NATURAL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part. I. 



number of bears, wolves and catamounts, 

 which embraced every opportunity to de- 

 stroy them, the fattening of hogs in this 

 way was, at best, a precarious business. 

 In some places,where a considerable num- 

 ber of hogs were turned into the woods 

 together, a person was kept with them to 

 protect them during the day, and collect 

 them into a place of safety for the night, 

 and often has our blood chilled in our 

 veins as we have heard our fathers nar- 

 rate, with quivering lips, their bloody 

 struggles with bruin for the possession of 

 a favorite hog. Almost every family in 

 the state fattens one hog, or more than 

 one, for their own use, and by most of our 

 farmers, more or less are fattened for mar- 

 ket. Hogs are usually butchered in this 

 state when about 20 months old, and 

 their weight when dressed is from 150, to 

 400 pounds, according to kind and condi- 

 tion. Considerable pains have been taken 

 within a few years to improve our breed of 

 hon-s, and several new varieties have been 

 introduced, one of the latest and most ap- 

 proved of which is called the Berkshire 

 Hof. The Hog is a prolific animal, pro- 

 ducing young twice a year, and often 

 having 14 pigs at a litter. The period of 

 gestation is 4 months. The hog increases 

 in size for about 5 or 6 years, and some- 

 times lives 20 years. The number of hogs 

 in the several counties in Vermont, ac- 

 cording to the returns of 1840, was as fol- 

 lows : 



Bennington, 



Caledonia, 



Cliitlendon, 



Essex, 



Franklin. 



-Grand Isle, 



9.90f 

 18,091 

 2.i,:ilO 



8,935 



Lamoille, 



Orangei 



(Irleans, 



liulland, 



Washington) 



Windham, 



3,l79lWindsor, 



7,287 

 23,5 Ifi 



9,750 

 15,563 

 12,1.50 

 29,435 

 22,834 



Genus Bos. — Linnaus. 

 Generic Characters.— Teeth 32 or 30— 

 Incisors A or^, canines ^, grin(lersfi.|. Head 

 larot; forehead straig'it : muzzle square ; horns oc- 

 cupying the crest of ihe forehead; eyeslarje; 

 ears fut)nel shaped ; dewlap.s on the neck ; female 

 with an udder, liaving f lur teats ; tail long and tuf- 

 ted; horns simple, conical, round with various in- 

 flections, sonittimes directed laterally. 



THE OX. 



Bos taurus. — Linn. 

 We here use the term oz in a general 

 sense to denote neat cattle, the male of 

 which is called bull, and the female cow, 

 although it is ordinarily applied to the 

 male in an altered working state. Neith- 

 er the native country of the ox, nor the 

 time v/hen he was reclaimed from a wild 

 state, is now certainly known. It must, 



however, have been domesticated at a 

 very early period, as the keeping of cattle 

 is mentioned as an occupation before the 

 flood.* After that event the keeping of 

 cattle and sheep afforded the means of 

 subsistence and constituted the principal 

 part of the wealth of a large proportion of 

 tlie human race ; and has continued to do 

 so down to the present time. We read 

 that when Abraham was in Egypt, 180 

 years before there is any mention of the 

 horse, he was possessed of sheep and ox- 

 en ;t and this account of the early domes- 

 tication and acknowledged value of the 

 ox is confirmed by the records of profane 

 history. Tliis animal was held in so high 

 estimation as to be an object of worship 

 in Earypt, and among the Hindoos was 

 hio-hly venerated and believed to be the 

 first animal created. The traditions of 

 the Celtic nations also enrol the cow 

 among the earliest productions, and rep- 

 resent her as a kind of divinity. 



Cattle, like most other domesticated 

 animals, have run into a very considera- 

 ble number of varieties, and it is now, 

 perhaps, impossible to ascertain which 

 approaches nearest to the original stock. 

 The cattle which were first introduced 

 into tills country by the early settlers, 

 were such as were the common cattle of 

 Great Britain 150 or 200 years ago, and 

 from tiiese the present stocks have gen- 

 erally descended, and, till within a few 

 years past, very little pains have been ta- 

 ken for their improvement. These, corn- 

 in? from different parts of England, Scot- 

 land and Ireland, consisted of many va- 

 rieties, which here became amalgamated, 

 and which have here formed what may be 

 called the . American stock, retaining, like 

 our American people, many both of the 

 good and bad qualities of the races from 

 which it is descended. For many years 

 past much pains have been taken to im- 

 prove the breeds of cattle, particularly in 

 Eno-land, and within a few j'^ears some of 

 these improved breeds have been intro- 

 duced into this country. The most ap- 

 proved of these are the Ayrshire and 

 Durham, and these are doubtless in many 

 respects superior to our native cattle. 

 Still, it is the opinion of many, that the 

 proper method of improving stocks of 

 cattle is not bj' the introduction of foreign 

 materials, but by selecting, for breeders, 

 from our native stocks, the best varieties, 

 and, from these, those individuals which 

 possess the properties desired in the liigii- 

 est perfection. In this way we shall be 

 sure to have a race of cattle which is 

 adapted to our country and climate, and 



Genesis IV— 20. t Genesis XII— 16. 



