Sayfa 625 / 2651

The hog, that finds his food among ordure, and greedily devours

many things rejected by every other useful animal, is, like

poultry, originally kept as a save-all. As long as the number of

such animals, which can thus be reared at little or no expense,

is fully sufficient to supply the demand, this sort of butcher's

meat comes to market at a much lower price than any other. But

when the demand rises beyond what this quantity can supply, when

it becomes necessary to raise food on purpose for feeding and

fattening hogs, in the same manner as for feeding and fattening

other cattle, the price necessarily rises, and becomes

proportionably either higher or lower than that of other

butcher's meat, according as the nature of the country, and the

state of its agriculture, happen to render the feeding of hogs

more or less expensive than that of other cattle. In France,

according to Mr Buffon, the price of pork is nearly equal to that

of beef.