Hog

a well known domestic animal. Swine is a collective term including boars, sows, and pigs, just as the term cattle includes the young and old of the ox kind. The domestic hog is supposed to be a cross between the wild boar of Europe and various wild swine of farther Asia. The term Poland-China is applied to an American breed, originating in Ohio. It is now the principal hog of the corn-raising states. Other strains are the Chester White, originating in Chester County, Pennsylvania, from the white Yorkshire hogs of England; black Berkshire hogs, popular both in England and in this country, and the Jersey Red, bred first in New Jersey. Swine introduced into America by the early explorers were of an inferior sort. De Soto, it may be remembered, drove hogs before him on his route westward from Tampa Bay. The gaunt, sharp backed, swift running descendants of these hogs still run half wild through the pine forests of the Gulf States where they are popularly called "razor backs." A full grown specimen dresses only from forty to sixty pounds. A small wild pig of Nepal, India, hides in the grass. It is no larger than a hare.

The hog is naturally a cunning, suspicious animal of courage and speed. Its natural food is composed of nuts and roots. It has a strong but sensitive nose admirably adapted not only for rooting, but for detecting food. In this respect, as well as in its thick skin and other anatomical features, the hog is related to the tapir, the rhinoceros, and the elephant. It is claimed that the hog does not perspire. Its teeth are naturally strong, and well fitted for crushing nuts. Indeed, the tusks of the wild boar are proverbial for their strength. In domestication, however, the hog has grown so lubberly that it cannot run, so fat that it cannot look behind it without whirling half way around, and so weak-jawed that it can barely masticate the corn with which it is fed. In thus pampering it, the American farmer has fairly reversed the old proverb of "root, hog, or die." While the hog does not refuse any sort of nutritious offal, and has the reputation of being a filthy animal, it thrives all the better for clean quarters and wholesome food. The hog is undoubtedly selfish and greedy. It cannot be denied that the popular term of "hoggish" properly derives its fullness of meaning from the true nature of the animal.

The eating of swine was forbidden by the Mosaic law. The Hebrews still regard the swine as an unclean animal, and its flesh as unfit for use as food. The Arabians and Egyptians hold pork in the same estimation. This aversion to the hog is a fixed part of the religious principles of many Eastern nations. At one time a body of native troops in India rose in mutiny against their British commanders when they found that, in biting off the greasy ends of their cartridges to pour the powder into their muskets, they were defiling their lips and teeth with lard, the fat of an unclean animal.

While never a favorite with the poet the despised hog is really a very useful and even indispensable animal. Its bristles are used for brushes; its skin, when tanned properly, makes a very soft, flexible, tough, handsome leather much used for saddles, trunk covers, and the like. Boys call their football a "pigskin." The fat of the hog, or lard, ranks with olive oil and butter in general use. Pork is not only a palatable and nutritious food, but, owing to its capacity for absorbing salt, it is the most valuable of cured meats. Salted hams and shoulders, pickled pork, and especially bacon, may be preserved longer and be transported with less danger of spoiling than any other kind of meat. The salted flesh of the hog is in fact the only kind of meat that can be relied upon in military and naval operations.

The curing and packing of hog products began in the United States at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1640. The first drove of hogs marketed in Chicago was received in 1827. The purchases of that city now exceed 7,000,000 hogs a year. Kansas City comes second with 3,000,000 a year. The four seaboard cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, receive about 5,000,000 hogs a year. Western packers, that is to say, the packing houses situated in the corn belt, pay out an average of $900,000 a day for hogs, or very nearly a million dollars on each working day of the year.

Speaking of improvements in hog raising Professor Coburn, author of Swine in America, says:

Intelligence used in his breeding and care has raised the hog from the plane of the veriest savage, unsought except when hunted like any other wild beast, to that of a benefactor, contributing a wide variety of meats, among them the most toothsome known to the epicure, and other products essential to the best tables, to commerce, and the trades. The hog's disposition has yielded to the influence of good breeding and changed from that of the outlaw, ready for conflict with man or beast, to the peaceable temperament belonging with propriety to the barnyard resident.

His conformation has been molded by skillful methods from bony, angular uncouthness, into a structure of massive width, depth, and thickness, affording a marvelous yield of pork and lard. Incidentally, by domestication and generations of breeding him for early maturity and quick fattening, the length of his intestines has been increased, it is claimed by scientists, more than 130 per cent.

Swine are as susceptible as other animals to the influences of environment, and three or four generations cover a period long enough to bring about great changes in them.

The following figures are from the Twelfth Census:

Statistics for 1908 show fewer hogs by 8,000,000 but greater values. The average yearly receipts of hogs at leading markets is not far from:

The hog is raised the world over, save that Mohammedans do not tolerate it. None are reported from Turkey. There are only 5,000,000 swine in all Asia. Some of the more important swine raising countries are:

World's total . . . . . 145,000,000

See Packing House; Boar; Bristle