I understand Larry and Diane's point about pigs being admirable
meat-making machines.  They're mean; they eat anything that stands
still; and they reproduce like rabbits.  But I'd thought this was all
known to medieval Europe.
 
Was this somehow not true of the British too?  It may well be, because
part of the notoriety attached to America's Scotch-Irish immigrants was
their fondness for free-range pigs.  Again, why the limited evidence for
pork in the 17th and early 18th century Chesapeake?
 
Brian Siegel