The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1900-02-06
PIGS IN EUROPE.
The Pork Animals Were First Do
mestieated by the Anglo
saxon Race.

plgSWere PROBABLY European recfa-
nation" In the tropical east no one
wanted them, for they were neither
wholesome as flesh nor givers of milk.
But in every case in Europe and Asia
there is practically only one wild pig,
except the babirussa. which may have
been the origin Of some Of the Chinese
breeds. In any case, the enterprising
dOmesticator Of pigs in any form must
be honored before the disciple of Con-
fucius, who is accredited with having
discovered merely by accident thA !
merits when roasted. We can quite un-
derstand how the resolve arose. What
could be more natural to the tribes
men or the village who already pos
sessed small ard increasing herd Of
dairy animals reclaimed from the forest
than to follow this up by catching,
either in nets or pitfalls, family Of
young wild swine and adding them to
their farm stock? Their prolific cAar-
acter must have been well known and
as Mahomet promised blessing and
angels visits to the home which pos
sessed three goats, so the neighbors
must have looked with envy on the re
current families ofwild piglings in the
wicker fenced enclosures OF the more
adventurous. It is possible even at this
distant date to trace under the artf-
fcially rounded form Of the Tamworth
breed the long, suspicious nose, the r1l-
fous bristles and the thoughtful eye
of its original wild ancestor.
If the east. troubled not with the pig,
it probably gave to the world its fiocks
of sheep and goats. Asia is the true
home of the domesticated goat. It is
there that it fourishes, and it is held
in honor. There, too, was the animal
which by general consent is the orig
inal of the common domestic breed, the
wild Paseng goat, or fbex, call it which
you please, OF Asia Minor and Persia
There would not be the slightest diff
Guilty in domestieating the young OF
several species of mountain sheep to-
day if this were desired. Difficult as the
lambs are to catch, they are taken when
very young on the mountains, and the
only difference in their behavior is that
all become as tame ss the proverbial
pet lamb" some PROFESSIONALLY the
Barbary wild sheep and the Indian
burrhel-becomem more markedly friend
ly than others. All, wild goats and wild
sheep alike have short, smooth coats,
though the Barbary sheep grows a
woolly mane; but there is under wool
in the fur Of all the sheep, which care
in domestieation would increase. The
tame species have lost their speed and
agility on the English fields, but not on
the Alpine pastures, where some of the
breeds are not unlike the surviving Wild
species, the moufhons of Sardinia.
1t is tempting and easy to imagine
lost animals from which our tame
ones have sprung. But except in the
case of the vanished European, and per-
haps Asiatic, wild cattle there is no do
mesticated quadruped, from the rabbit
and dog to the camel, whose origin may
not be safely traced TO wild ancestor
now living, caught and tanned By per-
sonal enterprise and continued in mans
service by transmission as property,
Of which this may have been one Of the
earliest forms.-London Spectator.