from all unpleasant 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 those equally well-tended objects of his pride. The sties were always kept whitened on the inside; the sloping 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 water clear as crystal for them to drink, and the animals themselves were, by washing, curry combing, 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 functions 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 following 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 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 good 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 descending 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
