CHAPTER IX 

 THE MULEFOOT 



By JOHN H. DUNLAP, 

 President, American Mule foot Hog Breeders' Association 



Aristotle, who was born in 384 B. C., wrote of a race of hogs 

 with undivided toes or consolidated hoofs. Later Linaeus, the 

 Swedish naturalist, born in 1707, wrote that hogs with undivided 

 toes were not uncommon about his native town in Sweden. This 

 hog has been known to naturalists in different parts of the world for 

 more than 2,000 years. With all of this line of ancestry, the Mule- 

 foot is a stranger to the great rank and file of hog breeders today. 

 Just as the hut builders of South Africa used the blue mud from the 

 diamond vein to daub his house, overlooking the immense wealth 

 carried in each hod, so have the hog breeders overlooked the great 

 value of the Mulefoot. It is a real diamond which was neglected 

 in the rough, but brought to perfection has surpassed the fondest 

 hopes of the most enthusiastic. 



The bottom of the foot of these hogs is soft and padlike, similar 

 to the pads on animals of the cat family. This would indicate that 

 they must have been a flesh-eating animal at one time, and nature 

 provided them with pads to enable them to prey on other animals. 

 They seem to be the same as other hogs except for their feet, yet 

 I find their intestines are smaller. This gives them a larger dress- 

 ing percentage. 



This breed gets its name from its solid foot, which is solid like 

 that of a horse or mule. The flesh is of a remarkably fine flavor. 

 There are a great many ideas held about its origin, but this as well 

 as the tendency of the purebred Mulefoot to assert itself with 

 a solid foot when crossed with other breeds, is still puzzling the 

 scientists. 



My attention was called to this breed by a letter from Mr. Quinn 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture. It seems that 

 the Government has never been able to find out where or how this 

 breed got its solid foot. Claims are made by many who purchased 

 Mulefoot of me that compared with other breeds they are hardier, 

 have greater vitality, mature earlier, and cost less to make the first 

 250 pounds. The sows are gentle, kind mothers, are usually very 

 prolific, raising large litters, which if turned out will hustle for 

 their living, or grow and thrive, paying big returns under good 

 care and attention. They claim the pigs are hardier and freer 

 from pig diseases than pigs of other breeds, and are great rovers, 

 hustling for themselves from time of birth. The sows are better 

 sucklers than those of any other breed I have ever had under ob- 

 servation. They seem to have a gre^at capacity to produce milk 

 while suckling pigs and the sows are harder to keep in high flesh, 

 but as soon as their litters ase weaned the gain in flesh is very 



197 



