The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-01-30

That changes, radical and numerous,
have been taking place in the general
makeup of our hogs most of us are
very well aware, and yet, what the
hog of sixty years ago was the young
er farmers of today can hardly real
iZe. He was an animal that it was
necessary to see to fully understand.
There was very wide difference be-
tween his general appearance and that
of the comely animals which make
up the best specimens Of the different
improved breeds OF today
When a boy and living in the State
of New York l was taken to 4 dis
tillery to be shown the process of
making whiskey from corn. The dis
tillery was an extensive affair, and
things were done on a large scale.
Corn was brought in from the west
by the carload, and hogs were also
shipped in by the carload to con-
sumo the distillery Stops. If l were
to describe the hogs with modern
/ phraseology, l would say that they
were a uniformly ungainly lot of AMI
mails, peaked, narrow, gaunt and in
ferior in every way. They were
white, had narrow faces, long shouts,
! pendulous ears, long legs, were mar
row at the shoulders, back, loin and
hips and were tucked up in the flank.
| They had short tails, as it was the
almost invariable custom to cut the
tails off from the pigs, 1t being the
common saving that "it takes a bushel
OF corn to feed the hogs tail" The
picture of this large lot of hogs has
remained in my memory. In the lat
er years, when l have read some Of
| the modern writers ON the evolution
| of animals from lower to higher and
better forms. the pictures of these
ungainly hogs appears before me, and
cannot help but conclude that of all
the animals kept on the farms the
hogs have undergone the most rapid
| improvement.
10 Note some Of the points Of differ
ence between the hogs of the middle
Of the nineteenth century and those
of the twentieth century Those old
style hogs were usually kept until
two and a half years of age, and
weighed at slaughtering time from
800 to 600 pounds. They had heavy
bones, but the meat weight was most
ly fat, there BEING an abundance of
what we called side pork, with in
ferior hams and shoulders and large
percentage Of waste at several points
The osnout was long and worthless,
and had to be thrown away The
ears were large and sold at same
price Cheap. The legs were long
and had to be cut off and disposed
OF in same manner. The offal was
considerable in proportion to the
weight of carcass, and had to be
thrown away, usually making the
waste between 20 and 25 per cent.
In making the improvements, one
of the first things done was shorten
ing the snout. l well remember that
some of the wise ones declared that
it could not he done without shorten
ing the spine, but it has been done,
and the body of the modern hog is
as long as or longer than that of
his ancestor. AS the habits of the
modern hog do not require the use
of the snout to dig for living. the
short, broad face answers his pur-
pose just as we'll and certainly looks
much better. The ears have been
reduced in size, and. as the head as
wider, they set further apart than
those carried by their ancestors. The
neck is shorter, the shoulders wider,
the back and loin broader, the hips
wider and longer. and the muscle Of
the ham clean meat) is more album
dant and comes down closer to the
hook joint. While the legs have been
very materially shortened, the quail
ity and size have been quite generally
retained.
One of the most distinctive features
Of the popular hog of today is the
even distribution of the meat over the
wholr frame. Formerly, after the hog
had been fattened, there were punches
OF fat on different places, making an
uneven surface. Such punches are
rarely. If ever, met with at the pres
ent time
While 1t has required the master
hand OF the skilful breeder to bring
about the great changes in the frame
and general conformation of the mod
ern hog, our modern methods of rails
ing the pig have brought about the
changes in his general character. We
feed the pigs better, with a greater
variety of feeds, while young and grow
muscle and fat, at the same time max.
ing a more even distribution If :.