HOG KIND. 371 



impending storm. Nor is it less agitated when 

 it hears any of its kind in distress : when a hog 

 is caught in a gate, as is often the case, or when 

 it suffers any of the usual domestic operations of 

 ringing or spaying, all the rest are then seen to 

 gather round it, to lend their fruitless assistance, 

 and to sympathize with its sufferings. They 

 have often also been known to gather round a 

 dog that had teased them, and kill him upon the 

 spot. 



Most of the diseases of this animal arise from 

 intemperance ; measles, imposthumes, and scro- 

 phulous swellings, are reckoned among the num- 

 ber. It is thought by some that they wallow in 

 the mire to destroy a sort of louse or insect that 

 is often found to infest them ; however, they are 

 generally known to live, when so permitted, to 

 eighteen or twenty years ; and the females pro- 

 duce till the age of fifteen. As they produce 

 from ten to twenty young at a litter, and that 

 twice a-year, we may easily compute how nume- 

 rous they would shortly become, if not diminish- 

 ed by human industry. In the wild state they 

 are less prolific ; and the sow of the woods brings 

 forth but once a-year, probably because exhausted 

 by rearing up her former numerous progeny. 



It would be superfluous to dwell longer upon 

 the nature and qualities of an animal too well 

 known to need a description : there are few, even 

 in cities, who are unacquainted with its uses, its 

 appetites, and way of living. The arts of fatten- 

 ing, rearing, guarding, and managing hogs, fall 

 more properly under the cognizance of the farmer 



