If there be one task which is considered to be within the capacity of any individual, it is that of feeding a pig. In the good old times, the one thing needful was a good supply of barley meal, as much of this as the pig could possibly eat was placed into its trough each day until the pig was thought to be fat enough for slaughter. This was a very simple and at the same time a very costly process and was looked upon as the second of the two chief acts in the life of a pig. The first consisted of building up a frame on which fat could be stored. Just why these two processes were not combined has never been fully explained. One excuse made for this uneconomical process is that our forbears must have considered that there must be two distinct periods in the life of any animal intended for the food of man, that in which the structure was erected, and that in which the building was completely furnished with the material--flesh--in a state which most nearly satisfied the requirements or fancies of humanity. The system of first growing the frame and then packing it with flesh was not alone followed by the owners of pigs, as it was also adopted with cattle, which in the good old times passed three or four years in a state of semi-starvation ere they were placed on our best pastures to produce beef. Sheep, again, spent two or three years in building up their frames and in the production of a limited quantity of wool of inferior quality and strength, before they were considered in a fit state to make mutton economically. Another excuse which could have been offered by our forbears, but which is not now available, is that the cattle, sheep, and pigs of former times required age before it was possible to render them sufficiently fat for slaughter.