Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/502

470] and carrots are, it is well known, articles with which they may be fed, and even fattened, at a small expence. Parsnips are of considerable utility for this purpose, and probably the roots of the white-beet, if it were fully tried, would be found still more useful; for experiments have shewn, that it contains a considerable proportion of saccharine matter, and may be cultivated with very little difficulty. Cos-lettuces are likewise eminently serviceable, especially for young pigs, which, when fed on them, may be weaned a fortnight earlier than is usual. Pease also afford an excellent food for fattening, and if duly mixed with salt, will render the animals fit for sale at the end of five weeks.

In the vicinity of London, vast numbers of hogs are annually fattened with grains from the distilleries: such pork, however, does not take the salt so readily as the flesh of those pigs which have been fed with more substantial food, and been driven to the market from a considerable distance.

Hogs may with great advantage be folded on wheat, where the soil is loose, light, and friable; for they will drop a considerable quantity of dung, and tread the looser parts of the land so closely together, that it will not hove during summer; nor will the wheat be root-fallen. Particular care, however, ought to be taken, that these animals be well ringed; an operation that ought to be performed as early as possible.

The diseases to which hogs are subject, are but few; nor are they often troubled with them. The chief are, 1. The , said to be perceptibie only in the throat, which, on opening the mouth, appears full of small tumors, that in some cases are visible externally. The remedy usually applied is the powder of crude antimony, in small portions, which generally removes the affection. 2. The , which is also called the heaving of the lights: it is cured by giving the diseased animal a mixture of oil and brimstone; 3. the ; 4. the ', or '; and, 5. the ; to which articles we refer the reader, in their respective order.

Hogs are very valuable quadrupeds, and their flesh furnishes at all times an agreeable meat. (See, and .) In a fresh state, it is called , and affords a wholesome and nourishing food to a sound stomach, when eaten in moderation, with sub-acid vegetables or sauces. Their lard, or fat, is applicable to various purposes, both culinary and medicinal. The blood, intestines, feet, and tongue, are all used in the kitchen; though the first is indigestible. The fat of the bowels and web, which differs from common lard, is preferably employed for greasing the axles of wheels. The bristles are made into brushes, pencils, &c.; the skins into sieves; yet the latter might be more advantageously tanned, and converted into shoes, as is the practice in China, where all the shoes sold to the Europeans at Canton, are made of hogs'-leather, the hair being previously burnt off with a red-hot iron.

The dung of swine is reputed to be next in value to that of sheep, and is particularly useful in destroying that pernicious weed, the Common Coltsfoot.—See and.

As hogs are animals of extensive utility, we trust it will not be uninteresting to point oul those markable