the top of the litter, is not easily overturned, the cattle cannot hurt themselves upon it, while it is easily pushed about to the most convenient spot for it to stand.

1579. It is seldom that farmers take the trouble of fattening pigs for the market, because, if the breed has a kindly disposition, the pigs are generally sufficiently fat for converting into pickled pork by the time they have attained the weight most desirable for that method of curing, -namely, from 4 to 6 stones imperial. Dealers and butchers purchase porklings of those sizes; and finer meat of the kind cannot be obtained than what is thus brought up at liberty in a farm-yard, being firm, sweet, tender, well proportioned in lean, and sufficiently fat for the table. Pork-curers buy from farmers and dealers in the carcass, and none alive. But the farmer should once a-year fatten a few pigs for his own use as ham. These should be at least a-year old, attain the weight of 18 or 20 stones, and be slaughtered about Christmas. Castrated males or spayed females are in the best state for this purpose; and are placed in separate sties. Four pigs of 20 stones each every year, will supply a pretty good allowance of ham to a farmer's family. Up to the time of being placed in these sties, the pigs have been treated as directed above; but when confined, and intended to be fattened to ripeness, they receive the most nourishing food.

1580. Piggeries or pig-sties are highly useful structures at the farm-stead. They are of three kinds-1. Those for a broodsow with a litter of young pigs. This kind should have two apartments: one for the sow and litter to sleep in, covered with a roof, and entered by an opening; the other an open court, in which the feeding-trough is placed. For a breeding-sty each apartment should not be less than 6 feet square. 2. Those for feeding pigs. These should also have two apartments: one with litter for sleeping in, covered with a roof and entered by an opening; the other an open court for the troughs for food. A sty of 4 feet square in each apartment, will accommodate 2 feeding pigs of 20 stones each. These two sorts of sties may each have a roof of its own, or a number of them may have one roof over them in common. The former is the common plan; but the latter is the most convenient for cleaning out, and inspecting the internal condition of the sties, and the state of the pigs. 3. The third kind of sty is for the accommodation of weaned young pigs, when they are confined, to receive better treatment than the older ones. It should have a shed and court of from 20 to 25 feet square.

1581. As swine have very powerful necks, and are apt to push open doors of common construction, a form of one such as is represented in fig. 125 is very secure. The door slips up and down in grooves in the masonry, and the contrivance is such

turbed by its neighbours. A swing-door i is jointed on the pivots kk, to complete the form, by filling up the opening of the wall. In the figure this door is thrown to the full extent outward, where it always stands during the time the animals are feeding, and is fixed there by a slidebolt on the outside. When food is to be introduced the bolt is withdrawn, and the door moved from that position to l, and there bolted until the compartments of the trough are cleaned and filled, when the door is again swung back to its original position, and the food is placed before the animals. The door has slits formed in it corresponding to the divisions hh, to allow of its swinging freely, and yet have depth sufficient to close the entire opening down to the outward edge of the trough. A dowel or stud m is let into the wall at each end, to secure the upper part of the trough. On several visits to the Duke of Buccleuch's home-farm at Dalkeith Park, which is conducted by Mr Black, I have been much interested with the piggery, where the stock is of the finest quality, and, amongst other things of interest, saw what is very probably the original of the trough here described. The troughs in this piggery are composed of wood, but precisely on the same principle as here figured and described, and their introduction there dates as far back as the time of the late Duke Henry of Buccleuch, whose invention they are supposed to be, and which must be at least more than 40 years' standing.

1583. By direct experiment, it has been ascertained that pigs fatten much better on cooked than on raw food. This being the case, it is only waste of time and materials, as also loss of flesh, to attempt to fatten pigs on raw food of whatever kind; for although some sorts of food fatten better than others in the same state, yet the same sort, when cooked, fattens much faster and better than in a raw state. The question, therefore, simply is-what is the best sort of food to cook for the purpose of fattening pigs? Roots and grains of all kinds, when cooked, will fatten pigs. Potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, mangoldwurtzel, as roots; and barley, oats, pease, beans, rice, Indian corn, as grain, will all

fatten them when prepared. Which, then, of all these ingredients should be selected as the most nourishing, and, at the same time, most economical? Carrots and parsnips amongst roots are not easily attainable in this country, and therefore cannot be regarded economical food; and as to the other sorts of roots, when cooked, potatoes doubtless contain more nourishment than turnips, even in proportion to their former prices-for it was as easy to obtain 10s. for a ton of swedish turnips as Ss. for a boll of 40 stones of potatoes; and yet potatoes contained solid matter in the proportion of 25 to 10 as regards turnips. It is now, however, questionable whether potatoes can be depended on as a crop at such a price as to fatten pigs on economically. But mangold-wurtzel presents properties for supporting animals. which are worthy of attention. It contains 15 per cent of solid matter, potatoes having 25 per cent; but it contains a larger proportion of the protein compounds

those ingredients which supply the materials of muscle, than potatoes. Thus they contain respectively, when dried at 212° Fahr.:

