrate the enormous increase in the importation of
these staple articles of food which has taken place since the abolition of
1.he Tariff of 1842 and the substitution of the new one. The alteration
of duties is as follows : —

In 1842.

3. it.

14 per ctvt.
3 fi

On Bacon from Foreign Countries .

British possessions .

Ham from Foreign ^oiintrms . . .■ 34

British Possessions . . . 3 6

Salted Pork from Foreign Countries 8

British Possessions 2 o

New Tariff,

a. d.

7 per cwt.

2 " .,

7 „

2 „

(I

164 THE FIG.

Previous to 1842 the duty on bacon and ham amounted to 28s. and
7s. per cwt., and that on pork to 16s. and 4s.; swine were then prohibi-
ted ; but when, by'the Act 5 & 6 Vict. cap. 47, they became admissible,
there were imported, —

In 1842. In 1343. In 1844. In 1845. In 1846.

~415 ~36l 269 1,598 3,443

Here again we find the same wonderful increase. In 1845 seven
times the number are imported that were brought over in 1844 ; and in
184G the import of 1845 is doubled. Yet there is no diminution created
in the provision trade by this extraordinary increase in that of live
animals, but, On the contrary, it too increases in 1845, and is again
doubled in 1846. And the increase of demand is proportionate with
that of the supplies.

The accounts of one branch of our imports will this present year,
however, in all probability, show a material defalcation in the amount ;
we allude to those arising from Ireland, whence a large number of the
pigs which come to our markets are supplied, and where the present
state of derth has caused numbers of these animals to be destroyed.
This fact ought to stimulate our native breeders to increased exertions.
In from 1820 to 1825 there was on the average from 204,380 to 338,218
cwts. of bacon and hams imported yearly into England from the sister
country. Since the last-named period there has been no decrease ; but,
the trade between Ireland and Great Britain having been placed on the
footing of a coasling-trade, and these articles having been imported
without specific duties, it is not so easy to acertain the precise amounts
brought over; they may be, however, estimated at about 500,000 cwt.
per annum.

The keeping of swine is fast becoming something more than a mere
means of disposing of offal and matters which would otherwise be
wasted ; and we trust that the value and lucrativeness of this branch of
rural economy will soon be fully acknowledged, and that swine will be
duly estimated among farmers and breeders. The next step must of
necessity speedily follow : men of science will no longer deem them
beneath their notice ; their habits, instincts, and ailments will be properly
studied ; individuals as well as the world will be benefited ; and a new
and important field of knowledge thrown open.

Yet another source of profit accruing from swine, and we close this
chapter.

pig's dung as manure.

The manure proceeding from the pigsty has been often much under-
valued, and for this reason, — that the litter has been considered as
forming the principal portion of it, whereas it constitutes the least
valuable part; and, indeed, where all due attention is paid to the clean-
liness of the animals and of their dwellings, it can scarcely be regarded
as manure at all, at least by itself.

It is the urine and the dung which are valuable ; and these are now
generally allowed to be peculiarly so, and to constitute no inconsider-
able items in the profits arising from the keeping of swine. These
matters are, from the very nature of the food of the animals, exceedingly

Pie's DUNG AS MANURE. 165

rich and oleaginous, and materially benefit cold soils and grass-lands.
But, as with most other things relative to swine, this has also been too
ranch neglected ; the animals have been suffered to wander about at
will, voiding their dung and urine in waste ; or, when confined, the sty
perhaps furnished no means of collecting and saving it. We will
venture to prophesy that the partial alteration of system which is now
gradually spreading will speedily lead to amendment in this point also;
and the dung from the piggery will be husbanded with a care little
inferior to that bestowed on the fold, stable, or cow-house dung.

166 THE PIG.

CHAPTER XV.

The Medicines used in combating the Maladies of Swine.

The medicines generally used in the treatment of swine are neither
numerous nor complicated. There are, doubtless, many others, besides
those enumerated in the following list, which might be employed with
advantage, and which will, as the diseases of these domesticated ani-
mals become more studied, be discovered and made use of.

The camion requisite in the administration of all medicines has been
already alluded to in Chapter X. ; force should as seldom as possible
be had recourse to.

