Our next venture proved equally fortunate.  We bought three small pigs, for which we gave $3 each; and as we wished to have pickled pork and small hams, they were killed off as we required them.  The first cost $2 for barley-meal and peas, and weighed six stone, which, at $1 371/2 a stone, was worth $8 25.  As the cost of the pig and the food came to just $5, we had a profit of $3 25; but we considered we had no right to complain:  the meat was delicious, and partaken of by the children as freely as if it had been mutton.

We kept the other pigs somewhat longer, and they cost us no more for food; for, as I have already stated, they were entirely kept with the produce of our “four-acre farm,” till about three weeks before they were killed.  About a bushel and a half of barley meal and a peck of peas was all that was purchased for them.

The best way to ensure the healthy condition of the animals is to let them have the range of a small meadow; they should likewise be occasionally well scrubbed with soap and water.  If they are thus treated, how much more wholesome must the meat be than when the poor creatures are shut up in dirty styes, and suffered to eat any garbage which is thrown to them!  We always had all their food boiled.  At first there was a great deal of opposition to the “muck” being introduced into the scullery; but in a little time that was overcome, and a “batch” of potatoes used to be boiled in the copper about once a month.  When the skim-milk was removed from the dairy, it was taken to the “trough,” and some of it mixed with a portion of the boiled potatoes, and with this food they were fed three times daily.

We have been told by a practical farmer on a larger scale, that when potatoes are not to be procured, a pig of thirty-five stone may be fattened in ten days on something less than two hundred weight of carrots.  We intend to try if this is the case, and have half an acre of our orchard (which is arable) sown with carrot-seed, and feed our “stock” in the winter with the produce.  With the surplus milk of two cows we find we can always keep three pigs with very little expense.  Of course, if we did not plant plenty of potatoes, we must purchase more meal for them; but as we have an acre of kitchen-garden, we can very well spare half of it to grow roots for the cows and pigs.  We do not reckon labor in our expenses, as we must have had a gardener, even if we had not so much spare ground, for our flower-garden and greenhouse require daily work.

We hope we have convinced those who may think of having a “little place” a few miles from town, that it may be made a source of profit as well as of amusement, and that any trouble which may be experienced by the lady superintending her own dairy and farm will be repaid by having her table well supplied with good butter, plenty of fresh eggs, (of the poultry-yard we shall speak presently,) well-cured hams, bacon, delicate and fresh pork, well-fed ducks, and chickens.  All those country dainties are easily to be procured on a “farm of four acres.”