The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-06-11
GRASS On A HOG.
A Museum Mans Scheme for
Gulling the Public.
The Porker Converted into = Sort OF
PerambulatIng Lawn-Brlght Green
Blades Where BristIss Ought
to Grow.

W GrSWs
For the insignificant sum of ten cents
the euriously inclined might have had
the privilege of seeing recently in a
little museum way down in the French
quarter no less a curio than a hog
sporting a complete and bona fide crop
of grass all over his body sin de place
whar de ha'r ought to grow"
This sounds like the most preposter-
Gus thing on record, writes a corre-
spondent of the Philadelphia Times,
and so your correspondent conceived it
to be until he came to the point of sacri-
fcing a dime on the altar of his in
credulity, and beheld with his own eyes
the wonder. The animal appeared to
be a well-grown nine or ten-months'
shoat of the Essex breed, with the
usual broad back, chubby neck and
short legs, but from the tip of his nose
to the end of his tail he was bristling
with as perfect fresh green grass as the
finest lawn mixture is warranted to
produce.
The exhibitor from time to time
clipped a stray bit of grass from the
hogs abundant crop and passed it
around for inspection. 1 am willing to
testify on oath that it was the genuine
article and no mistake, and the more l
gazed the more the wonder grew that
one short hog should wear so strange
hue, till finally my curiosity got the
better of my purse strings and 1
Clipped in with some other fellows and
got the man to let us on to the fake.
Easy enough explained, said the ex-
hibitor, as he began to spray the Animal
ed grass plot with a small rubber bulb
which he held constantly in his hand.
''Just step behind here and take close
look at the hog. Mind how you handle
him, though, or you may break him all
up. Seems to be pretty good thick
ness of earth 'twixt him and the grass,
don't there? Yes. Well, that's just it.
Grass grows in dirt and nowhere else,
SO all you've got to do is to get enough
of it to stick 20 hog and he'll make you
about as good lawn as you'd find any
where almost.
THAT'S straight so far as it goes, but,
of course, there is a good deal more to
it before you can work up such an ar
ticle as this here. In the first place
you have got to g ct the right kind of
| hog. 1 generally use a Berkshire or an
Essex, because they are good and broad
and you can feed 'e1n up to be pretty
lazy. This is necessary, of course, as
frisl1y hog is not liable to hold mud or
water either for a long time. The next
step is to get the right kind of soil.
''NOw, 1 always use dirt collected
from ant hills, but this is an old dodge
borrowed from the East Indian jug
glers, who can make a mango sprout
and grow six or seven feet in as many
minutes. Scientists say that it is the
fornic acid in earth which causes seed
to burst and the germ to develop when
placed therein, and this acid is freely
generated by the ant Pour cupful of
hot water over a handful of the insects
and it will become as sour as vinegar.
"Of course it is easy enough to get a
| LAYER of soil about an inch thick cal1ed
up on hog, and little training will
teach him to keep it there all right. 1
| put ring in this fellows nose and tie
| him up short so that he can't slxirmish
around, and that's about all. l plant
my seed, which sprout and come up in
about weeks time, for haven't quite
gotten up to the jugglers' minute per-
formances yet. So there's your hog as
big as life and as green as grass.
Il have several hogs which 1 use at
different times, as it would not do to
keep one with his pores stopped up too
long. Sometimes, too, L vary the mo-
notony by planting small, owgrowiDg
flowers instead of grass, and once
rugged up vagary with a sprig of srni-
lax for the tail, little coleus plants
making the stars and stripes on either
side, and razor-back of pansies running
between. But that did not go very well.
The fake was too obvious, and 1 lost
trade by it. Since then 1 have confined
myself almost entirely to grass, which
seems to go somehow, perhaps owing
to the general greenness of the public.