rot, when the healing process has commenced. A plaister composed of a pound of pitch and two drachms of bees' wax, melted together, and spread while warm on soft leather or linen cloth, is applied with much advantage to the heads of sheep which are sore from the ravages of the maggots of the fly. Some, as a precautionary measure, smear the head in May with this composition, and scatter a little wool over it; others sew the plaister round the head. Salving, or Smearing. The practice of salving or anointing the skin of the sheep, after shearing, with some unctuous preparation, is not universal. It is, however, the ordinary custom in Scotland, and is, indeed, essential to the health and comfort of sheep exposed to bleak winds in open mountain districts, to heavy mists, and drenching and long-continued rains. The primary object of smearing is the protection of the skin from wet and cold; and next, to promote the growth of the wool and improve its character. Besides these objects, there are others not unimportantthe prevention of the attacks of insects, the destruction of such as might adhere to the skin, and the healthy action of the skin or the removal of cutaneous affections, for which tar is very efficient. Tar, mixed with butter, in order to counteract its tenacity, is the ordinary salving material; and vast quantities of damaged butter are yearly sent to the grazing districts of Scotland, for the use of the sheep farmers. One serious disadvantage, however, attends the application of tar-it indelibly stains the wool; hence it cannot be used for white goods, and what is more, it will not take the finer and more brilliant dyes. Wool thus tar-stained is termed laid wool, and sells at a lower ratio than white or unsalved wool. Yet in exposed situations the necessity of salving is felt, and various unguents have been tried. Instead of butter whale-oil, as an adjunct to tar, has been used, and is recommended by the Hon. W. J. Napier in his "Treatise on Practical Store-farming;" but the tinge of the tar is not obviated by this admixture. Mr. Hogg says: "Of late, several compositions have been purposely and extensively tried, in which the spirit of tar has been substituted for tar itself. This has, in some cases, been complained of as too irritating; and there is no doubt that a too free use of spirit of tar is injurious and even fatal. Some of the salves, while they prove to be perfectly well adapted to flocks that are clean, have been found ineffectual either in curing or warding off the scab-a disease which the common salve made of tar and grease seems effectually to resist. When a flock is perfectly clean, olive-oil has been found to be the best substance for softening the fleece, and warding off rain and snow. For clean sheep, 'Taylor's salve' is also suitable, though some English staplers have condemned it. If a tar-salve were made so as to be free from the impurities of the tar, it might probably answer every purpose. The ordinary proportion of one cwt. of grease to a barrel of tar, might be increased to one and a half cwt.; and when melted together, the impurities of the tar might be suffered to subside and be separated. In this way the tar might not leave a stain upon the wool when scoured. Olive oil seems to impregnate the wool, or to adhere to it more firmly than any other kind of greasy matter; and it has been successfully employed by Mr. Sellar, of Morvich, a first-rate store-farmer in Sutherland." Mr. Hogg recommends the following unguent to be rubbed over every part of the animal, after shearing, with a curry brush :-train or seal oil, four gallons; tar, half a gallon; oil of turpentine, one-pint. Mix. Mr. John Graham, of Newbigging, perceiving the disadvantage of tar as a wool-stainer, and yet desirous of smearing his sheep, used the following preparation, in which the tar was omitted, yellow resin being used in its stead-butter, eighteen pounds; hogs' lard, eighteen pounds; resin, twelve pounds; Gallipoli oil, one gallon. Mix. This quantity he found sufficient for fifty or fifty-five sheep, and the cost of smearing each sheep was about four and a half pence. He found this wool, when washed, equally valuable with the white wool: and it sold for a considerably higher price than the laid or tarred wool. The importance of smearing or salving is undeniable. The use of a small quantity of some oleaginous or greasy application immediately after shearing is now generally acknowledged. The protection which it affords to the almost denuded skin-its substitution for the natural yolk, which is not in its full quantity immediately secreted-and the softness which it will impart to the wool-are circumstances well deserving attention. THE DOMESTIC HOG: TO BREED, FEED, CUT UP, AND CURE. VARIETIES OF THE HOG.-There exist only THREE actual varieties of the domestic hog-the Berkshire, Chinese, and Highland, or Irish; all other breeds, described as separate varieties, are only offshoots from one or the other of these three main stocks. The True Berkshire Pig is black, or black and white, short-legged, full and round in the loins, rather fine in the hair, the ears small and erect, and the snout not lengthy. This description of animal forms a striking contrast with the long-sided, convex-backed, lob-eared, long-legged, and shambling brute which was common in many parts of Great Britain, and almost universal in Ireland, thirty or forty years ago, and which still, without any improvement in form, is the general description of the pig throughout France and most of Germany. In giving preference, however, to the Berkshire breed, it is not to be understood that we consider them handsome in a positive sense, or perfect models of good breeding and propriety in their habits and manners. No dumpy animal, with its belly near the ground, with four short crutches for legs, hair by no means silky, a little curled tail, and small, sunk eyes, peering into every hole and corner and never looking upward to the glorious firmament, can be called an absolute beauty; but, compared with other races of swine, the Berkshire are handsome; and, as to their habits and manners, they have no little merit; for, considering the natural dispositions of the hog family, and the contemptuous manner in which they are spoken of and treated everywhere (except in certain parts of Ireland, and the Highlands of Scotland, where pigs are privileged orders, and experience such respect as to be permitted, and even invited, to occupy the same room with their masters, by day and night, in consideration of their paying the house-rent, and supplying the means of purchasing salt, candles, and soap), the Berkshire race have unquestionable merit, and appear to respect the decencies of life. Their females have never been known to commit infanticide, as some other domesticated tribes of swine undoubtedly do, from what we consider a depraved taste; nor have either sex of this tribe been ever justly accused, or even suspected, of that cannibal propensity which has led individuals of certain other tribes of the great hog family to seize upon the tender babe in the cradle and devour it, "marrow, bones, and all!” They (the Berkshires) are so docile and gentle that a little boy or girl may drive them to and from the pasture-field or the common without having their authority disputed; and, when ranging about in the happy consciousness of liberty, though they may sometimes poke their noses where their interference is not desired, they do not perpetrate half the mischief to the turf which other classes of swine are prone to commit. They seem disposed to content themselves with the grass on the surface of the soil, without uprooting it in search of delicacies that may lie |