50
DOMESTIC MANNEKS OF THE PKUSSIANP.
But if the beef is of too ancient and tough a nature toplease pampered English palates, the veal has the very oppo-site defect, and is far too young, and the flesh too pappy, to beeatable by any but semi-savages. Indeed, the poor calves arekilled in their very babyhood—when only a week old; andthe custom, we must confess, smacks to our mind of such anover-greediness to turn a groschen out of the young things'lives, that we always sicken at the sight of the eternal " Kalb-fleisch'''' —a viand which is more populär than any other inIlhineland, simply because it is little better than half theprice of beef, or a fraction more than threepence a-pound.
Mutton (Hammelfleisch) is a luxurious rarity, fetching rathermore than sevenpence a-pound; for the hüls, upon whichwe should graze sheep, are either planted with vineyards orcovered with wood, so that during our stay in Prussia wesaw only one flock. Lamb, on the other hand, is unknown;for if the calves are killed almost as soon as born — to preventthem having any share of their mothers' milk — the young ofthe ewe (owing to the produce of its udder having no com-mercial value attached to it) are allowed to live on to a re-spectable old age, in order that they may bring more groschensto the breeder.
German pork (Schweinfleisch) is positively uneatable byEnglish people. Dairy-fed animals are unknown in thecountry, the Rhenish porkers being literally gutter-fed. Noris this all. A large proportion of this same German pork con-sists of the flesh of elderly sows that have borne multitudinousfamilies; for the German "Bauers'" (peasants) never think ofkilling any animal for food until they have got their lastPfennig out of it. The consequence is, that the fat of this samepork is positively yellow, and the flesh itself red and leathery,as well as coarse and rank to the palate. Such as it is, thepork fetches about five gros (sixpence) the pound, whilst
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