Letter XXXIII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
The natural term of an hog's life is little known, and the reason is
plain -- because it is neither profitable nor convenient to keep that
turbulent animal to the full extent of its time: however, my
neighbour, a man of substance, who had no occasion to study every
little advantage to a nicety, kept an half-bred Bantam sow, who
was as thick as she was long, and whose belly swept on the ground,
till she was advanced to her seventeenth year; at which period she
showed some tokens of age by the decay of her teeth and the
decline of her fertility.
For about ten years this prolific mother produced two litters in the
year of about ten at a time, and once above twenty at a litter; but,
as there were near double the number of pigs to that of teats, many
died. From long experience in the world this female was grown
very sagacious and artful:-when she found occasion to converse
with a boar she used to open all the intervening gates, and march,
by herself, up to a distant farm where one was kept; and when her
purpose was served would return by the same means.
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