THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



871 



To recapitulate the aHvantages of its cultivation : I breadth of these inundated lands is from 10 to 40 

 1. Provision ol excellent green Ibod is made at I miles. Here then is our wild hog range. 



a season of the year when of all others it is most 

 ■ wanted. 



2. It is produced without sacrificing any portion 

 of the usual rotations pursued on a farm, and with 

 little extra labor, nor does it interfere with the ma- 

 nagement of any preceding or succeeding crop?. 



3. [t will grow on any soil, but is especially 

 calculated lor poor loose sand, when every other 

 ;<:rreen esculent is more or less uncertain. 



4. It will bear any degree of frost to which 

 our climate is subject, and is sufficiently hardy lo 

 defy the effects of the coldest situations in the 

 country, being there cultivated instead of wheat 

 for a corn crop liom necessity. 



5. It is as inexpensive, or more so than any 

 grass or leguminous plant. 



6. It is readily consumed by stock, especially 

 young animals. 



7. It improves rather than deteriorates the 

 soil upon which it is grown. 



Thorpfield, near Thirsk, Yorkshire. 



The wild hogs are usually three or lour yeara 

 in coming to maturity, and frfquenily weigh from 

 two to three hundred pounds, gross; their color is 

 various : black, white, sandy and pale red, and 

 every variety of mixture which these colors will 

 admit of; their form is ordinary, having rather too 

 m.uch leg, which makes them quite heelyat limes; 

 rather slab-sided, with a roached back, well set 

 off with long stiff bristles, which, when elevated 

 in battle array, give them quite a Ibrmidabie ap- 

 pearance ; there is, however, much variety in the 

 lorm and size of these bogs, as they are crossed 

 and recrossed by new recruits which stray off to 

 them in search of mast, or fall in company with 

 them in their rambles near the plantations ; hence 

 you occasionally see some of them that might pasa 

 lor a distant relation to a Berkshire, and again 

 you come across one whose whiienet^s, and whose 

 rounded hams would say that some of his ances- 

 tors had had a letter of introduction to a grasier 

 from the land of St. Patrick, The wild hogs sub- 

 sist on a great variety of food ; in the lall and win- 

 ter months they fare sumptuously on ihe great 

 variety of mast which the oaks, persimmons, 

 hackberries, pecan and palmetto yield, together 

 with the grape that contributes its beautiful clus- 

 ters in great prolusion. In the spring and early 

 From the Western Farmer and Gardene;-. in the summer months their fare is frequently 

 £)8or sir— Presuming a short account of Aog!/- scarce, and they are Irequently driven by high 



THE WILD HOGS OF THE NORTHERN 

 KISHES OF LOUISIANA. 



ology, (if I may be allowed to coin a word,) in 

 the swamps of Louisiana, may not be entirely un- 

 acceptable to some of your numerous readers, I 

 have concluded to scribble you a few lines on that 

 subject. The settlements on the level or low 

 lands are usually along the margins of rivers, 

 lakes and bayous, there usually being a belt of 

 land from a quarter of a mile to two miles in 

 breadth, which is arable and rarely subject to 

 overflows ; as you recede from these into the still 

 lower lands that are almost annually inundated, 

 you find yourself (unless during a flood of the 

 "Great Father of Waters") in open woods en- 

 tirely clear of bog or morass, occasionally check- 

 ered, here and there, v;ith a cane brake on the 

 =most elevated spots, and then again with palmet- 

 to, sometimes in small patches, and again extend- 

 ing for miles, varying in height from two to 

 eight feet on the lowest parts of the swamp. 

 The timber in these lowlands is composed of lil- 

 teen varieties of oak, swamp-hickory, persimmon 

 of two varieties, pecan, &c., some of which rarely 

 ever fail in producing an abundant mast. On the 

 most elevated ridges we have a variety of grape 

 vines, bamboo, two species of the vine producing 

 the trumpet-flower, the green-brier, and many 

 other kinds of vines that entwine their pliant 

 folds around every tree within their reach, and 

 render the spot entirely impenetrable to a horse- 

 man. !n the open parts of the swamp (^Ibr in the 

 south all land is called swamp that is or ever bus I 

 been subject to overflow) where llie timber is 

 scattering, there ate several varieties of the grajves 

 which are peculiar to these swamps, and also 

 many weeds and flowers thai are in bloom during 

 the winter months. These low lands are not ara- 

 ble, and never will be, as the lowest of them are 

 the reservoirs not only of the Mississippi flood.>, 

 but are also the recepacles for the overflows ol 

 Ihe Arkansas, the Ouachilta and Red river— the 



water and hemmed up on the more elevated parts 

 of the swamp, that are covered with cane; they 

 then subsist on young cane roots, the roots of 

 the blackberry, or dewberry, and the wild potato 

 — at this season they usually become quite poor. 

 As the water subsides they lare very sumptuously 

 on fish of every description that have been en- 

 tangled in the vines, thickets, and cane brakes 

 by the sudden falling of the water. Shell fish 

 of various kinds, such as the loggerheaded turtle, 

 the soft shell, the common terrapin, craw-fish, 

 and shrimps add to their bill of lare, and make up 

 quite a variety of fishy food. 



The wild hogs usually feed in the day-time, 

 unless they are frequently hunted, in which case 

 they leed in the night, and conceal themselves 

 during the day in brier thickets, cane brakes, and 

 sometimes in large hollow trees and logs, which 

 are favorite haunts for them in the winter months. 



They usually live together in small numbers 

 — sometimes as many as filieen or twenty old 

 hogs, wiih their yearling shoats and pigs, gene- 

 rally numbering sufficiently strong to repel the 

 assaults of the wolves, which are very numerous, 

 and in consequence of their numbers, their most 

 troublesome enemies. The wolves never attack 

 them openly and boldly, but (oilow after them, 

 and conceal themselves until a favorable oppor- 

 tunity occurs ; ihen they seize a pig or shoat that 

 has carcles.-ly strayed at some distance from the 

 old hogs; lor at the first squeal, the oW hogs 

 make a furious charge, en masse, while the 

 young cluster in the rear, until their enemies 

 have been beaten off, when ihc-y all retreat at the 

 first favorable opportunity. Their sense of smeil 

 is much more acute than any person would sup- 

 pose, who has been acquainted with his i- wine- 

 ship in a domestic state only. They can smell 

 a man, who happens to be to the windward of 

 theai some one or two huodred yards, wheti there 