It must be borne in mind that the doses here given are taken on the
average, and must always be proportioned to the size, and constitution,
and state of health of the animal. In all cases of actual disease, the
best and most economical plan will be to have recourse to some good
veterinary surgeon within reach. The life of many a valuable animal
will thus be saved, for the mere amateur in surgery is always liable to
blunder in the choice of remedies, as well as in the application of them,
and will often create evils far greater than those he is endeavouring to
cure.

Antimony. — Seldom given by itself. In conjunction with sulphur,
forms an efficient cooling and cleansing medicine; and with sulphur
and hog's lard, or palm or train-oil, constitutes the common mange-oint-
ment.

Arsenic. — Useful in mange, and other cases of diseases of the skin.
From one ounce to an ounce and a half, dissolved in a gallon of water,
will form a solution of sufficient strength.

Calomel. — A dangerous drug, and one better left alone. In cases
of emergency, however, it may be given in conjunction with an equal
portion of tartarized antimony. From two to three grains of each will
constitute an active emetic.

Creosote. — Useful in cases of virulent cutaneous eruptions.

Croton Oil. — A powerful purgative, and one that should only be
had recourse to in cases of obstinate constipation. From one to three
drops may be given.

Digitalis. — A valuable sedative medicine in cases of fever.

Epsom Salts. — A very useful and efficient purgative, suitable to
most cases of common occurrence. From half an ounce to an ounce
and a half may be ordinarily given.

MEDICINES FOR TREATMENT OF SWINE. 167

Gentian. — An excellent stomachic; every aperient draught should
contain a portion of this or the next-mentioned matter.

Ginger. — Also« good stomachic, and a tonic as well. From three
scruples to a drachm and a half may be given of this and the preceding
drug.

Linseed Oil. — Valuable as. an occasional purgative, especially where
there is much intestinal inflammation.

Mercurial Ointment. — Used for mange and scabs, in conjunction
with the sulphur ointment. The proportions are one part of the former
to eight parts of the latter.

Nitre. — An excellent cooling medicine in all cases where there is
tendency to fever. From one to two drachms may be given dissolved
in the water the animal drinks.

Palm Oil. — The best emollient to form the basis of all ointments
for cutaneous eruptions.

Salt. — A valuable adjunct in purifying the blood, and maintaining
the animals in good condition. A small quantity should be regularly
mingled with the food.

Sulphur. — A good cooling medicine, and the best gentle aperient for
ordinary use we have. It also constitutes the chief ingredient in mange-
ointment.

Tartar Emetic. — Useful as an emetic.

Vinegar. — Valuable in all cases requiring cooling fomentations.

Tobacco. — A decoction of this plant efficacious and soothing in cases
of mange and cutaneous eruptions, especially when mingled with equal
parts of digitalis.

Turpentine. — A destructive agent in cases of worms : it may be
given to swine without danger.

INDEX.

Abortion, treatment of, 125.
Abstinence from pork, necessary in

hot climates, 13.
Acorns, pigs thrive on, 139, 140.
Age, great, of wild boars, 34.
Agricultural Societies, influence of,

on breeding, 134.
Albert, Prince, his farm at Windsor,

66 ; gains a prize for pigs, 65.
America, importation of breeds of

swine into, 47 ; six species of hogs

in, 45 ; wild boars in, 44.
Analogy between the Chinese and

their pigs, 51.
Anatomy of swine, 75, &c.
Ancients, boar-hunts of, 36, 37.
Anecdotes of pigs, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,

30.
Anglo-Saxons, boar-hunts of, 37.
Animal substances, feeding swine on,

144. S

Apoplexy in pigs, 81.
Apparatus for preparing pigs' food,

149.
Apples, swine, fed on, 140.
Ardennes, wild boar of, 39.
Armour, bogs in, or Tatous, 11.
Ashes given to pigs, 145.
Attachments of swine, 29.
Autumn, best time for fattening pigs,

B.

Babiroussa, the, 10; at Zoological

Gardens, 11.
Bacon, curing, 151; derivation of the

word, 156; importation of, 163.
Bakewell, Mr., his pigs, 64, 67.
Baldred, King, a. swineherd, 15.
Bath, hot springs of, discovered by

swine, 15.
Bavarian pigs, 54.
12

Beans, feeding swine on; 138, 139,
143, 147.

