CHAPTER XXI 



THE RAZORBACK 



WE have now launched three of the four prin- 

 cipal industries of our factory farm. The fourth 

 is perhaps the most important of all, if a single 

 member of a group of mutually dependent indus- 

 tries can have this distinction. There is no ques- 

 tion that the farmer's best friend is the hog. 

 He will do more for him and ask less of him than 

 any other animal. All he asks is to be born. 

 That is enough for this non-ruminant quadruped, 

 who can find his living in the earth, the roadside 

 ditch, or the forest, and who, out of a supply of 

 grass, roots, or mast, can furnish ham and bacon 

 to the king's taste and the poor man's mainte- 

 nance. The half-wild razorback, with never a 

 clutch of corn to his back, gives abundant food 

 to the mountaineer over whose forest he ranges. 

 The cropped or slit ear is the only evidence of 

 human care or human ownership. He lives the 

 life of a wild beast, and in the autumn he dies 

 the death of a wild beast ; while his flesh, made 

 rich with juices of acorns, beechnuts, and other 

 sweet masts, nourishes a man whose only exercise 

 of ownership is slaughter. The hog that can 

 make his own living, run like a deer, and drink 



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