THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 141 



the shortest time, and with the least expenditure of food. In 

 this peculiar task the success has been remarkable, the creat- 

 ure having been made to vary from its primitive condition 

 in an extraordinary manner. In its wild state the species 

 develops slowly, requiring, perhaps, three or four years to 

 attain its maximum size. It never becomes very fat, but re- 

 mains an agile, swift-footed, and fierce tenant of the wilds. 

 Under the conditions of subjugation the pig has been brought 

 to a state in which its qualities of mind and body have under- 

 gone a very great change. In the more developed breeds, 

 even the males, when kept about the barnyard, are quiet- 

 natured and not at all dangerous. The creatures have become 

 slow-moving ; they attain their full development in about half 

 the time required for the growth of their wild kindred, and 

 when adult they may outweigh them in the ratio of four 

 to one. 



The effect arising from the food-supply which our pigs 

 afford is well seen in the use which is made of their flesh in 

 all the ruder work of men, at least in the case of those of our 

 race. Our soldiers and sailors are to a great extent fed on 

 the flesh of these creatures, which lends itself readily to pres- 

 ervation by the use of salt. So rapidly can these animals be 

 bred, owing to the number of young which they produce in a 

 litter and the swiftness of their growth, that sudden demands 

 for an increase in the supply, such as occurred at the out- 

 break of our civil war, can quickly be met. If the need should 

 arise, the quantity of pork produced in this country could 

 readily be doubled within eighteen months. This is the case 

 with no other source of flesh-supply, and this fact gives the 

 pig a peculiar importance. 



Owing to the remarkably complete domestication of this 



