SWINE. 391 



another for purposes of pleasure. Among the different species 

 and varieties of animals, not the least honored, or useful, is 

 the hog, belonging by classification to that group of animals 

 called, Pachydermata. His physical attributes have from time 

 to time been gradually developing, until he has become the 

 most important of the domestic animals, and a favorite of the 

 most enlightened nations of the earth. Indeed so respected is 

 he, that a farmer's hoggery is considered a very strong indica- 

 tion of his public spirit and generosity, or of his selfishness and 

 inhumanity. His piggery is visited by the young and old, by 

 statesmen, politicians, lawyers, merchants, mechanics, artisans, 

 and sometimes by the divine. These all occasionally lean over 

 the enclosures of the pen, gazing in wonder and admiration at 

 the comely form and silvery brightness of the hog. 



But if honored when living, he is none the less so, or useful, 

 when dead, for 



" The good the hos does lives after him." 



His thighs and sides make pork and bacon ; his feet, head and 

 ears, pickled, constitute the nutritious article, termed souse ; 

 his entrails furnish envelops for the sausage ; his bristles are 

 manufactured into brushes, and to them the cordwainer is irre- 

 deemably indebted ; from the shavings which come from the 

 manufactory of brushes and from the finer bristles, mattresses 

 and cushions are stuffed ; so that, while the meat of the swine 

 affords nourishment to the exhausted system, his covering is a 

 bed on which the weary may repose for rest ; from his leaf fat 

 and mesentery, lard is extracted, which gives to doughnuts their 

 exquisite flavor, and enters largely into the composition of pies, 

 and many other domestic uses. From the lard, oil is made, and 

 from the refuse matter, left after the manufacture of oil, stearin 

 candles are made. But this is not all, — from the blood of swine 

 prussiate of potash is manufactured by the ton. Thus is it 

 emphatically true, that the good the hog does lives after him. 



The hog is adapted to every variety of climate, and in this 

 respect is a perfect cosmopolite, a citizen at large, coming to 

 maturity early, and being easily improved by the breeder, is 

 more quickly rendered suitable for the purposes required than 

 any other description of live stock. From no other source can 

 the poor man so readily and cheaply supply his table with nutri- 



