Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-12
THE eRa%1 AMER4c1N HOG
NOT THE TwO-FOOTED VARIETY,
BUT THE QUADRUPED.
He IL q Wise Beast, q Sure Weather
Prophet and q Fine Fighter
When COrnered.

From the New York Sun.
Hogs are not stupid-the popular impress
sion to the contrary Notwithstanding. In
stead they are very wise-especially
weather wise. Negroes say. "Ole Brer
Hawg. he kin see de wind" Certainly Brer
Hogs behavior Is sometimes such as to
give q color of reason to the belief. The
wind may blow softly, the sun shine warm
in a clear blue sky, but If that mysterious
sense warns the hog of change, he gets
ready for It upon the instant.
Hogs in herd are tremendously gregari-
Gus; they feed and range and sleep in
gangs. Their leaf beds are heaped together
as soon as the frost falls. The older anil
mails begin the heaping. and the pigs quick
ly fall in line. At first the mound is mod
crate. but when cold or snow threatens it
grows as If by magic. Not only leaves.
but low, bushy brush and strawy sedge are
gnawed Off and carried in great mouthfuls
to reinforce the bed. If twenty hogs are
to sleep in 1t 1t will be breast high to a
man before the accumulation ceases. Then
as soon as feeding is over the hogs make
a dash for it, burrow under and bury them
selves, head and ears in ats depths. They
which brings them as close together as
possible. AS the cold increases in the
night those upon the outer edges push I'M
der and between their sleeping mates, thus
AouSiAS liltill " Squedl ulSCoHteIl
A sucking SOW makes her own bed and
drives away from it everything except her
pigs. She heaps it conically, gets upon top,
works herself halfway down In 1t. then
followed for herself and her piggies a
snug nest. After she lies down in it, with
her pigs strung along her side, she rises
upon her forelegs, and with her snout f1irts
the bed-stuff all over her litter.
Upon a bitter day the pigs do not leave
the bed. Hogs of every sort indeed lie
asleep through the cold unless driven out
by hunger.
squeal if caught and lifted by the tail.
Darky pig-abstractors take advantage Of
1t to carry off plump captives from right
under the noses of their lawful owners. But
woe beude even the most law-abiding cap
tor who seizes upon a pig by leg or ear or
round the middle. Piggy not only squeals,
and tries to bite, but his squealing calls
every other hog within hearing to a fierce
their tusks. foaming and red-eyed, they
charge down upon the ravager If he runs,
they run after; If he stands. they ring him
about. uttering the while peculiar sound.
something between a squeal and cultural
roar. Oddly enough sucking mothers are
hardly so fierce as other members of the
herd. But it is the part of wisdom to drop
your pig and run, as otherwise you are in
danger of serious injury.
Sight of vicious or even q teasing dog,
no doubt, brings back to the herd hog a
memory of the time when his forebears
fought off wolves. For he adopts the same
method Of defense-forms ring with his
stronger companions, inside of which the
weaker are sheltered. The ring faces out,
bIistling and uttering its cultural war cry.
If the dog leaps at 1t it swiftly becomes a
rend him.
Inside the foreleg every hog has five
curious. small tndentations. whose use no
anatomist has ever discovered. Tradition
90 lie han VII. 81 -, l, ;~l
entering into a herd of swine, made them
rush violently down into the sea- They
are. perhaps an eighth of an inch IN depth,
and as big round as small pea. Negroes
say that If by chance they become clogged
the pig Will not thrive. and the experience
of many hog raisers goes to confirm the
saying.
Hogs learn quickly to discriminate. They
will set up a prodig1ous squealing when
hungry at sight of their habitual feeder,
yet pay no attention to any other person.
They also learn their own calls as distin-
guished from those Of other animals. Up
in the region of mountains and moonshine
whisky. hogs are called with long wooden
trumDets, whose sound Is like that of a
hunting horn. but more powerful and carry
ing further Revenue vigilance is, Of
course, the horns reason of being-its
blasts do not awaken suspicion as would
the usual calling. The hogs ranging miles
of mountainside come when they hear the
trumpet a little before daylight for their
DcioNeu SWllI Dul CdilHOl 10 OeCelVSQ by
blasts of any other horn.
SlnSularly, once upon a time, three pet
pigs were trained to come for their morn
ing mush and milk at the sound Of Dixie
most vigorously sung. They never failed to
hear and heed. even though half a mile
off. yet paid no attention whatever to any
other song or sound. Another pig, friend
less and astray. fell into the way Of feed
ing with the cows in pen, and until he was
transmitted into bacon answered only to
the call of 'Sook COW! Soo-ookT' And
still another learned to regulate feeding by
the sound of the big farm bell and came
gruntng and galloping to the trough when
ever he heard its clamor.
While fat pig is about the LATEST and
the clumsiest of created things, one lean
and hungry IS among the most active in
fence that turns him has to be almost bull
let and bomb proof. He learns to climb
post and rail as a dog climbs, to throw
down snake rail after the manner Of
shrewdly as a politician evades the fulfill
nent Of a promise and to worm his way
through everything in a manner to justify
the angry farmer. who said: Il don't know
about a camel going through the eye Of a
needle. but If 1t was a hog I'd bet on his
doing 1T every time"
No other animal has been moro modified
by civilization, and none reverts more
quickly to the original wild type. Three
generations Of running wild suffice to turn
the smooth, round, short-snouted Berk-
shire, all meat. almost no feet. into the
razorback or hazel-splitter. thin, lank,
leggy, lop-eared, sharp-snouted. an Ishmaei
in bristles, running like deer. if running be
possible, fighting as only q wild hog can
fight when battle Is imperative. The tusks
which have been half obliterated in the
process of civilization get back size and
strength. At a year old they are formid-
able, at two. murderous, at three OF five
more deadly than a sword. They afford q
certain index of age up to six years, but
are commonly broken On fights long before
that time. Wild boars are very il-tem-
pered. and when worsted in fighting often
revenge themselves by ripping the bark
from trees as high as they can reach.