The Florida agriculturist., 1889-12-11
The Razor-Back.

distinct breed OF your primitive forest?
Can you refer me to book or paper Civ
ing description or picture of the razor
back? In what part of the State are they
most numerous? Do you know where |
could obtain Il live specimen? Think
they would be good to cross our hogs
with? K. p
In answer to the above'we cannot do
better than to publish thefollowing from
the American Agricultu1ist, in reference
to the Tennessee razor back, which is
Identical with the Florida animal. This
paper says
Whoever Prices the horse or the dog
next to human beings in the scale of in
telligence 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 un-
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 shifty fellow was
the recommend given by Cumberland
valley farmer to recent northern settler
of the porker he was about to sell him.
He has allus shirked for hisself" The
purchaser gave one thought to his own
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 not wholly selfish.
have seen him plant his long snout
under gate. and raiseit more and more.
until he had wormed himself hallway
strong razor back until the drove of
half dozen or more followers under his
charge had squirmed through, then,
with an expressive grunt, he would lead
a raid on the corn field. where a forest
of tall stalks. from twelve TO seventeen
feet high. had been left supposedly bare,
to decay during the short, wet winter.
Piggy knows, however, that now and
then an ear has been overlooked; 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 at the top; then quickly he strad-
dies the bottom of the stalk. and ''rides
it down. within his reach. Quickly it
is devoured and another sought out and
captured, until the field is cleaned: when
he rallies his troops and guides them into
pastures new Gates and bars are a
laughing stock to him. Barbed wire is
an agreeable irritant to his rhinoceros-
like hide; and the hopeless farmer is
often at his wits end until the time
when friendly autumn strews the mount
ain sides with ''mast" 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 he acts accordingly. An unpleasant
thing to meet is drove of these pets
when out Of temper. They will turn in
body and chase man and dog till