72 



KEPORT ON SWINE. 



The Committee appointed by the Norfolk Agricultural Society 

 to award the prizes for excellence in Swine, have approached 

 their Avork with an appreciation of the honor and importance of 

 the trust, and an earnest wish to do justice to the theme on which 

 it is their duty to report. 



The hog is a grave animal. Your committee are grave men, 

 and the subject of pork is a solemn subject ; and in these alarm- 

 ing times, when the ohve tree in Europe and the sperm whale in 

 the ocean are becoming scarce, and our whalers are getting lazy 

 or discouraged, and we are likely to be deprived of all such olea- 

 ginous material, there is much in the hog to interest mankind — 

 much matter, which judiciously used and fairly tried, will pour a 

 flood of light on a benighted world. 



In tender infancy, the jng is regarded with kindness, and de- 

 servedly receives many marks of affection. Indeed this can 

 hardly be otherwise, there is so much about him to win our con- 

 fidence and elicit our admiration. Look at him while still requir- 

 ing the care and protection of his maternal parent, and rapidly 

 ripening for the spit. Is there an object in nature or art more 

 beautiful or interesting ? His countenance how expressive ! his 

 features how striking ! His figure how plump and transparent ! 

 The twinkle of his eye how roguish ! The flexibility of his snout 

 how wonderful ! 



The young pig is a type of innocence and happiness. His 

 voice is penetrating and highly musical — insomuch that the chro- 

 matic scale in music took its rise from the melodious sounds which 

 proceeded from the glottis of this interesting quadruped, when 

 impatient for his food. And it is an undoubted fact that Hog-nxth. 

 adopted the curvilinear line of beauty, after studying the hght 

 and graceful twist in the tail of a frisky young porker ! 



As the 2^io grows older he becomes more sedate. He loses the 

 delicacy of his proportions and the simplicity of his manners. He 

 is no longer diffident and deferential. The graceful kink in his 

 tail in most cases disappears, and the matured liog, with a long 

 head, an indication of wisdom, and a voice ranging from the deep- 

 est bass to the highest treble, stands revealed in all his dignity 

 and grandeur ! 



Among the virtues of the full grown hog, firmness, in some 

 cases amounting to obstinacy, stands conspicuous. He prides 

 himself on a primitive plainness of manner, and a contempt for 

 the rules of etiquette, which have ever been recognized among 

 civilized nations ; and it is, perhaps, no objection to his character 

 that he has never been the disciple of that well bred reprobate, 

 Lord Chesterfield, but has preferred to imitate the bearing of the 



