SC - Pigs and agricultural practices

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/10/00 6:13:05 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
jenne at mail.browser.net writes:

<< Obviously, on the question of the free-range, unenclosed pigs in medieval
 Europe, I can't ask anyone to take my word for it. When I stumble across
 those pigs again in my research, I'll post the cite. >>

I agree with many of your points but I was mainly thinking of  general care 
aof animals. Hedges replace fences in  many areas of England. Hedges, which, 
BTW, are inpenetratible by any farm animals. These hedges are hundreds of 
years old and enclose many acres of land containing both wooded and grassy 
areas. It was those types of areas I was referring to. Where these fields  
are crossed by roads in remote areas there  are grates construsted across the 
road which disallows the animals from wandering outside the farm area. While 
technically they could be said to be 'free range' in reality the area 
available to roam in is not by any stretch of the imagination infinite.

On another note, I would venture the opinion that  technologically superior 
plows, 3 field systems and moving planting seasons have little to do with the 
manner in which pigs were raised. Similarly neither does the modern mass 
commercial production of any type of animal. We are talking the average 
holding here. 

The  records of the large number of animals sent to slaughter  in Paris on a 
daily basis, the high ratio of butchers to the  general population, as well 
as the recommended  numbers of animals to be acquired for certain feasts lead 
me to believe that agriculture simply was not the backwards inefficient 
system  some people seem to think it was. We are speaking of an agricultural 
society here. That is a society whose existence and culture  centered 
entirely on agriculture in the SAME scope and ways that our current society 
is centtered on technology.

Ras