Bears fond of pork, 48.

Beasts of draught, pigs used as, 27,
28, 60.

Bedford, Duke of, cut of his Berk-
shire sow, 70.

Bedfordshire pigs, 65.

Beech mas!, swine fed on, 140.

Bement, Mr., of Albany, on breeding
pigs, 47.

Berkshire pigs, 69.

sow, cut of a, 70.

Bladder, the, 105 ; inversion of, 106.
Bleeding swine, 105.
Blood, hogs', used as holy water, 51.
Blo'omfiela's poetic picture of forest-
pigs, 20.
Boar hunts, laws respecting, 33, 35.

of the ancients, 36.

of the Anglo-Saxons, 37.

Boars, choice of, for breeding, 120.

Boar's Head, Christmas dish, 38 ; pre-
sented to the hangman, 38; at
Queen Margaret's wedding din-
ner, 38.

Boars lamed, 29 ; technical terms for,
37 ; wild, see "Wild Boars."

Bothnian pigs, 54.

Brain of tiie hog, 81 ; inflammation
of, 82.

Bran, feeding pigs on, 144.

Breeding, rules respecting, 119, 121.
swine, how far profitable, 132.

Breeds improved by judicious crosses,
122 ; which are the best, 122.

Breweries, pigs fed on refuse of, 137,

Brine, poisonous properties of, 162.

Bristles, ropes made from, 60; use
made of, 24, 153.

Bronchial tubes, 93.

Brushing pigs, 151.

Butcher, profit of pigs to the, 153. ,

170

INDEX.

c.

Caesarian operation performed on a

sow, 127.
Cape, the, the phaco-choeres in, 11.
Capibara, the, 11.

Carrots, feeding swine on, 138, 139.
Castrated animals, disposed lo obesity,

136.
Castration of pigs, modes of, 115.
Catching pigs, 117.
Cattle Shows, benefits and abuses of,

135.
Census of the increase of pigs by

breeding, 132.
Chanting to pies, 152.
Character, developing a pig's, 81.
Charles I., re-introduction of wild

boars by, 38, 71.
Cheshire pigs, 68.
Chestnuts, swine fed on, 140.
Chest <>f the pig, 92.
Chinese swine, 72 ; liable to become

over-fat, 136.
Chinese, the, and their pigs, analogy

between, 50.
Choice of boar and sow for breeding,

120.
Christmas dish, the boar's head a, 38.
Cinders given lo pigs, 145.
Citizens, pigs created, 53.
Cleanliness of swine,, 31, 145.
Clover," feeding pjgs on, 144.
Cochon d'Inde. See " Guinea Pig."
Ccacum, the, 99.
Coleshill pigs, 137.
Colic, 101.
Colon, the, 99.
Combing pigs, 151.
Cup's, thej rear no pigs, 14.
CornUh pigs, 69.
Crete, hogs sacred in, 13.
Crops, number of swine to be propor-
tioned to the farmer's, 133.
Crosses, judicious, improve the breed,

122.
Curing bacon, 157.
Cuvier, Bnron, his definition of
"Hog," 9; on the babiroussa, 10;
on the capibara, 11; on the pec-
cary, 9.

D.

Dairy refuse for pigs, 137.
Dead pig, preparing the, 156..

Definition, zoological, of the pig, 9.
Democrates' prescription for measles,

113.
Derbyshire pigs, 64.
Derivation of term " Hog," 11.
Desquamation of the skin, 113.
Diarrhoea, 101.
Dickens, Charles, on American pigs,

46.
Dieskau, M. de, taming boirs, 30.
Diseased valves of the heart, 93.
Diseases of swine,, described, 76 ;

little notice paid hitherto to, 76,

110; medicines used for, 157.
Diseases of the skin, 107.
Distilleries, pigs fed on refuse of, 137.
Docility of swine, 19, 25, 27, 30.
Drenching pigs, 118.
Duodenum, the, 99.

E.

Early domestication of swine in Eng-
land, 17.

Early history of swine, 15.

Edgecumbe, crest of the family of, 37.

Emperor of Austria's wild boar park,
40.

Empirics, animals not to be intrusted
to, 75.

England, breeds of swine in, 62 ; re-
cords respecting keeping swine in,
16.

English swine introduced into
France, 57.

