THE HOG IN A WOODY COUNRY. 359 
and, finally, a second cause is to be found in those changes of 
temperature to which they are exposed during this destructive 
period, at every opening of the doors, whether it be to bring them 
food, or to clean the house, or to draw their milk. The effect 
which is produced on the skin and on the lungs by the air which 
thus rushes in from behind is sufficiently evident in the sudden 
roii^henino^ of the coat, and the tremors which run over every 
part of the body. 
Annales de’VAgriculture Fraufaise. 
[To be continued.] 
The Hog in a Woody Country. 
Bi/ Dr. Doe. 
Nature doubtless designed that the forests should be inha¬ 
bited by the hog; for the perseverance of the sportsman has not 
been able to accomplish, in any of our woods, the destruction of 
the wild boar—the origin of the domesticated hog. Swine fulfil 
many important functions in a forest country. They destroy the 
larvae of innumerable insects that would otherwise prey on the 
j)roductions of the trees, and on the wood itself; whether it be by 
devouring them at once, or by consuming those fruits which had 
escaped the search or the regard of man, but which are thus 
converted ultimately to his nourishment, instead of contributing 
to the multiplication of beings that are a nuisance to him. 
The hog is continually searching out the larvae which inhabit 
the woods 'and materially injure them, and also those which 
burrow in the ground and destroy the roots of vegetables. He 
greedily devours the slug and the snail, the toad, the snake and 
the adder, which are always unpleasant guests in a forest, and 
whose destruction is not only advantageous to the wood, but be¬ 
comes a source of profit to man by the fattening of the hog. 
As to the wild fruits which the hog takes away from the 
noisome and injurious animals, it may be thought that, by dimi¬ 
nishing or exterminating the trees that yield them, the services 
of the hog would become unnecessary ; but this is not true. An 
attentive observation of the economy of nature will shew that 
trees are necessarily associated together by a compact or bond 
which man cannot entirely break, and by reason of this fruit 
trees will be always found with others by a natural and necessary 
union, at least, in forests that will admit of their growth ; so that 
there will be always fruit for the wild animals to eat, in default of 
those that are domesticated. It is in vain that, by different me¬ 
thods of cultivation and of sale, the forester would endeavour to 
produce but one kind of tree alone, those which the soil favours 
