erally flung away upon the
miserable _tea_, as I have clearly shown in the First Number, at Paragraph
24. I have, indeed, there shown, that if the tea were laid aside, the
labourer might supply his family well with beer all the year round, and
have a fat hog of even _fifteen score_ for the _cost of the tea_, which
does him and can do him _no good at all_.

156. The feet, the cheeks, and other bone, being considered, the _bacon
and lard_, taken together, would not exceed _sixpence a pound_. Irish
bacon is "_cheaper_." Yes, _lower-priced_. But, I will engage that a pound
of mine, when it comes _out_ of the pot (to say nothing of the _taste_,)
shall weigh as much as a _pound and a half_ of Irish, or any dairy or
slop-fed bacon, when that comes out of the pot. No, no: the farmers joke
when they say, that their bacon _costs them more than_ they could buy
bacon for. They know well what it is they are doing; and besides, they
always forget, or, rather, remember not to say, that the fatting of a
large hog yields them three or four load of dung, really worth more than
ten or fifteen of common yard dung. In short, without hogs, farming _could
not go on_; and it never has gone on in any country in the world. The hogs
are the great _stay_ of the whole concern. They are _much in small space_;
they make no _show_, as flocks and herds do; but with out them, the
cultivation of the land would be a poor, a miserably barren concern.

SALTING MUTTON AND BEEF.

157. _VERY FAT_ Mutton may be salted to great advantage, and also smoked,
and may be kept thus a long while. Not the shoulders and legs, but the
_back_ of the sheep. I have never made any flitch of _sheep-bacon_; but I
will; for there is nothing like having a _store_ of meat in a house. The
running to the butchers daily is a ridiculous thing. The very idea of
being fed, of a _family_ being fed, by daily supplies, has something in it
perfectly _tormenting_. One half of the time of a mistress of a house,
the affairs of which are carried on in this way, is taken up in talking
about what is to be got for dinner, and in negotiations with the butcher.
One single moment spent at table beyond what is absolutely necessary, is a
moment very shamefully spent; but, to suffer a system of domestic economy,
which unnecessarily wastes daily an hour or two of the mistress's time in
hunting for the provision for the repast, is a shame indeed; and when we
consider how much time is generally spent in