with whey or skimmed milk, with the addition of middlings, barley meal, peas, &c. Hogs, as we have previously intimated, however apparently well fed on potatoes, do not produce firm bacon which swells greatly in boiling. Hence potatoes ought to form a portion only of their diet, nor indeed are they essentially necessary. In the Channel Islands the store hogs are fattened almost entirely upon boiled parsnips, and they attain to an enormous size, yielding good bacon. Among other roots we may mention carrots, turnips, especially Swedish turnips, and beet-root. All these roots should be boiled, but may be given raw, though not so advantageously. Carrots are highly esteemed by many, and no doubt contain a considerable quantity of nutriment, and in addition to meal may be used with advantage, especially when potatoes are dear and scarce, in consequence of a general failure in the crops. They might, even when given alone, with the addition of whey, or butter-milk, or skim-milk, make the animal reasonably fat, as in the instance of parsnip feeding, but we should doubt whether the quality of the bacon would prove first-rate.
"The same observations apply to Swedish turnips, which are extolled by some as superior to potatoes.
"What will be the character of the bacon produced by such diet is another thing; an animal may be made fat, but the fat may be soft, oily, and waste in boiling.
"No roots, without a due admixture of farinaceous food, as pollard, barley-meal, peas, &c., will produce first-rate bacon, and indeed in the finishing-off, or last stage of feeding, it is better to omit the roots altogether, and give only peas, barley-meal, whey, &c. The same observations apply to pork; even young delicate dairy-fed pork requires to be finished off on a mixture of farinaceous food with the refuse of the dairy, in order that the meat may acquire a due degree of firmness. In this respect, as well as in age, pork differs from the sucking-pig; in the latter, tenderness and succulency are in the extreme; they render the young creature, when well cooked, one of the most delicate of 'all the delicacies.'
GRAIN AND BEANS AND PEAS.
"To dwell upon the nutritive qualities of grain in general would be useless. The value of barley-meal, middlings, mill-sweepings, &c., in the feeding of hogs, is well known. It is true that this food is expensive, but then it is not used exclusively till the time for finishing off, or need not be; and, what is more, the expense is repaid by the gain of the animal in weight, and by the great superiority of the meat, which will command its price in the market. The rapid increase in the weight of hogs fed upon barley-meal, peas, steamed potatoes, with whey or butter-milk, is astonishing. They have been
