Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-11-23
THE HOG AS HE WAS AND AS
HE Is.

If we look back at the originals Of
the various animals which man has
taken to domesticate and improve by
careful selection and breeding, in no in
stance do we find that he has made SO
radical change between the original
type and the improved product as in
the case of the hog. Taking the wild
boar of the Black forest of Germany
as fair type of<hhe original hog, we
find him a curious beast. He has an
enormous head, armed with savage
tusks, powerful snout, heavy fore
quarters, light hams, long legs, remark
able muscular development, mini
mum Of fat. That big head and those
ugly looking tusks fitted him to hold
his own with any wild beast Of the
forest; that powerful snout enabled
him to piow up the earth and turn
over the fallen trees in his search for
roots and grubs for food; those long
legs aud that muscular body fitted him
to run fast and for q long time to es-
cape his enemies; by nature he was q
forest tramp, with no fixed abiding
place, roaming hither and thither in
pursuit of food, this food almost exclu-
sively vegetable in its character. The
natural law Of selection governed the
propagation of his species wholly. and
none save the best fighters and the
strongest males became the sires of the
herd. This hog, so far as we know,
never had the cholera. Man took him,
confined him in close quarters, bred
the snout and the big ears of him,
shortened his legs 50 that he could not
run and hardly walk. reduced the size
of his bones one-half stripped the mus
Gle from his carcass an& loaded him
down with fat. put n ring in his nose
to keep him from roofing. deprived him
of all exercise and stuffed him with I'M
natural and fat forming foods, bred
him from immature sires and dams
and by an unnatural and forcing proc
ess sought to mature in eight months
an animal which the Creator intended
should have two years to develop in.
Man further deprived his civilized hog
of his natural heterogeneous foods and
stuffed him with the offal of slaughter
houses and the eXcrement of feeding
cattle-made a scavenger pure and
simple Of him. Then he wanted hogs
and more hogs until the result repre-
sented little besides purely corn anG
hog type Of agriculture and civilization.
Then nature kicked and entered pro-
test, as she is wont to under such fla
grant violations of her laws. and this
artificial hog, the improved Poland
China of today, creature the Lord
never made and would not know,
without constitutional vigor and who'll
~ degraded by the process of evolu-
ton, just lies down and dies. for there
is every reason why he should and
none why he should not. If the horse
or the sheep or the horned cattle of our
farms had been in the same manner
bred away from original types and
original environment and conditions as
the hog has been, the same penalties
of violated law would ensue in their
cases. From our standpoint it is USE
less to talk of remedies for the diseases
which carry off the hogs Of the country
by the million each year. The cause of
the trouble lies far, far back Of modern
diagnosis and beyond the reach of any
method Of treatment. The hog cholera
Is natures penalty for violated nat
| ural law.