which will be regulated by his profit therein, will make all the difference, and must be taken into the account. To the farmer (we speak not of others), the profit to be derived by him from feeding porkers or bacon-hogs will depend upon suitability, or the apposite union of circumstances connected with the locality, convenience, and staple returns of his land. It is one thing to keep a few pigs for home consumption, and another to keep them as a source of income."—Martin.
PIG-KILLING.
A pig that is to be killed should be kept without food for the last 12 or 16 hours; a little water must, however, be within his reach. Mr. Henderson advises that in order to prevent the animal from struggling and screaming in the agonies of death, it should in the first place be stunned by a blow on the head. Some advise that the knife should be thrust into the neck so as to sever the artery leading from the heart, while others prefer that the animal should be stuck through the brisket in the direction of the heart, care, however, being taken not to touch the first rib. The blood should then be suffered to drain from the carcass, and the more completely it does so, the better will be the meat, say our English pork- butchers, but those of some parts of the Continent disagree with them, probably because there the pig's flesh is eaten for the most part fresh, or spiced, or cooked in other savory modes, and but seldom pickled or dried, therefore the superabundance of blood in it communicates to it a juicy richness agreeable to their palates.
Mr. Waterton gives a very graphic description of the slaughter house for swine at Rome, and the proceedings of the pig-killers:—"As you enter Rome at the Porta del Popolo, a little on your right is the great slaughter-house, with a fine stream of water running through it. It is, probably, inferior to none in Italy for an extensive plan and for judicious arrangements. Here some 700 or 800 pigs are killed on every Friday during the winter season. Nothing can exceed the dexterity with which they are despatched. About 30 of these large and fat black pigs are driven into a commodious pen, followed by three or four men, each with a sharp skewer in his hand, bent at one end, in order that it may be used with advantage. On entering the pen, these performers, who put you vastly in mind of assassins, make a rush at the hogs, each seizing one by the leg, amid a general yell of horror on the part of the victims. Whilst the hog and the man are struggling on the ground, the latter with the rapidity of thought pushes his skewer betwixt the fore-leg and the body quite into the heart, and then gives it a turn or two. The pig can rise no more, but screams for a minute or so and then expires. This process is continued until they are all despatched, the brutes