Enteritis, 99.

Epidemics among swine, 94.

Epilepsy, 83.

Epitaph on a prize-pig, 136.

Erysipelas, gangrenous, 107.

Eumaeus, the swineherd, 16.

Extinction of wild boars in Great
Britain, 38.

F.

Fair in New York, pigs at a, 47.
Farrowing, best time for, 124 ; rules

respecting, 123.
Fattening pigs, 24, 135, 141, 143,

145 ; excess of, 136.
Feeding swine, 24, 134, 135, 145."
Filthy habits of swine denied, 31.
Fleam, the use of, dangerous, 115.
Food of swine, 24, 32; best kind foe

fattening, 146.

171

Food of wild boars, 35.

Forester, Lord, his pigs, 68.

Forests of England, swine in, 18.

Four-in-hand, swine driven, 26, 27.

France, breeds of swine in, 56; Eng-
lish swine introduced into, 57;
medical attendant on swine in, 110 ;
wild boars in, 39.

Fruits, feeding swine on, 33.

G.

Gangrenous erysipelas, 108.

Garget of the maw, 92.

Gauls, the, early breeders of swine,
13.

Germany, management of herds of
swine in, 20 ; mode of hunting hogs,
39 ; wild boars introduced from, in-
to England, 38, 71.

Gestation, period of, ,122.

Gifford, Master John, on hunting, 38.

Gloucestershire pigs, 68.

Grain, best for fattening pigs, 141 ;
how to be given to swine, 144.

Grains, pigs fed on, 137.

Great Britain, extinction of wild boars
in, 38; re-introduction of boars, 38,
71.

Greediness of swine, 32.

Green meat, feeding swine on, 144.

Guiana, the peccary abounds in, 9.

Guinea pig. the, 10; the phaco-choe-
res in, 11.

Gullet, the, 98.

H.

Hampshire pigs, 71.

Hams, curing, 158, 160; importation

of, 163; of the ancient Gauls, 13;

Westphalian, 39, 1 60.
Hangman, boar's head presented to

the, 39.
Heart of the pig, 92 ; diseased valves

of, 93.
Hedgehog, the, 1 2.
Heliogabalus, boars trained by, 27.
Henderson, description of his sties,

148 ; his method of curing bacon,

159.
Herds of swine, how managed in Ger-
many, 20, 21.
Herefordshire pigs, 68.
Hernia in swine, 106.
History of Toby, a pet pig, 30.
Hog-ape, 12.

Hog deer. See " Babiroussa."

derivation of term, 12.

in armour, 11.

iron, 11.

puddings made by ancient Gauls,

13.

sea, 11.

wlili two horns, 10 ; four horns,

II.

Hog's blood used as holy water, 5).

dung as manure, 164.

Hogs, anatomy of, 76, &c; attach-
ments of, 30 ; best food (or fat-
tening, 146 ; breeding, 129 ; catch-
ing and holding, for operutiops, 117,
cause of their rolling in the mud,
31 ; characteristics o', 25, &c; chief
source of profit in Ireland, 24 ;
cleanliness of, 31, 145 ; collected by
the winding of a horn, 20 ; created
'citizens, 53 ; despised by Egyptians,
14; discover springs at Bath, 15;
diseases o£, 82 — 113; drenching,
118; driven four-in-hand, 26, 27;
early history of, 15 ; exquisite sense
of smell of, 25, 33, 34, 79 ; fattening,
24, 135, 141, 143, 145 ; feeding, 24,
134, 135, 145 ; food of, 24, 33 ; func-
tions fulfilled in forest by, 24 ; great-
ly esteemed by Romans, 12 ; greedi-
ness of, 32 ; how far the breeding
of, is profitable, 131 ; how kept in
Mexico, 151 ; how pulse to be taken,
93 ; hunt for truffles, 33, 79 ; impor-
tation of, 74 ; in English forests, 18 ;
injustice done to, 22 ; intractability
of refuted, 19, 25 27, 33, 81 ; intro-
duction of English, into France, 57 ;
killing, 155; laws on price and
quality of, 17; learned, 28; luera-
tiveness of keeping, 155 ; mad, 86 ;
masting 18 ; medical attendant of,
in France, 110; medicines used for,
166 ; methods of shooting, in Ger-
many, 39 ; mode of keeping, in Ger-
many, 20 ; mode of keeping, in
Mexico, 151 ; number of, to be pro-
portioned to the farmer's crops, 133 ;
of the fraternity of St. Anthony, 53 ;
old English, 62; operations on, 115
— 1 1 8 ; pasturing, 144 ; profit of, to
the butcher, 153 ; racing, 28; ring,
ing, 118; roasted, offered to deities,
50 ; sacrificed, 14 ; skeleton of, 77 ;
skin of, 107 ; skull of, 78; soiling,
144; sties for, 147; sucking, 130;

