554 BARNSTABLE SOCIETY. 



slightly what may have been his "antecedents," and then they 

 make the most of him. 



Now this is not the course required by good economy. This 

 animal, like that we previously considered, though descended 

 from a vulgar ancestry, may be greatly ennobled by careful 

 management. The hog, which appears to be indigenous to all 

 the temperate climates of the Old World, was not found upon 

 the western continent previous to its introduction by the Span- 

 iards. The black breed brought over by them has rapidly in- 

 creased upon the islands and main lands of our continent. 

 The European wild boar, the parent of the English domestic 

 breeds, and probably of all others extant, still exists in the 

 forests of Germany, where he is preserved for the purposes of 

 game, as deer are in English parks. He is described as a dark, 

 brindled, gray color, nearly black, with " longitudinal stripes 

 like those of the corderay pigs." He certainly must have been 

 the progenitor of the " Dedham Striped Pig." 



In addition to the ordinary uses to which swine are devoted, 

 to eat, and sleep, and die, and be subjected to all sorts of fiery 

 torments afterwards, they have been made serviceable in other 

 ways in some countries. 



In one part of England they are occasionally employed to 

 draw the plough, and it is said that on the Island of Minorca, a 

 hog and an ass are often seen yoked together. In this country 

 their ploughing, we apprehend, is done by a process of sub- 

 soiling entirely their own, and whatever of yoking they are 

 subjected to, is intended not so much to apply them to useful 

 purposes as to keep them from committing mischief. 



Though swine have been written down as a stupid, unman- 

 nerly, filthy family, we are convinced they are capable of a 

 higher destiny. The short period of their existence is probably 

 the greatest cause of their defective education. Truly their life 

 is but a summer day. Through a few brief months they " scrawl 

 strange tracks in a barbarous pen," and then are sacrificed to 

 the appetites of those who, in feeding them for the slaughter, 

 have killed them with kindness. 



With such means for their culture, how could we expect 

 much of them ? We are told, however, that a gentleman in 

 England actually succeeded in making a hog perform all of 



