, 1889-11-29
THE RAZOR BACK.
rAe Racer of the Tennessee Mountains Is
Always Huryry,

TIE Racer of the Tennessee Mountains Is
Always Hurgry.
Whoever places the horse or the dog
next to human beings In the scale of in
tclligence and sagacity has never made
the acquaintance of the Tennessee hog,
the razor back. One who knows the pig
only as the fat, sleepy, grunty occupant
of the sty has no idea of the spirit and
wisdom, the daring and enterprise of the
species, when born and reared among
the rugged mountain regions of the Cum
berlands. In contrast with the close pen
which is all the world his northern cousin
ever knows, freedom Is the very air his
pigship breathes from the time when he
opens his narrow, speculative eyes, in the
beechen shade of the hills, until the I'M
lucky day when he is cornered by human
craft and numbers and reduced to bacon.
His education begins in infancy, guided
by his mother, who shows him the way
into all the best gardens, orchards and
cornfields. "He is a shifty fellow" WAS
the recommend given by a Cumberland
valley farmer to a recent northern settler
of the porker he wa about to sell him.
ii has allus shirked for hisself." The
purchaser RdNt Onc buOuRHL 70 Ills OWL
garden patch; but not enough, for his
summer was spent in devising barriers
over which, or under which, or through
which it was pastime for that hog to
make his way. and the mans anger was
finally lost in admiration of the sagacity
of the animal, whose feats of agility and
ingenuity enabled him to maintain his
own healthy condition; and also to treat
his friends, for he is moi wholly selfish.
] have seen him plant his long snout
under a gate. and raise it more and more.
until he had wormed himself hallway
through. then hold it, resting on his
strong razor back" until the drove of
half a dozen or more followers under his
charge had squirmed through, then,
with an expressive grunt, he would lead
Il raid on the corn field, where a forest
Of tall stalks. from twelve to
feet high, had been left supposedly bare.
to decay during the short, wet winter.
Piggy knows. however. that now and
thon IN ear has been o~verlooked; and he
enters the rows, cooking his head, now
on this side, now on that, squirting up
at the top of EACH tall stalk, until he sees
an ear mt the top; then quickly he strad-
dies tie bottom of the stalk. and rides
it down wiu-n his reach. Quickly it
is devoured and another sought out and
captured. until the field is cleaned: when
lie rallies his troops and guides them into
pastures new. Gates and bars are a
laughing stock to him. Barbed wire is
an agreeable i~rritant to his r%hinoceros-
ike hide; ard the hopeless farmer is
often at his wits ED until the time
when friendly adtufAn strews the mount
ain sides with "makt." which proves
more attractive to these ubiquitous mon
archs than are the cultivated gardens.
The Tennessee hog knows that the
laws of his native state protect him,
while the human would be masters of
the soil must look out for themselves;
and lac ctsaccordingly. An unpleasant
thing to meet is a drove of these pets
when out OF temper. They win turn in
a body and chase a man and dog till
both are glad to mount out of reach on a
fallen tree; and there they will hold
them at bay, with backs erect, in a sharp
line of bristles-whence their name
and with gruntings which cannot be de
scribed, crashing their long, savage
teeth, remind one forcibly of the wild
boar, whence sprang their ancestry
American Agriculturist.