Wherever there are cows and a garden, pigs should be kept; as skim-milk and buttermilk, with the refuse of a garden, are almost sufficient to maintain a pig. Pigs are unlike most other animals, as they fatten soonest on sour food; they should, however, be kept clean, and in many places, I am told, the cottagers rub them with a broom. Sows are very apt to destroy their young when they are littered with long straw, as the pigs sometimes hide themselves in it for warmth, and are trodden upon accidentally or smothered by their mother. A sow ought, therefore, to be littered with short straw when she is expected to produce young. Pigs are greedy creatures, and, when there are several together, the master pig generally puts his foot in the trough while feeding, so as to prevent any other pig coming near him till he has done.
Young pigs are generally weaned when they are six or seven weeks old; and, when they are killed at this age or sooner, they are termed sucking-pigs, and are generally roasted whole. After they are taken from their mother they are generally fed three times a day on a food composed of the washing of dishes, skim-milk, buttermilk, whey, potatoes, grains, cabbage leaves, pea-shells, and any refuse from the garden. While pigs are growing they should be allowed as much liberty as they can have without doing injury; but pigs are very troublesome creatures to turn into a field, as they will dig up the roots of the grass wherever they can with their noses, and on this account young pigs are frequently ringed; that is, a slender iron ring is passed through the cartilage of the nose, or the cartilage itself is slit open with a knife. When they are about five or six months old they will have attained their full growth; and, if they are intended to be killed and eaten for pork, they are put up in a sty, and fed with boiled potatoes, milk, and a little barley meal.
When a pig is intended for bacon, he is called a store-pig till he is about eight months old, when he is put up to be fed, and is fattened on peas, meal, potatoes, and milk, always adding a sack or two of ground oats, or crushed barley, a short time before he is killed, to make the fat firm. Opinions differ very much as to what kind of pig should be preferred, but those are generally considered the best which have large deep bodies, short legs, and small heads.
Rabbits are kept either in hutches or in warrens, where they make burrows in the ground, and live almost in a state of nature. Rabbit warrens are of very great extent, varying from a hundred to three thousand acres, and they can only be formed in dry sandy soils. When rabbits are kept in hutches, the rabbit-house should be particularly dry and well ventilated, as rabbits are very subject to a disease called the rot, which is a species of liver complaint, brought on by impure air and improper food. Each hutch is generally eighteen inches high, and about three feet wide. It is divided into two chambers, in one of which the rabbit feeds, sleeping in the other. These chambers have a sliding-door between them, so that when the rabbit is in one chamber, the door can be let down, and the other chamber cleared out.
Rabbits should be fed in a great measure on corn, peas, and bran; and their food may be diversified by carrots, cooked potatoes, tares, and a few cabbage leaves; but these last should be fresh, and never in the slightest degree decayed. Lettuces and other green food may also be occasionally given, provided they are quite fresh, and that what the rabbit does not eat is removed as soon as it has done feeding. Rabbits should be fed twice or three times a day, and, if to be fattened for the table, they are considered best when about three or four months old. They are liable to many diseases, most of which are incurable. Some, however, may be stopped in time, if, whenever the rabbits appear too large in the body, their food is changed, and instead of being fed on green meat, they are given nothing but cut hay and corn, and ground peas, or some similar food.
I shall say nothing of the management of sheep, as they certainly do not come within a lady's province. Their constitutions are very much like those of rabbits, and they are subject to nearly the same diseases.
The kind of deer most common in parks is the fallow deer. These creatures are generally beautifully spotted, and the horns of the buck are broad and flat. They are changed every year, being at first shaped like a finger, and not much larger, but they afterwards become branched, and continue increasing rapidly in size, and in the number of their branches, till the buck is five years old; they afterwards increase more slowly, but they continue changing in form for several years. The does are exceedingly tame, and may be easily taught to come and feed out of the hand, while the fawns are the prettiest little creatures imaginable.
The word fallow is said to be derived from an ancient Saxon word signifying to become pale, in allusion to the manner in which the colour of the fallow deer is shaded down from the deep streak of dark brown on the back, to the pale fawn of the sides and the white under the body. There are several varieties, but the differences consist chiefly in the shades of colour. The buck of the fallow deer may be killed from the middle of June to the middle of September; and its venison, which is considered much finer than that of the doe, is in perfection when the buck is from six to eight years old. Does may be killed younger; and if they have had no fawns, or have been soon deprived of them, they are in season from the middle of November to the middle of February.
Deers are ruminating animals, and, after they have filled the first stomach, they go under the shade of trees to chew the cud. When snow is on the ground fallow deer are generally fed; as, if they are not, they are apt to do a great deal of mischief to the trees in the park, by tearing down the branches. When they are fed it is with cut hay and straw, mixed with young shoots of underwood.
When fallow deer are to be shot, the keeper generally gets into a kind of hut, so contrived as to have a loophole in the back for the rifle, and to watch through, so that, when the herd passes by, the keeper may remain unseen by the deer, and close enough to the herd to select and shoot the one most suited to his purpose. These huts have seats inside, and are convenient spots for observing the habits of birds and other creatures in a wild state, which would not, under other circumstances, suffer human beings to approach them. It is, however, only in parks that have been long used for keeping deer, that these huts are to be found, as modern gamekeepers generally consider themselves sufficiently expert to select and shoot their deer without any protection. In old parks, likewise, strips of boards are frequently found nailed to the trunks of trees to enable the keepers to ascend them for the purpose of shooting the deer; and advantage is taken of rocky scenery to make caves for the same purpose. The keepers were also attended by a bloodhound to chase any unfortunate deer that might be wounded without being killed; but this is now also found unnecessary, as the herd drive a wounded deer from them the moment it has been struck, and the only use of the keeper's dog is to follow the deer in case it should take to thick underwood and lie down there to die.