172

INDEX.

swimming, 29 ; table of increase of,
by breeding, 132; teeth of, 80;
training of, 25, &c.; used as beasts
of draught, 60 ; used for ploughing,
27 ; usefulness of, 24 ; very nice in
their food, 33 ; warmth required by,
147; weaning, 130; weather indi-
cated by, 32; worshipped by the
ancients, 13.

Hog, the, in Africa, 52 ; Aldemey, 58;
America, 45 ; Arabia, 52 ; Asia, 50 ;
Canada, 39 ; Ceylon, 51 ; Channel
Islands, 58 ; China, 50 ; Columbia,
49 ; England, 57, 62 ; Falkland Is-
lands, 50 ; Flanders, 58 ; France, 24,
.55; Germany, 20, 53; Guernsey,
58; Guinea, 11; Hebrides, 49, 59 ;
Hindostan, 51; Hungary, 54; Japan,
50; Jersey, 58; Ireland, 73; Isle
of Man, 59 ; Italy, 53 ; Malta, 52 ;
Netherlands, 58 ; New Holland, 52 ;
Orkneys, 60 ; Poland, 54, 55 ; Rus-
sia, 55 ; Scotland, 60 ; Serk, 58 ;
Shetland Islands, 59 ; South Sea
Island?, 50 ; Sweden, 55 ; Turkey,
52.

Home Farm, piggery at the, 149.

Homer, his description of a boar hunt,
36.

Homer's swine-herd, 16.

Horn, swine collected by the sound of
a, 20.

Howel Dha, laws of, 17, 37.

Hunting wild boars, 36, 37, 38, 40,
42.

Hunt, swine trained to, 25.

Java, the babiroussa found in, 10.

Jejunum, the, 99.

Jews, forbidden to eat pork, 13.

Ileum, the, 99.

Importation of bacon, ham, and salted

pork, 154.
Importation of Swine, 74, 163.
India, wild boar hunt in, 41.
Indian corn, feeding swine on, 143,

147.
Indian hog, 11, 41.
Inflammation of the lungs, 93.
Injustice done to pigs, 22.
Intestines, the, 98.

, worms in, 104.

Intractability of swine refuted, 33.
Inversion of the bladder, 105.

Ireland, pigs chief source of profit in,

24.
Irish pig, the, 73.

•, lately improved, 74.

pork, 74. '

Iron hog, the, 12.

Italy, swine employed in hunting for

truffles in, 33.
Jungles, hogs in the, 41.

K.

Killing pigs, 155.

L.

Lake, Colonel, his account of the pigs

in Guernsey, 58.
Lancet, use of the, 114, 115.
Larynx, 89.

Lawly, sir F., his pigs, 68.
Laws, English, on price and quality

of swine, 17.
Laws of warranty in Germany, 113,

114.
Laws of Shetland relative to pigs, 59,
Learned pigs, 29.
Leicester pigs, 63, 64.
Leprosy, pigs subject to, 109.
Leprous pigs, wholesomeness of flesh

of, questioned, 111.
Lice, pigs infested with, 108.
Life of pigs in Germany, 21, 22.
Lincolnshire pis;s, 64.
Linneeus, on swine's vegetable diet,

33.
Litters, how many to be suffered, 123.
Liver, the, 92.
Lungs of the swine, 92 ; inflammation

of, 93.

M.

Mad pigs, 86, 87.

Maimonides on prohibition of swine's

flesh,' 13.
Maladies of swine. See " Diseases."
— , medicines used

for, 166.

Malays, the, use the fat of the babi-
roussa, 18.

Mange, swine afflicted with, 111.

Manure, pigs dung as, 163.

Masting swine, 18.

