wliich could be successfully pitted against an Arab courser for a 

 quarter race, or an English hunter, for leaping a stone wall or a 

 five-barred gate. 



They are still more unlike a slim breed of pigs, -which some of 

 our farmers once highly prized, and which were only prevented 

 from crawling through a knot hole in the sty, by tying an over- 

 hand knot in their tails ! Those thin, gaunt, slab-sided and wolfisli- 

 looking hogs, were real gormandizers, but would not ^ja// for their 

 keeping. They had other queer qualities, too, which are worthy 

 the attention of the curious inquirers into the mysteries of human, — 

 or to speak more correctly, — hog nature. 



It is recorded on i2;ood authoritv that one man, after having; 

 bought one of these unsightly monstrosities from a drove, said the 

 pig had a wonderful appetite, but would not grow an inch ! lie 

 would' eat a bucket full of dough, after which when put into the 

 same bucket, the little rascal did not fill it half full — and did not 

 Aveigh half as much as the dough did before the pig swallowed it ! 

 This man had evidently " got tlie wrong pig by the ear !" 



Ijut this subject is so interesting in its character, and your 

 Committee having no yokes about tlieir necks, and perhaps stimu- 

 lated by the sentiment of the poet, 



" A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind " — 



have insensibly clambered out of the pcn^ and wandered bej^ond 

 their rightful precincts. Therefore, if we can expect to get off 

 Avith a whole skin and save our bacon, we must cut short the thread 

 of our discourse, bring our discursive, crooked tale to an end, and 

 give you the knot or the knob at the end of it, lest we should be 

 called to order by this learned and dignified Association, with a 

 unanimous r/runt of censure ; or perhaps be reminded in a gentlo 

 "pig's whisper," that we are " driving our hogs to a wrong mar- 

 ket," and becoming too prosy and solemn for this cheerful oc- 

 casion. 



The hog, standing at the head of the animal creation in all which 

 relates to intrinsic worth and delicacy of flavor, it follows that the 

 man who is successful in improving the breed of swine, is superior 

 to the common race of men. He is a benefactor in the truest 

 sense of that term, and entitled to a far richer premium than any 

 society can bestow. The great Duke of Wellington, the successful 

 destroyer of men, must bov/ before the good Duke of Bedford, the 

 enthusiastic breeder of hogs. 



AVhere many are worthy, it is sometimes difficult to decide who 

 are most worthy. Your Committee, however, have carefully ex- 

 amined the inmates of every pen, taken a measure of the length 

 of their phizzes, sounded the de])th of the oleaginous matter on 

 their ribs, and made an estimate of their com})arative merits, and 



