Page:The Hog.djvu/46

44, and as little disposed to wander or trespass, as any of the other animals that it contains. Here, as in many other things, man is but too willing to attribute the faults, which are essentially of his own causing, to any other than their true source.

Martin says:—It has been usual to condemn the domestic hog, in no very measured terms, as a filthy, stupid brute, at once gluttonous, obstinate, and destitute of intelligence. Against this sweeping censure we beg to enter our protest. With regard to the filthiness of the hog in a state of confinement, every thing will depend on the trouble taken by its keeper. He may allow the sty or the yard to be covered with filth of every description, as disgraceful to himself as it is injurious to the animals. In this case the hog is the sufferer, for naturally it delights in clean straw, luxuriating in it with evident pleasure, its twinkling little eyes and low grunt expressing its feelings of contentment. In fact, the hog, so far from being the filthiest, is one of the cleanliest of our domestic quadrupeds, and is unwilling to soil the straw bed of his domicile if any thing like liberty be allowed him. It may be here said, is not the hog fond of wallowing in the mire? Undoubtedly it is; and so are all the genuine pachydermata, as the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the tapir. The skin of these animals, thick as it may be, is nevertheless sensitive, and a covering of mud is doubtless intended as a protection to the skin in the heat of summer, (the time in which the hog chiefly delights to wallow,) both against the scorching rays of the sun and the attacks of myriads of puny but intolerable winged persecutors. No animal delights more to have its hide rubbed and scratched than the hog a circumstance which every one practically conversant with pigs must have very frequently noticed.

With respect to the gluttony of the pig, we acknowledge him to be "a huge feeder;" but so is the horse or the ox, and indeed every animal that has to support a bulky carcass; and not only so, but become fat upon vegetable aliment. To a certain extent, indeed, the hog is omnivorous, and may be reared on the refuse of the butchers' slaughter-houses; but such food is not wholesome, nor is it natural; for though this animal be omnivorous, it is not essentially carnivorous. Vegetable productions, as roots and grain, beech-mast, and acorns, constitute the staple of its natural diet; hence, the refuse of the dairy farm is more congenial to the health of the animal, to say nothing of the quality of its flesh. All animals eat with a keen relish the hog amongst the rest; besides, his appetite is pampered, the object being to make him fat: and certainly a well-fed, plump hog is a more comely-looking beast than the gaunt, lean, flat-sided animals so generally seen in France and Germany. However, if the charge of gluttony be proved against the pig fattening in his sty, it may be equally proved against the ox fattening in his stall. When old, or when oppressed by fat, the hog, it must be confessed, is