22 



To Abel F. Adams, for the second best fat hog, 3 00 



" " " " M third best " " 2 00 



" Natt Cowdin, for the best breeding sow, 3 00 



" Allen B. Wood, for the 2d best " " 2 00 



Your Committee were sorry to see no boars present, (we 

 don't mean human bores,) for however excellent may be our 

 breeding sows, we don't understand how the race of hogs is 

 to be perpetuated and improved without the male element. 



Your Committee also observe that all the entries, save one, 

 were made from the town of Fitchburg. Now we think that 

 this ought not so to be ; we see not why our sister towns 

 should not do something by way of contributing to this de- 

 partment, at these shows. 



Perhaps no animal better illustrates the "law of progress," 

 in the success which has attended the efforts of man to improve 

 and develope him, than the hog. Whatever might have been 

 the degree of perfection which he possessed as an article of 

 food, in that early period when he first became a denizen of 

 this globe, long before there was a man to test his edible qual- 

 ities, in our estimate of what education and training have done 

 for him, we must take him as he existed, a wild barbarian in 

 the forests of the old world — a creature of great size and pro- 

 digious strength, of long limbs and great fleetness — competing 

 with the horse in speed, and defending himself successfully, 

 even against the attacks of the lion. But his flesh, we must 

 presume to be of a very inferior quality, although the head of 

 the wild boar was esteemed a famous dish at the tables of the 

 barons. From this condition man has reclaimed him, and by 

 good feeding, gentle training, and a judicious system of breed- 

 ing, has succeeded in bringing him up to the high standard of 

 perfection, to which he has attained in our day. 



But notwithstanding the hog is a creature of such excellent 

 physical attainments, and has also in our day established for 

 himself, by numerous examples, a character for intelligence and 

 aptitude in learning, inasmuch as he has succeeded in master- 

 ing his alphabet, in playing cards, and outrivaling even the dog 



