446 ON THE COMMERCE AND USES OF THE HAIR OF ANIMALS. 



irrespective of those which grow on the backs of true-born British hogs I 

 Why it is that a hog's bristle is more useful for such purposes than the 

 hair of horse, ox, or sheep, a microscopic examination would possibly 

 repeal ; but of the fact itself there can be no doubt. Those countries 

 which rear most hogs and make fewest brushes, can sell most bristles to 

 their neighbours. Russia is such a country. Barren as the region is, 

 it has immense forests of those trees in which, or rather under which, 

 hogs delight to pick up a living. There are large establishments, too, 

 in which oxen are slaughtered for the sake of their hides and tallow ; 

 and there are nice pickings in such places for the porcine tribe — the hog 

 being a sort of optimist, finding good in everything. The good feeding 

 not merely renders the hog fat, but the fatness renders his bristles sus- 

 ceptible of easy extraction. The bristle harvest is no small affair. Like 

 the hair harvest in France, it is a grand time when the agents come 

 round to collect the crop. What sort of prices the agents give, is a 

 mystery we are unable to solve ; but the bristles are conveyed by these 

 agents to the great fairs held periodically in Russia ; and at these fairs 

 merchants from St. Petersburg and Odessa make their purchases. The 

 cropping and transporting, and selling, are so managed that, if possible, 

 the cargoes shall be shipped off for foreign export before the Baltic and 

 the Black Sea become frozen over. The bristles, varying from three or 

 four to nine or ten inches in length, vary much in quality ; the white are 

 better than the yellow and the yellow better than the black ; the wiry 

 are better than the limp ; and the moderately long are better than the 

 very long. The bristles are tied into bundles, and the bundles are 

 packed into casks containing four or five hundred pounds weight each. 

 Our brush-makers are sometimes indebted to Westphalia, whose hogs 

 can afford bristles as well as hams ; and sometimes to Australia, whose 

 forests afford abundant hog meat; and sometimes to France and Belgium, 

 which supply bristles in limited quantity and fine quality ; but Russia 

 is the great source of supply. 



" Russian and Polish hogs are not more cleanly than other hogs. Their 

 bristles are dirty and piggish, and require much cleansing. First of all, 

 in preparing them for the market, they are assorted into colours and 

 qualities — the blacks, the greys, the yellows, the whites, and the lilacs ; 

 and then they receive a thorough good dressing. The root-ends are 

 carefully kept together ; the long are separated from the short, and the 

 bristles are combed and combed and combed, again with a kind of wool- 

 comber's implement, until they become as sleek as may be.'' 



Manufactures from Hair. — Brushes. — This branch of industry 

 belongs more to the useful than to the ornamental, and is annually in- 

 creasing in importance, as civilization advances and education induces 

 that self-respect, one of the first objects of which is cleanliness. 



From the peer to the peasant, there is seldom to be found any one 

 who does not indulge in the luxury of the hair-brush ; and although 

 the fashion which the 1S51 Exhibition thoroughly introduced among us, 



