Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-07-21
MzORBACKS ARE
ALMOST EXTINCT
Civil War Order Increased Orig
inaI Droves of Wild Hogs
in 0zarks.
YIELD TO BETTER STOCK

utLU III btlIk SIUCk
Generations Of Continuous Inbreed-
ing and Foraging for Food Caused
Original Thoroushbreds to Re-
vert to Wild state.
Kansas City, Mo.-From 80 to rs
years ago the Ozarks we're sparsely
settled. People did not raise hogs,
but let them raise themselves. When
the larder was empty, instead of 60
ing to the well-kept pigpen and kill
ing a family pet that was sleek and
fat, they took down the gun and went
forth in the forest to stalk and STAY
an animal with the body of a sun
fish and the head of an anteater.
1t is thickly covered with bristles.
those along the vertebrae being little
short of spines. In other words, it is
the razorback hog of the Ozarks,
which, when fully grown and thor
oughly aroused, is about as formidable
in fight as his prototype. the wild
boar Of Russia. He is the descendant
Of the few real hogs that were brought
into the country by the earliest set
tiers and turned out to shift for them
selves.
A dozen generations of continuous
inbreeding and predatory foraging for
wild food will cause any thoroughbred
hog to revert to what the razorback
really Is, a wild hog.
The Civil war was the cause Of large
accessions to the numbers of razor.
backs until, q dozen years later, they
ranged the country in great droves.
Under order No. IL the farm lands
of the four best counties on the west
ern border of Missouri were depopu-
lated m Is days. Very few of these
people were able to take their hogs
with them. As the winter storms Of
a couple of months later came down on
them from the north the pigs would
naturally drift ahead of the weather,
until they found themselves in the
timber Of the Ozarks. with an abun-
dance of acorns and nuts, their favor
ite wild food.
Missouri Hogs to Mountains.
So far as order No. IL is responsible
for the relapse of Missouri hogs into
Arkansas razorbacks is concerned,
freely admit, writes a correspondent Of
the Star, that 1t Is largely conjectural
and theoretical: but q dozen years Ia
ter, with the advent of the red leg
grasshoppers, came another epoch In
the history Of the razorbacks.
The grasshopper scourge struck the
Missouri valley in 1875 and cleaned up
and destroyed all vegetation so COM
pletely that meadows. farms and lawns
all had the appearance of plowed
ground. Very few people who had
hogs had anything for them to eat.
They were therefore forced to ship
every fat hog to the packers Ito save
their lives" and every stock hog to
districts beyond the country devas-
tated by the hoppers.
In the spring of 1875 the eggs left in
the ground by the hoppers the fall be-
fore Matched out in numbers sufficient
to eat every sign Of greenness that
showed itself up to June. Then they
arose in clouds that darkened the sun
and departed. In the meantime our
hog territory was practically without
a hog and there was consequently a
scramble to keep our market going
with hogs for the packers, and an even
greater one on the part of the raiser
to restock his place with young ones
to grow into money.
Shippers went to the Ozarks and
soon a stream of razorbacks poured
into our market; just how many they
bought and paid somebody for, and
how many they annexed" l never
knew, but for a time they we're thick
enough at the yards to make US very
tired of razorbacks.
Razorbaek Has Seen His Day.
The packers took the old |. hogs at a
price somewhat below that of good
hogs and we got rid of them all right,
but the pigs were so thin and small
that they seemed to melt away
through the cracks in the fences and
under the gates. Every load of them
was represented by claims for short
age from the count into the yards.
When l say that fifty fat hogs were a
fair load for one of the 30-foot cars
then in use and that counted out of
one of the same sized cars 937 razor
backs the reader may get an idea Of
what they were to handle. The shipper
had built into the car two extra decks
or floors, but even then there were
more than six times as many to the
deck as of ordinary hogs.
The industry did not last long, as
the stock hogs required about three
times as long to mature, and, Of
course, three times as much feed. and
they would not do at all to restock a
farm, being inferior in every respect
to what the market demands as a de-
sirable hog, and they we're soon crowd
ed out by importations from territory
that was stocked with good breeds.
The razorback has seen his day, and
in a few decades more will become ex.
tinct as the buffalo; yielding his place
to the Berkshire and Magee, as the
buffalo has to the Hereford and the
Shorthorn.