39. Next after the _Cow_ comes the _Pig_; and, in many cases, where a cow
cannot be kept, a pig or pigs may be kept. But these are animals not to be
ventured on without due consideration as to the means of _feeding_ them;
for a starved pig is a great deal worse than none at all. You cannot make
bacon as you can milk, merely out of the garden. There must be _something
more_. A couple of flitches of bacon are worth fifty thousand Methodist
sermons and religious tracts. The sight of them upon the rack tends more
to keep a man from poaching and stealing than whole volumes of penal
statutes, though assisted by the terrors of the hulks and the gibbet. They
are great softeners of the temper, and promoters of domestic harmony. They
are a great blessing; but they are not to be had from _herbage_ or _roots_
of any kind; and, therefore, before a _pig_ be attempted, the means ought
to be considered.

140. _Breeding sows_ are great favourites with Cottagers in general; but I
have seldom known them to answer their purpose. Where there is an outlet,
the sow will, indeed, keep herself by grazing in summer, with a little
_wash_ to help her out: and when her pigs come, they are many in number;
but they are a heavy expense. The sow must live as well as a _fatting
hog_, or the pigs will be good for little. It is a great mistake, too, to
suppose that the condition of the sow _previous to pigging_ is of no
consequence; and, indeed, some suppose, that she ought to be rather _bare
of flesh_ at the pigging time. Never was a greater mistake; for if she be
in this state, she presently becomes a mere rack of bones; and then, do
what you will, the pigs will be poor things. However fat she may be before
she farrow, the pigs will make her lean in a week. All her fat goes away
in her milk, and unless the pigs have a _store_ to draw upon, they pull
her down directly; and, by the time they are three weeks old, they are
starving for want; and then they never come to good.

141. Now, a cottager's sow cannot, without great expense, be kept in a way
to enable her to meet the demands of her farrow. She may _look_ pretty
well; but the flesh she has upon her is not of the same nature as that
which the _farm-yard_ sow carries about her. It is the result of grass,
and of poor grass, too, or other weak food; and not made partly out of
corn and whey and strong wash, as in the case of the farmer's sow. No food
short of that of a fatting hog will enable her to keep h