The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-26
THE wATTLED HOG.
Nature Did Not Provide II With This
Growth for Nothing.
From the washington Post.


From the Washington Post.
Most every resident of the South or
West, as we'll as those who, although
at present residents of Washington
have in former years lived In either
one or the other of the above-named
sections has seen or knows something
about waited hogs" 1t appears that
during the early settlement Of the re-
gion beyond the Appalachian range
there appeared race of swine remark
able for the peculiar elongated excres-
cences of skin, gristle and flesh grow
ing outward and depending from either
jowl, which the early settlers termed
''wattles." These singular growths
were generally from six to eight inches
in length, and were joined to the skin
of the towl by a narrow neck, while
the main or lower part of the waffle
thickened out, until in some cases they
measured nearly two and three inches
in diameter, always terminating in
narrow tip from which grew a heavy
tuft of hair.
Swine of this character are still
found in many parts of the West,
while in the South they are almost as
numerous as they were sixty years
ago. In view of the fact that every an
imal mechanism has some definite
function to perform in promoting the
welfare, safety and protection of the
beings possessing the same, people
have often wondered what earthly usa
the wattles could be to the swine above
described, for as neaT~-as they could
see they filled no useful purpose what
ever.
1t will be interesting to many who
doubtless have often wondered what
useful function these wattles could fill
in the economy of nature, to learn the
following from Prof. w. ]. MCGEE, who
offers a very satisfactory explanation
as to the use Of these singular and un-
slightly appendages of the old-fashion-
ed Western swine. Speaking to a Post
reported he said:
During my boyhood days on q farms
in. Iowa waited hogs were as numer-
GUS as the more improved kinds are
to-day. In fact they were all over the
West, and nowhere very popular. Most
farmers were getting rid Of this PEI
culiar stock by crossing them with i'm
proved varieties, and the question as
to what use the animals found for
their peculiar wattles was as great a
mystery then as 1t is to-day in Soc
lions where the hogs of this race still
exist. However, there was q general
and widespread belief at the time that
while other hogs that nature had not
endowed with wattles were most GER
tain to cut their throats and drown
whenever they undertook to swim
creeks, rivers or ponds, the waited
hog could swim any distance without
mourning the least injury to it's throat.
Waited hogs never drown, was q
common saying at the time, and on in
vestigation 1 discovered that far from
being q farmers superstition the belief
was founded on fact.
For a time / failed to understand
why such was the case, until one day,
happening to observe several waited
hogs swimming across a stream OF
rather clear Of water, / saw at one
glance just what function these wat
ties perform. Once in the water the
wattles drifted back by the currenC
against the throat, 50 that in swim
ming the sharp hoofs of the animal
strike not against the throat, but up
on the wattles, thus preventing their
sharp hoofs from cutting into the
Jugular. In short, these wattles serve
to protect the throat of the hog from
II sharp hoofs while it is swimming.
II Is certainly a very curious provision
of nature, and one which enables a
hog to swim without injury. The wat
ties may be cut and bleeding after q
long swim, but they soon heal, and no
great injury would be done to the an
imal, even IL they were cut sntire4
through"