932 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



own carcasses to a market from fifty to one hundred miles dis- 

 tant. Food also was cheap and abundant. Our virgin soil pro- 

 duced abundant crops of corn with little labor, and in the bound- 

 less forests were roots and mast, on which, in favorable Winters, 

 the hogs would thrive for months without other food. 



Hogs were seldom confined, even in a field on the farm, but 

 were turned out on "the range," each farmer having an ear- 

 mark duly recorded at the county-seat by which he could 

 tell his hogs if they strayed to a neighbor's. Hogs have such 

 strong local attachments, however, that if fed occasionally they 

 would rarely get separated from the herd. The calling of hogs 

 was quite an artistic performance, and in a still morning a farmer 

 with strong lungs could call his herd, though they might be a 

 mile away. There was a musical cadence to the "Pig-oo-ee" as 

 it was long drawn out with a strong accent and a quaver on the 

 "ee." The hogs would recognize the voice of their owner, and 

 the first one that caught the faintest sound would raise its head 

 and listen, and as soon as assured that it was the voice of its 

 owner it would sound a note of warning which all understood, 

 and the herd would start pell mell for home, and their speed 

 would not slacken until the feeding-lot was reached. The hogs 

 had another note of mingled defiance and alarm which, if 

 sounded, would at once rally the herd at any point for defence, 

 and they would charge in a body with bristles erect and mouths 

 open, the very incarnation of fury. If one wanted to catch a 

 pig in those days he must first take his bearings and select a 

 place in the fence that he could easily scale, and then make a 

 run for it as the professional base ball player does for his base, 

 and often he was glad to drop the pig before he could reach a 

 place of safety. I remember often driving up a sow from the 

 woods with her young litter when she would walk backwards 

 and fight every inch of the way, and every few rods charge on 

 me so that I must beat a retreat. 



The hogs of that early day were of no particular breed, or 

 were rather- a mixture of all the breeds that had been brought 

 across the mountains by the pioneer settlers. The only hogs 

 I remember that resembled any of the present day were the 