Matches run by pigs, 28.

Maw, garget of the, 92..

INDEX.

173

Measles in swine, 113.

Medical attendunt of pigs in France,

110.
Medicines used for maladies of swine,

157.
Mexican hog, 10, 49, 151.
Mexico, how pigs are kept in, 151. •
Milk, swine fed on, 1 37:
Minorca, use made of hogs in, 27.
Mohammed's prohibition of swine's

flesh, 13.
Moldavian pigs, 54.
Moluccas, the babiroussa found in, 10.
Monstrosities farrowed by swine, 128.
Morocco, wild boars in, 43.
Moses gave laws respecting swine, 12.
Muscles of the hog, 79.

N.

Nasal catarrh, 88.
New York fair, pigs at a, 47.
Norfolk pigs, 67.
Northamptonshire pigs, 67.
Nutritious food for swine, 147.
Nuts not to be given to pigs, 141.

O.

Ogilvy, W., Esq., cut of a Chinese

sow sent to, 73.
Old English hog, cut of, 62.
Operations on swine, 114.
Os hyoides, the, 90.
Oxford, boar's head at Queen's Col

lege, 38.

P.

Palsy, 84.

Panther torn to pieces, by hogs, 49.

Paraguay, the peccary abundant in,

10.
Paralysis, 84.

Paris menagerie, babiroussa at, 11.
Parturition, 116.

, cases of difficult, 126.

Pasturing swine, 144.
Peas, feeding pigs on, 138.
Peccary, the 9, 10.
Peritoneum, 104.
Peritonitis, 104.
Pet pig, a, 30.
Phaco-choeres, the, 11.
Pharynx, the, 90.
Phrenitis, 82.

Pickling pork, 156.

Pig. See "Hog."

Pig.doctors, rough practice of, 76, 77.

Pig-gelder, the, in France, 110.

Piggeries, proper construction of, 139.

Piggery, Prince Albert's, at the Home
Farm, 150.

Pig.killing, 150. '

Pig, preparing the dead, 150.

Pigs, roasted, offered to deities, 50.

, sucking, 151.

" Pigs see the wind," 32.

Pig-sties, proper construction of, 14?

Pliny alludes to the babiroussa, 10.

Pleuro-Pneumonia, 94.

Ploughing, swine used for, 28.

Poisonous properties of brine, 154.

Polish pigs, 54.

Porculatio, 12.

Porcus Trojanus, the, 12.

Pork, abstinence from, in hot climates,
14; importalion of, 163: increased
demand for, 154 ; pickling, 156.

Potatoes, staple food for pigs, 138.

Practitioners, well qualified, should be
consulted, 76.

Pregnancy, treatment of sows during,
124.

Price of swine, English laws respect-
ing, 17.

Prize pigs, 135 ; epitaph on a, 136.

Prussia, pigs in, 54.

Pulsations in a state of health, 93.

Pulse, how to be taken, 93.

Pumpkins, swine fed on, 140.

Q.

Quinsy, the, 90.

Rabies in swine, 85.

Reasoning powers of pigB, 28.

Rectum, protrusion of the, 106.

Refuse of breweries and distilleries,
hogs fed on, 137.

Residue of starch manufactories, food
for swine, 137.

Rice, fattening swine with, 143, 147.

Ringing pigs, 118.

Roasted pigs offered to deities, 50.

Rolling in the mud of pigs, explain-
ed, 31.

Romans, breeding swine a study
among the, 12.

174

Romans, the hog esteemed by, 12.
Rome, slaughter-house at, 155.
Roots, feeding pigs on, 1 38 .
Ropes made from bristles, 60.
Rotundity of the Chinese and their

pigs, 50.
Royal piggery at Windsor, 158.
Rupture of the spleen, 103.
Russia, wild boars in, 40.

