372 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



our private opinion for the gratification of those who can use 

 it with apparent impunity, because we know it to be for our 

 pecuniary interest as farmers to keep and deal in swine. 

 Hence our position will favorably aid us in drawing an impar- 

 tial portraiture of character. 



The hog is reputedly a dirty, loathsome, greedy animal; 

 though often made so, not by choice, but by the manner in 

 which he is kept. He is often reared, too, simply because it 

 can be done so cheaply. Being a voracious animal, he greedily 

 devours bugs, worms and carrion, and is turned off with the 

 trash from orchard and garden, with the refuse scraps of the 

 kitchen, the sweepings of the barn, and offal of the market. 

 Absorbing such ingredients, it is by no means a wonder that 

 his flesh is rejected by ■ Grahamite epicures. His organs of 

 digestion are powerful; and to the extent and perfection of 

 these, and of his respiratory powers, he is indebted for his 

 loathsome voraciousness. And may not his filthy habits be in 

 a great measure accounted for from the fact that his sense of 

 touch is so very acute, rendering heat extremely oppressive, 

 and the least contact from insects equally annoying — thus in- 

 ducing a resort to water for the purpose of cooling himself, 

 and to a coat of mud for self-protection ? Adapting himself 

 to every variety of climate, being in this respect a perfect 

 cosmopolite, a citizen at large, coming to maturity early, and 

 being easily improved by the breeder, he is more quickly ren- 

 dered suitable to the purposes required than any other de- 

 scription of live stock. From no other source can the poor 

 man so readily supply his table with meat; and no branch of 

 farm husbandry pays so well for the required care and atten- 

 tion as the raising and fattening of swine for the market. 

 Young porklings arc always lively, happy, and full of innocent 

 sport; and in their little domestic arrangements each chooses 

 his teat, and ever after retains possession of it, the compact 

 (which is always more faithfully maintained than in the human 

 family) providing that every one shall keep on his own terri- 

 tory, without abrogation or compromise — a regimen under 

 which they attain about as high a scale of mutual courtesy and 

 regard as do some of the human race; for, with the latter, 

 might too often makes right. Such, briefly, is the minority of 



