THE HOG. 205 



beneath, as do some of the long-snouted tribes which plow the earth up 

 in furrows. They seem to make it a point of honor, too, to become fat 

 as fast as possible, in return for the food they have received, in order that 

 thus they may be in condition to pay " the pound of flesh" which is 

 *'in the bond" against them. They never fret at trifles, and thereby 

 impede their digestion, and lose health and flesh. They never sulk and 

 refuse their meals; nor do they complain of the quality or scantiness 

 of their food, like some of those ungrateful children of certain parochial 

 asylums, who have fancied that they could have eaten a little more por- 

 ridge if it had been ladled into the platter for them. I do not indeed 

 say that the Berkshire swine are singularly neat in their personal habits, 

 quite ceremonious at their meals, and free from the vice of gluttony, 

 nor that they will not scramble and fight for the best bits, and exhibit 

 their unseemly manifestations of self-indulgence ; nor that they would 

 be shocked at snoring aloud, even in the presence of royalty or nobility, 

 if the inclination to fall asleep should seize them ; but, then, it is to be 

 remembered that every individual of the hog species would do the same 

 things. In short, their peculiarities decidedly tend to the benefit of 

 mankind ; and, after all, their failings, like many of our own, proceed 

 entirely from the stomach. 



'J'he capacious paunch of the pig, and its great powers of digestion, 

 are what render it so beneficial to us ; yet, though in a domesticated 

 state, a pig will eat almost any sort of animal or vegetable food — raw 

 or cooked, fresh or putrid — he is, when at large, as naturalists inform 

 lis, the most delicate and discriminating of all quadrupeds. If free to 

 select his vegetable food, he will reject a greater number of plants than 

 the cow, the sheep, the h.orse, the ass, or the goat will refuse; so nice 

 does he become when luxuries surround him, that in the orchards of 

 peach-trees of North America, where the hog has delicious food, it is 

 observed by Goldsmith, " that it will reject the food that has lain but a 

 few hours on the ground, and continue on the watch whole hours to- 

 gether for a fresh windfall." 



The Hampshire. — This breed is often confounded with the Berkshire, but 

 its body is longer and its sides flatter; the head is long and the snout 

 sharp. The color is usually dark-spotted, but sometimes altogether 

 black, and sometimes white. This variety has been produced by crosses 

 with the Berkshire, Suflfolk, Chinese and Leicester breeds. 



The Yorkshire. — This is the product of a cross with the true Berk- 

 shire. They are quick feeders and fatten rapidly. 



Herefordshire. — Generally supposed to be the result of a cross with the 

 Shropshire; it is shorter in the body, carries less bone than that breed, 

 has also a lighter head, a smaller car, a less rugged coat, and is alto- 

 gether a far more valuable animal. This hog is little inferior to the 

 Berkshire breed. 



Gloucestershire. — The Gloucestershire hogs are somewhat less in size 

 than the preceding, and are also shorter in the body, rounder both in 

 frame and limb, and altogether more compactly built. They make 

 good store hogs, and their pork is of prime quality. 



Norlhamptonshire, of a light color, of a handsome shape, light and 

 small ear, little bone, deep-sided and compactly formed. This is a profit- 



