424 THE HOG. 



Jerusalem artichoke. This kind of food they will eat either 

 in the natural state, or when prepared by boiling. This 

 latter process is well adapted to prepare several kinds of 

 roots, as the turnip, for fattening these animals. They de- 

 light, in an especial degree, in all kinds of farinaceous sub- 

 stances, as meal, bran, pease or beans bruised, and generally 

 on the seeds of all gramineous and leguminous plants, the 

 buckwheat and others. They may be fattened on the grains 

 of breweries, and on the grains as well as the wash or liquid 

 refuse of distilleries. They may be fattened, too, with ani- 

 mal substances, and, above all, with the refuse of the kitchen 

 and the dairy. Attention to warmth and cleanliness should, 

 at every period, be paid to them when confined. It is an 

 e rror to suppose that they may be left in a state of neglect 

 and filth. It may seem absurd to say that the Hog is a 

 cleanly animal, yet it does not appear that his endurance of 

 filth is a matter of choice, or his rolling in the mire, any 

 thing but the effect of that love of coolness and moisture 

 which distinguishes him in the state of nature. 



The Hog is subject to remarkable changes of form and 

 characters, according to the situations in which he is placed. 

 When these characters assume a certain degree of perma- 

 nence, a breed or variety is formed ; and there is none of the 

 domesticated animals which more easily receives the charac- 

 ters we desire to impress upon it. This arises from its rapid 

 powers of increase, and the constancy with which the charac- 

 ters of the parents are reproduced in the progeny. There is 

 no kind of live-stock that can be so easily improved by the 

 breeder, and so quickly rendered suited to the purposes re- 

 quired. And the same characters of external form indicate 

 in the Hog a disposition to arrive at early maturity of muscle 

 and fatness, as in the Ox and Sheep. The body is large in 

 proportion to the limbs, or, in other words, the limbs are 

 short in proportion to the body; the extremities are free from 

 coarseness, the chest is broad, and the trunk round. Pos- 

 sessing these characters, the Hog never fails to arrive at 



