Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-10-01
PIG BREEDING IN SICILY,
Curious Statistics of an Extensive
Industry,

The last British consular report from
Palermo contains some curious details re-
specting the breeding of pigs in Sicily,
which in certain districts, and especially
in mountainous parts, are reared in great
numbers. Nearly all the small towns are
overrun with them, and they are not only
useful for food, but act us scavengers to
the dirty streets. They are enticed in
towns to devour tho filthiest food by
sprinkling bran over it. In the noun
famous districts, where there are oak
forests, they are driven up to the high
regions to feed on acorns. A good acorn
year is a godsend to those who possess
oak forests. For each full-grown pig as
much as los. is paid for the acorn season
to the owner of the forest; two medium
sized pigs and three small ones are ad-
mitted at the same rate.
The pigs, which are thus driven about
under the superintendent of boy swine
herds, are all ar-marked, and speedily
become accustomed to their new con-
ditions of life. They form among them
selves a sort of republican government,
and are docle to the calls and windings
OF the horn of their young guardians,
who are clothed in very plain and primi-
tive fashion, and live simply on bread
and water, taking out with them every
day loaves baked in the ovens of the
farm, and in shape precisely the same as
those that have been found in the bakers
shops at Pompeii. The pigs are driven
back home at night and housed to avoid
disease, and strange to say, their sheds are
scrupulously clean.
1t is said that they establish internally
kind of sanitary jurisdiction, and that
a pig which is found delinquent against
the sanitary rules is attacked with fury
by the rest and killed.
The consul has seen covered pig sites
made OF stone and capable of holding
300 or 400 pigs, and found them dry and
clean and very dusty. The only value
of the pigs consists in their being sold as
fresh pork and for the making of saus-
ages. They fattern well upon acorns,
and their flesh is very white and tasteful,
whereas the color of the pork in the
towns is quite dark. The sausages which
are made are also very tolerable, but the
curing of pork for ham or bacon is un-
known in Sicily. Pigs in Sicily enjoy as
much social distinction as in Ireland;
they, with the poultry and other animals,
share their masters tenement, and will
trot after him daily to and fro ON his
way to his work in the fields. Perhaps
pork is more commonly eaten than any
other kind of meat in the island. The
boy swineherds and goatherds who tend
the hocks in the mountains receive
daily provision of bread cooked in the
farm buildings, and get nothing else in
winter and summer, not even in the
severest weather, and never as rule,
even taste pasta" or macaroni. Besides
the daily provision of bread they receive
u dole of 75f year, paid in three parts,
out of which they find their clothes. A
great part of the year the lads sleep in
the open air or in temporary straw huts,
often in rainy or snowy weather, and
with such a hard life and nothing but
coarse bread and water from years end
to years end their cheerfulness and good
humor appear quite marvellous, and many
of them are bright, intelligent, lively
iads, and graceful and courteous in their
demeanor- london Times