6 
THE HOG. 
HISTORY. 
others reject, and which would be wasted were it not consumed by him. But the importance of the Hog as a means of human 
subsistence, is yet more seen in newly settled countries. It is the surest resource of the settler during his first years of toil and 
hardship. It is the soonest brought to maturity of all the larger quadrupeds, the most easily fed, and the least subject to accidents 
and diseases in a new situation. 
The fat of the Hog forms a thick layer beneath the integuments. It is termed lard, and differs in chemical composition and 
properties from the fat of the ruminating animals. It more readily imbibes salt than any other kind of fat; and the same property 
being possessed by the flesh, there is no animal food better suited than pork for preservation by salting. On this account it is 
largely employed in the victualling of ships. When it is preserved by drying as well as salting, it forms bacon. 
The rearing and fattening of the Hog presents little difficulty. The Sow goes with young four lunar months, bringing 
forth in the fifth, but, as in the case of all animals reduced to servitude, with some irregularity as to time. She indicates the 
period when she is about to produce her litter, by carrying straw in her mouth to make her bed. For a considerable time, how¬ 
ever, before this period, she should have been separated from her fellows of the herd, placed in a warm house, supplied with 
suitable food, and kept carefully littered with clean dry straw. These precautions are required to allay that irritation to which 
she is subject at the time of producing her young, increased by her being suddenly removed from her companions, and put in a 
strange place. Care must be taken not to handle the young pigs, or remove them from the places in which they have been 
put by the dam, for she herself knows where they nestle, and in this case takes care not to crush them when she lies down. The 
straw, too, should be short, and in moderate quantity, lest the young should creep underneath it unperceived by the mother. 
During all the period of nursing, the Sow should be well fed, and the troughs so placed that the pigs may be allowed to partake 
of the food. 
In six weeks, if the pigs have been well fed, they may be weaned, and in all cases in two months. When they are separated 
from the dam, they should be regularly fed three times in the day, and their food should at first consist of whey, milk, or any 
refuse of the dairy or kitchen, mixed with a little warm water, so as to be raised to the temperature of the mother’s milk. In a 
short time they learn to partake of all edible substances that are presented to them, as potatoes, turnips, tares, lucerne. 
The females reserved for breeding are to be sufficiently fed, and not over-fattened. The other pigs should receive from the 
period of weaning, until they are fit for use, a full allowance of such food as the means at our command will allow. In this man¬ 
ner the animal arrives the soonest at its maturity of flesh and fatness, and the younger it is when it arrives at this .state the more 
delicate is its flesh. 
Any kind of vegetable or animal food may be given to pigs in the course of being reared and fattened, and it constitutes the 
peculiar value of these animals that they can be maintained on almost any kind of aliment. They will feed even on herbage, pas¬ 
turing in the fields and commons; but roots rather than herbage are their native food. Acorns, chestnuts, beech-mast, hazel-nuts, 
and other esculent fruits, are eagerly consumed by them; and in countries of forests they may be conveniently suffered to range in 
the woods, and find their own food. They are fond of all fruits, and hence, in the countries of the grape, the ravages which the 
Wild Hogs commit: in the places where cider is produced they are fed on spoiled fruits, and on the residue of the cider-mill; in 
the countries of the olive, on the refuse of the oil-press; and generally where the oleaginous plants are cultivated, on the refuse of 
the manufacture. Hay or dried fodder is not adapted to these animals, though, if chopped and boiled, they will not reject it. But 
their proper vegetable forage is that which is moist and succulent; and hence they will feed on clovers, tares, lucerne, sainfoin, suc¬ 
cory, and the like. They feed eagerly on all kinds of roots and tubers, as the turnip, the potato, the 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 delight in an especial degree in all kinds of farinaceous 
substances, as meal, bran, pease or beans bruised, and generally on the seeds of all gramineous and leguminous plants, the buck¬ 
wheat and others. They may be fattened on the grains of breweries, and on the grains as well as the wash or liquid refuse of dis¬ 
tilleries. They may be fattened, too, with animal 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 these animals when confined. It is an error 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 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. 
When pigs are required to yield delicate pork for the table, they may be fattened in five or six months after the time of wean¬ 
ing : but when designed for bacon they are usually reared to the age of twelve months or more. For the former kind of manage¬ 
ment, the smaller kindly feeding pigs are chosenfor the latter, the larger varieties of the Berkshire, the improved Yorkshire, the 
Hampshire and others. 
