Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-11-07
fartla aud firesiae.
ON BEHALF OF THE HOG.

ON BEHALF OF THE HOG.
If were to go on a farm with the
idea of ascertaining whether the man
who owned 1t was thrifty and intelli-
gent man in his calling, that is to say,
a good farmer, the first thing I would
do would be to look at his hogs. He
might take me to his stable and show
me horses direct from Lexington or
from Electioneer, or he might take me
to the pastures and let me gaze upon
the faWn- -colored and delicate Jersey
and the black-and-white ponderous
Holstein, or even on his beef-stock of
Galloways, Durhams, Herefords or
Polled- Angus, and yet I would not be
satisfied. I would want to go to his
pen and ascertain what he was doing
there. For If in his pig pen or pig pas
ture he had the shriveled hog, I would
know that his cattle were nothing but
fad, and that after all there was
nothing in him in the way Of the prac-
tical farmer.
It might be that he would expect his
fine cattle to yield enough to make his
meat" But If he had the hogs, whether
beef was high or low, he had the meat
anyhow. To me fine horses, fine cattle,
fine sheep, fine houses and all that,
without the hog, is what might be call
ed speculative farming. But when you
look over in the pen Of the farmer or
in the hog pasture Of the farmer, or
even when he calls them up from the
roads, and they are healthy and strong
and of the right proportions, then you
can 20 on and look at the balance OF
his stock with some pleasure, because
YOU know that he has been wise enough
to provide his meat for the year, any
how, and with the bread, corn or
wheat, which never fails entirely, his
cattle and horses and sheep are to a
great extent profit. I do not care how
full is the stable and the cow pen If the
pig pen is empty-the owner Is guess
ing.
OF course, everyone knows that the
hog characteristics are not pleasing to
man. He is an animal without friend,
so to speak, except when the time
comes to eat him, and then. he is ap-
preciated only after he Is dead. Into
our language has been engrafted such
words as hoggishness and trying to
hog" and all that. If a child's clothing
is soiled by playing, his affectionate
mother says he is as filthy as pig"
If a man becomes the least obese, his
kind friends will say that he Is 'as fat
as a hog" If a man wants to get
what is coming to him in this life, 9TH
er people with as much greed as he Will
say, "he is trying to hog everything In
sight" The very name Of log carries
with it the suggestion Of filth, obesity,
greed and coarseness. Next to the
snake there is nothing living more con-
demned than this most lovable, most
intelligent and most useful animal to
man. AS far as the books show he
has been the constant companion Of
man, multiplying and furnishing him
food. He rode out the storm with
Noah, and the chances are ten to one
that the first fresh meat that Noah
tasted after his long, but not altogether
exciting float, was fresh pork. Belong
ing to the pachyderm family, he has
relatives in the elephant, rhinoceros
and hippopotamus, and some near rel
atives, such as the bariroussa Of the
Polynesian islands and the peccary Of
the country south Of us.
Being somewhat short on clothes,
that is hair, and insects liking his
meat about as we'll as man, he seeks
mud to smother the enemies which
prey upon him, and as far as intelli-
gence goes I leave 1t to any farmer
who ever tried to keep fence-breaking
SOW out of a field, to testify whether
any animal is more intelligent than
hog, and If this testimony Is not sufh-
cient to prove that the animal knows
more in a minute than a horse, dog and
elephant all combined in a thousand
years, I will bring to the stand one Of
the best lawyers in the state, who
played seven-up with one Of them at
the Omaha exposition.
Intended for food for man, in order
to be Of full benefit to said man he has
to be in "good order" To be in good
order" he has to hustle for food and
eat all set before him. Hustling and
eating In this way he is careless in his
general department and habits. To the
ordinary person he Is not at all attract
ive.-W. G. s., in Dallas News.