So that the proportion of the protein compounds in the mangold-wurtzel is nearly twice as great as in the potato. "This is a very important fact," observes Professor Johnston," and worthy of further investigation. If, as at present supposed, the protein compounds serve the purpose, when eaten, of supplying to animals the materials of their muscle, the mangold-wurtzel ought to be considerably superior in this respect to the potato. Even in their natural state this should be the case, for 100 lbs. of mangold-wurtzel contain of these protein compounds, according to the above determination, 24 lbs. ; while the potato contains, on an average, only 2 lbs."* As to grains, I have never heard of wheat or wheat-flour being given to pigs-it would certainly not be economicalbarley or oat-meal being usually employed. Pease and beans, whether raw or cooked, are proverbially excellent food for pigs.

ciently compared them-equal the above, especially if given in water milk-warm." After mentioning that the food of pigs is warmed in Gascony, and that the practice has long been discontinued in England, he gives it as his opinion that "warm food in water, regularly given, I should suppose, must be more fattening than that which is cold, and, in bad weather, half frozen."* In Mexico, pigs are fattened entirely on Indian corn moistened in water.

1587. The denominations of pigs are the following:-When new born, they are called sucking pigs, or simply pigs; and the male is a boar pig, the female sow pig. A castrated male, after it is weaned, is a shot or hog. Hog is the name mostly used by naturalists, and very frequently by writers on agriculture; but, as it sounds so like the name given to young sheep, (hogg,) I shall always use the terms pig and swine for the sake of distinction. The term hog is said to be derived from a Hebrew noun, signifying "to have narrow eyes," a feature quite characteristic of this species of animal. A spayed female is a cut sow pig. As long as both sorts of cut pigs are small and young, they are porkers or porklings. A female that has not been cut, and before it bears young, is an open sow; and an entire male, after being weaned, is always a boar or brawn. A cut boar is a brawner. A female that has taken the boar is said to be lined; when bearing young she is a brood sow; and when she has brought forth pigs she has littered or farrowed, and her family of pigs at one birth form a litter or farrow of pigs.

1588. Of judging of a fat pig, the back should be nearly straight; and though arched a little from head to tail, that is no fault. The back should be uniformly broad, and rounded across along the whole body. The touch all along the back should be firm, but springy, the thinnest skin springing most. The shoulders, sides, and hams, should be deep perpendicularly, and in a straight line from shoulder to ham. The closing behind should be filled up; the legs short, and bone small; the neck short, thick, and deep; the cheeks round and filled out; the face straight, nose fine,

eyes bright, ears pricked, and the head small in proportion to the body. A curled tail is indicative of a strong back. All these characters may be observed in the figure of the brood sow in Plate V ; though, of course, the sow is not in the fattened state.

1589. A black-haired pig is always black in the skin, and a white one whitewhich latter colour gives to it a cleaner appearance than the black.

1590. The breed which shows the greatest disposition to fatten is the pure Chinese; but as it lays on too large a proportion of fat, it is not bred for its own sake, and only for crossing with. I never saw a breed to equal that originated by the late Lord Western, in Essex, for laying on a due proportion of lean and fat, and I believe it to be a cross between the Essex and Chinese breeds. I received a present of a young boar and sow of that breed from Lord Panmure, and had the breed as long as I farmed; and such was the high condition constantly maintained by the pigs, on what they could pick up at the steading, besides the feed of turnips supplied them daily, that one could be killed at any time for the table, as a porkling. They were exceedingly gentle, indisposed to travel far, not very prolific, could attain, if kept on, to a great weight; and so compact in form, and small of bone and offal, that they invariably yielded a larger weight of pork than was judged of before being slaughtered. Though the less valuable offal was small, the proportion of loose seam was always great, and more delicious ham than they afforded was never cured in Westphalia.

1591. An experiment on the comparative advantages of feeding pigs on raw and boiled food was made in 1833 by Mr John Dudgeon, Spylaw, Roxburghshire. He put up 6 he-pigs in one lot, and 5 she ones in another, and they were all care

fully cut, and 9 weeks old. The he-pigs were put on boiled food, namely, potatoes and hashed

beans; the she ones on raw of the same sort. The 6 he-pigs increased in live-weight, from 2d July to 12th October, 38 stones, 6 lbs. 4 oz., or 6 stones, 5 lbs. 11 oz. each; whereas the 5 she ones only increased, in the same time, 17 stones, 11 lbs. 8 oz., or 3 stones, 7 lbs. 14 oz. each. Other 3 pigs were fed at the same time on boiled and raw food indiscriminately, as it happened to be