The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-25
WILD BoARs HERE.
The Sport of Hunting Them Growing
in the United States.


From the Little Rock Gazette.
Sportsmen are not accustomed to
think of the wild hog as game that
may be hunted in the United States,
but the fact remains that there are
thousands of the animals wandering
through certain sections of the South.
They are as wild as deer and well-nigh
as formidable as the bear.
For some reason the hunting of pigs
has not yet come to be generally
classed as sport by Southern hunters,
probably for the reason that for good
share OF the year the flesh of the wild
hog is not good for food. But such
is the case likewise with the deer, the
squirrel, and. in fact, every sort of
game, and little by little hunters are
coming to wait for the pig to grow fat
on the mast of the forest Ind then to
hunt him both for sport and food.
The home of the American wild hog
begins in the Southern Appalachian
Mountains and extends westward to
what is known as the Delta" the
name locally applied to the low bot
tom lands of the Mississippi from
Memphis to the Gulf. One finds them
in the forests and mountains of North
and South Carolina, Kentucky, Ten
nessee, Georgia, and IN the lowland
80 CSN1
Louisiana.
1t was in the mountain region that
the hog first became wild. Settlers
moved into the Southern mountains
from nearly all of the Atlantic settle
ments.
Becoming wild.
There were two essentials in the do
nestle economy of the mountaineer.
These were pigs and corn. The former
lrt1 La H. -.
the hot months. They made meat and
fat and butter. With pork and corn
meal a family could live out its nat
ural life. So pigraising prospered in
the mountains.
Sometimes the animals were penned
up, but more often they were allowed
to run wild and gather the mast which
in autumn covered the ground about
mountain forests. Gradually they be-
gan to grow fearful of the pen and of
man, and little by little the broods
which were born in the forests and ran
wild during the summer months be-
came harder to round up when killing
time came.
Now and then one especially wild
would escape and never be caught
Pigs of this sort would naturally be
would be contributed with double
force to their offspring with each gen.
GRAFTON. They multiplied rapidly.
And what a change came over the
pig as it dropped away from the ways
of it's cultured ancestors and became
once more a savage Its short hair
became long and coarse. Mountain
climbing is a great reducer of obesity
and affected the pig as the stout man
hoped to be affected by "anti-fat."
His ribs became visible and he was
long, lean, and lank, like a mountain
eer or a clay-eating cracker" Run
ming develops long legs, and the pig,
whose ancestors had possessed legs
which barely served to carry it around
the narrow limits of the pen, stood as
high as hound and ran like fright
ened deer.
Stalking the Animals.
There has been no organized "pig
sticking" among the sportsmen of the
South as yet. Men from a number of
aristocratic Southern clubs who go
into the mountains for a few weeks
of hunting in the fall stalk the ami
mails and shoot them. The young pig
| of three or four months growth, when
| fatted on mast, has none of the strong
| taste that will come to it later on, SO
the hunting dinner in the mountains
is considered feast if there is such a
! pig to be brought on roasted as any
| darby cook knows how to roast pig.
! More and more each year this sort
| of appreciation of the pig increases,
and the time Is not far distant when
the Southern hunters will find some
way to have sport with this sort of
game which will be comparable with
that furnished by the wild hog of Eu-
rope.
Perhaps the pig KILN of Eastern
Tennessee may point out the way.
nainhhOrc al In fha nlfcfro hot
manages this pig sticken, - Chief
among them is Dan Goforth, a hunter
who has more bears to his credit than
the average sportsman has squirrels.
1t is his duty to bring the animals to
bay and kill or capture, as is desired.
The others attend to the dressing OF
the killed and transportation and fat
tening of the captured, and all share
equally in the profits.
Using Trained Dogs.
Dogs trained specially for pig hunt
ing are used. These are taught to
act very much as bear dogs. They
must follow a pig and bring 1t to bay
by nipping at its heels or sides. When
the pig starts to run the dog bites it.
The pig turns, charges with his tusks
and the dog darts aside.
The pig turns to run again, and is
again angered by a nip in the heel into
turning around for a charge. The
hunters approach while this is going
on, and, If the pig seems fat enough
to make good pork it is shot and the
matter is ended. This smacks more
of butchery than sport.
But when the quarry Is not ready
for killing and 1t seems desirable 10
make it a prisoner, the case takes on
a different aspect. The hunters APP
proach as closely as they can. If the
dogs are we'll trained the pig never
gets to the man, but is forced by saw
age bites from behind to turn again.
But if the dogs fail, then the hunter
must look out and avoid the rush as
best he may.
While the dogs keep the angry an
imal busy the hunter takes a rope and
manages in one way or another to
catch the pig in a slip moose. 1t
does little good to catch the animal
about the neck, for then it can pull
the average man through the woods
as a team pulls an empty sled. 1t
must be caught by the leg. When this
is done the hunter takes turn or
two around the nearest tree with the
rope, pulls it tight, and has the pig
in a position where it is an easy mat
ter to fasten the remainder of it's
legs.
Miss Kay lin tram car)-"Its
really very kind of Vol Mr. Crabhe IN