Sagacity of swine, 25, 29.
Salted pork, importation of, 163.
Sausages, pork, made by ancient

Gauls, 13.
" Schwein.General," the, 20.
Scotland, aboriginal breeds of swine,

in, 60.
Sea-hog, the, 11.
Sense of smell. See " Smell."
Sharon Turner on swine, 16.
Shropshire pigs, 67.
Skin, diseases of, 107.
Skull of the pig, 78.
Slut, training of a sow called, 26.
Slaughter house at Rome, 155.
Smell, exquisite, of the hog, 26, 32,

35, 79.
Smokehouse, for curing bacon, 157,

160.
Snout of the pig, 78.
Snuffles, the, 88.
Social pigs, 30.
Soiling swine, 144.
Sow, a Berkshire, 69 ; best time for

farrowing, 124; choice of, for

breeding, 120 ; devouring her

young accounted for, 32; English

on the quality and price of, 17;

fertility of, 123 ; pregnancy of, 124;

rules respecting farrowing, 124;

trained to hunt, 25.
Spain, wild buars in, 40.
Spaying of sows, 116, 117, 124; for

a wager, 117.
Spinal cord, disease of, 82.
Spleen, the, 102, 103 ; absorption of,

104 ; rupture of, 104.
Splenitis, 103.
Sporting pig, 26.
Starch manufactories, residue of,

food for swine, 138.
Stomach, the, 98.
Strangles, 90.
Sty, how to be constructed, 149.

Sucking pigs, 152; how to be fed,

130; when to be killed, 131.
Suckling, treatment of sows while,

129 ; the young while, 130.
Suffolk pigs, 66.
Sumatra, the babiroussa found in,

10.
Sus, varieties included under the

name of, 9, 11. ,
Sussex pigs, 72.
Sweden, wild boars in, 40.
Swine. See " Hog."
Swineherds, outcasts from society,

14 ; three powerful in Great Britain,

17; in Germany, —
Swineherd, the, ot Ulysses, 16.

Talented pigs, 28.

Taming wild boars, 30, 44.

Teachableness of swine, 25, 30, 31.

Technical terms for the boar, 37.

Teeth of the hog, 80.

Tetanus, 85 ; a consequence of cas-
tration, 116,

Thorax, the, 92.

Thornton, Col., account of a sow be-
longing to, 27.

Toby, a pet pig, account of, 30.

Toomer, Messrs., a sow trained by,
25.

Tractability of swine, 25, 27, 32.

Training swine, 25, 26, 27.

Trollope, Mrs., on swine in America,
47.

Trough, the, how to be kept, 149 ;
description of, 149, 150.

Truffles, hunted for, by pigs, 33, 79.

Turnips, not beneficial to pigs, 138,
147.

Twety, William, on hunting, 38.

U.

Ulysses, and his swineherd, 1G; boar-
hunt of, 36,
Usefulness of swine, 24.

Valves of the heart, diseased, 93
Varro on swine's flesh, 12 ; distinc-
tive marks of a good boar, 121.
Vegetable diet of swine, very select,
33 ; feeding pigs on, 1 38.

175

Ventilation required in piggeries, 147.
Vesical calculi, 105.
Veterinary surgeons should not be
dispensed with, 76.

W.

Wager, spayiog for a, 117.

Wallachian pigs, 54.

Warmth required' by swiue, 147.

Wart-hog, the, 11.

Wash, pigs fed on, 137.

Washing swine, 151.

Water-hog, the, 11.'

Weaning pigs, 130.

Weather indicated by hogs, 32.

Western, Lord, his Essex pig, 65.

Westphalian hams, 39 ; how cured,
160 ; pigs, 54.

Whey, hogs fed on, 137.

Wild boar, cut of a, 33 ; hunting, 36,
37, 40, 41 ; of Ardennes, 39; park
of Emperor of Austria, 40.

Wild boar exempt from leprosy, 111 ;
exiinciion of, in Great Britain, 38,
71 ; the parent stock of our domes-

ticated breeds, 43 ; prolific in Mo-
rocco, 43; re-introduction into Eng-
land, 38 ; small number of litters,
35 ; tamed, 30, 44 ; in America,
44 ; in France, 39 ; in Germany,
39, 40 ; in India, 41 ; in Morocco,
43 ; in Sweden, 40.

Wild Swine in Canada, 39.

Wiley, Mr. Samuel, his pigs, 63.

William IV., King, his Suffolk boar,
66.

Wiltshire pigs, 69.

Worms in the intestines, 104.

Xenophon, description of a boar hunt
by, 36.

Y.

Yorkshire breed of swine, 63.

Z.

Zoological definition of the pig, 9.
Gardens, babiroussa at, 11.