The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-10-16
THE HOG OF THE GREAT CENTRAL
BASIN.
A paper read by Colonel N. Stewart. Of wichita
before the Kansas Improved Stock Breeders
Association, at Topeka. Sept. Il. lSoi-

Fifty years ago the greater portion Of
the territory lying between the APP
palachian chain and the foothills of the
Rockies, designated sometimes as the
''great central BASIN" was either ooziDg
swamp land, trackless forests, or prairies
as boundleSS as old ocean. The soli-
tudes of this vast domain were undiS-
turbed by the shrill whistle of the To-
connective or the basso profundo of the
side-wheel steamer. Settlements there
were, it is true but like angels visits,
they were few and far between. Along
the banks OF the navigable streams.
towns and prospective cities of some
magnitude, were beginning to find their
respective places on the map of the
period.
Cincinnati was one of these great cities
quite %, 900 people, but a reputation
greater perhaps than is enjoyed by Kan
sas City today. 1t was the commercial
entrepot of the great central basin, the
head center of the swine interests of the
world and the drovers paradise. Hither
was conveyed by wagon and sled or
driven in on foot, mast-fed, ccrn-fed and
still-fed hogs. In those days there was
no incongruity in a man being a distiller
and deacon in the church at the same
time. His complaisancy was much
greater if his yards were filed with hogs
growing corpulent from the refuse of his
still. In the domain tributary to this
initial packing point there was a con-
slant rivalry going on to whose bunch OF
hogs should tip the b am at the highest
notch. The story is told that the most
ambitious of these early breeders made
it point to meet on butcher day at the
pens of one of their neighbors and gam
bic on the weights of the sever
al hogs slaughtered. As Fair
banks was, at this early period, unknown
beyond the precincts of the village OF st.
VT, and steelyards were a
costly luxury, they devised a scheme of
their own that seemed to satisfy all con-
cerned. A beam of wood with fiat sur
face was laid crosswise of fallen tree.
The carcass was laid on one end of this
beam and stones enough to balance on
the other. A conclusion was then reach
ed by guessing at the weight OF the
stones.
The spirit of rivalry existing amongst
breeders could possibly result only IN
good, and while the hogs of those days,
with a few honorable exceptions, were
of all breeds, and as rule de-
fcient in fattening qualities and slow to
mature, yet the time was at hand when
out of medley of breeds should come
forth one distinct breed, one clear, clean
cut type of the genus sus, not the British
type, or the Neapolitan type, or the Chi
ne5e type, but type as distinct from
these breeds IS the human type of Amer
ican-born citizens from away back diff
fers from all other nationalities., The ex-
cellent qualities of the new breed which
originated in southwestern Ohio a half
ago went begging for a name
through three decades. Had the naming
of it devolved upon me l should have
adopted no hyphenated cognomen, but
christened it, amid the blaze of
trumpets and the waving of flags, THE
American"
place but little store by even the
best authenticated accounts of the exact
crosses used in making up this superb
breed. 1t is enough for me to know that
even before l was born, a number of ex-
perienced breeders, who loved their
work, all living in the same locality and
during the same period, were patiently
and conscientiously working out a
problem with the best material at hand,
that should result in producing a
which would make more
ounces of commercial pork from a
bushel of corn or its equivalent than
anv other machine invented by God,
and improved upon by man, without
on the original patent. In
the face of bitter opposition and con-
fronted by a prejudice as deep-seated
as a canker sore, the spotted hog
mildly pushed his way to the front
''conquering and to conquer" Unlike
the leopard who never changes his
spots, except when he changes
from one spot to another, this hog with
the pendant ears began to discard his
spots. Coming up from the ranks, IS 1t
were, as soon as he reached a certain
altitude of responsibility, and had his
pedigree a matter of record, he began to
put on airs, and like his aristocratic
kinslnan from across the water where
nobility has fed him with silver spoon,
ne needs must appear in coat OF the
most faultless black, with furbelows of
white. But he owes not his popularity
20 the color of his hair, for the most
popular dam in this popular breed of
he great central basin was white hog,
md if grateful country ever wishes to
10 honor TO the memory of a dumb
brute the name of "Old Hankrader SOW"
should go laundering down the ages as
worthy of that honor.
The men who put their millions in
hogs, in manufacturing and CONNER
,ial way, have calculated to a fraction
he value of the different parts of the
hog, and know, perhaps better than the
breeder, the estimate TO place on
he value OF hams. Shoulders
md backbone are a necessary
in the living machine, aud so
S snout, but was there ever a pork
packer who deemed them an essential in /
he carcass? Hence, in the early days
when the Ohio swine-raisers delivered |
heir hogs TO the Cincinnati or Hamilton |
packers, they acquired an object lesson |
N the subject of hams, which bore fruit |
alter on in the production Of a line of |
logs whose hams, like the ponderous l
,alves of the ballet dancer, were sug |
FESTIVE of artificial padding. Do you |
oppose for moment that Phil Armour |
md score more OF millionaire packers /
would ever have "got there" on the 4
elm-peelers of the Pilgrim
athersI Which Of you By taking /
bought can add one cubit to his stature. /
nd yet l say unto you. that these 4
,reeders of Ohio By taking thought have 4
dded not a few cubic inches 70 round 4
ut the Contour of the reverse end Of d
tog, which same is the hog Of the great 4
entral basin. l have heard, as one Of 4
he objections to this hog, that he
runs all 10 fat" That certain other
reeds produce lean meat IN a much
anger proportion. From the stand
.oint OF one who has been both a
'acker and breeder of swine for many
ears, l am of the opinion that corn
attened hogs of anF breed. when fully