THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART XI. ()45 



dition of the hogs of the west today or is it due to other natural causes, I 

 will leave this with you to decide. 



But the hog with all his civilization, education and refinement still 

 retains some of his natural characteristics. It is true that in his domestic 

 state, we will call him lazy, and hear men speaking of a man when he is 

 drunk and say that he is as drunk as a hog but that is not just, nor is it 

 complimentary to the hog I mean, for there is no civilized hog but would 

 have more sense than to get into such a condition. 



There are several allusions to swine in the Bible, one of which was 

 by Solomon when he compared a jewel in a swine's snout to a woman 

 without discretion, and Solomon had a good deal of experience with women 

 and I expect he knew what he was talking about. And again in the days 

 of our Saviour here on earth we have an account of Him casting the devils 

 out of two men and allowing them to enter into the swine, nor are the 

 men^all dead upon whom a similar miracle would be a great blessing to 

 mankind. Neither are the swine all drowned in the sea that are affected 

 in a similar way and I fear that it will take several crosses to eliminate 

 this one of his prominent characteristics, but we have the promise that in 

 the latter days Satan shall be bound and perhaps then the bog as well as 

 man will get relief and will be more easily governed. And yet the hog with 

 his indomitable disposition to have his own way and many other character- 

 istics found in the heart of man is truly the western farmer's best domes- 

 tic friend. Truly great is the American hog. 



THE POLAND-CHINA HOC. 



Wm. Hester, before the Dallas County Farmers' Institute. 



The Poland-China hog is an American. He cannot boast of an an- 

 cestry coming down from the old world, or of centuries of conquest and 

 victory. True, the component parts of which the breed is composed came 

 from the ends of the earth, but as a distinct breed, he is an. American. 



No only is he an American, but he is a product of the west and adapted 

 to western ideas and western conditions. The broad prairies and fertile 

 valleys of the middle and western states are his native habitat, and our 

 bursting corn cribs and rich clover pastures are congenial to his taste, and 

 conducive to his happiness. Moreover, the Poland-China hog is a modern 

 production, the result of modern thought, the outgrowth of modern needs 

 — or, briefly stated, up-to-date. Assuming that most of you are as familiar 

 as I am with the origin and history of the breed, I will not dwell on these, 

 but pass on to a discussion of the merits and demerits of these well-known 

 and popular swine. 



Something like a hall century ago, some prominent farmers and breed- 

 ers of Ohio, then the center of pork production, becoming dissatisfied with 

 existing breeds with a view to producing a breed adapted to the corn belt. 

 There is some controversy as to the breeds used for this purpose, but it 



