SWINE. 101 



small-boned grunter of the present day. Breed after breed 

 lias been brought to public notice, each having its peculiar 

 merits or demerits. Their name is legion ; but still the cry 

 comes to our ears, What is the best hog? Were we to go 

 into the natural history of the hog, and follow up from the 

 annals of the past in its primitive state to the present im- 

 provement, much could be written both amusing and instruc- 

 tive. If we go back in our researches to the historic page, 

 we find that the hog was at that time of much importance. 

 The ancients used pork as an article of food ; the Greeks and 

 Romans made the art of breeding and rearing swine a study, 

 and every thing was done to impart a finer and more delicate 

 flavor to the flesh. The poor animals were fed, crammed, 

 and tortured to gratify the gluttony of the people. 



We are informed by one writer that swine were fed on 

 dried figs and honeyed wine in order to produce a disordered 

 or diseased liver. With regard to the prohibition against 

 the use of pork by Moses, there are differences of opinion. 

 One "UTiter supposes the law prohibited swine because of 

 their filthiness, and observes that it is well known with what 

 care and precision the law forbids all filthiness and dirt, even 

 in the fields and camp, as well as in the cities. Another 

 states that the Jews abstained from it in consequence of a 

 leprosy, from which they had severely suffered, and to which 

 the hog, in those climates, is very subject ; that throughout 

 Palestine leprosy is an epidemic disease, and, the Israelites 

 being overrun with it at the period of their quitting Egypt, 

 Moses found it necessary to enact a variety of laws respect- 

 ing it ; and prohibiting the use of swine as an article of food 

 was one of these. 



With us, no such disease enters our borders to decimate 

 our numbers. No such affliction awaits us ; and we are not 

 separated from our friends, to die in some outcast place 

 among the rocks or caverns in the mountains. But we court 

 the presence of so useful an animal, and feel proud to have 

 within our sight that which shall satisfy and cater to our 

 tastes when the cold winter months shall bring us to our 

 holiday seasons. But they cannot live on air. An old man 

 of my acquaintance often remarked, " You cannot make pork 

 on the grounds of coffee." 



Now, there is a great difference in hogs concerning their 



