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Show SCRUB HOG IS UNPROFITABLE Can Consume More Valuable Feed and Give Leee In Return Than Any Other Farm Animal. Oty W. a. WE8TVOTT ) Possibly there Is no other farm animal ani-mal that can offer as poor an excuse for his existence as the scrub hog. He Is an unprofitable animal any way you take blm. As an economical pork-producer ho Is a failure. Even his ability to shift for himself does not recommend him to the people within the limit of his range, as he has the reputation of preying upon neighliorliig cornfields when food Is scarce. Ills build naturally adapts blm to bis manner of living, since he Is long-legged, long-legged, narrow In the chest, has a long, narrow snout. This adapts him to his manner of living. With the scrub hog It Is "root, hog. or die," hence the long snout. Ills narrow body aids him In getting through small feix'c-cracks and If he falls to find a place large enough to go through the fence, he can soon dig undi-r with his long snout. There Is no standard of excellence for the scrub hog, since he may pos- Hi W1 Champion Middle White Sow. sess almost any form except a beautiful beauti-ful one; he may be of any color. He has the reputation of being able to stand all kinds of rough treatment aud still survive. llu Is regarded as being able to resist re-sist disease better than the Improved breeds of hogs. We very much doubt whether this quality attributed to the scrub hog is true, since wo have noticed no-ticed that hog cholera takes the scrub as well as the well bred hog. One thing Is sure that the scrub hog can consume more valuable feed and give less in return than any other animal that we know of. A farmer who owns a herd of scrub hogs seldom needs any other corn-crib corn-crib than his hogs. He never gets rich selling pork, and In fact If he depended upon his hogs to make him money to buy better bred hogs he would iliever own better ones. ( The scrub hog usually keeps bis owner so poor that he Is not able to buy better stock. In fact, this Is the excuse usually given for his existence. exist-ence. Poor farming and scrub hogs are usually found associated1 together. They are near and dear companions. tut h make a rapid retreat before a progressive spirit and there Is not a better evidence of the general prngre-flveness prngre-flveness of a people than the ubsctice of the scrub bog from a community. |