Nick Waldrop, age 14, of Hutchinson, Kan., for her question:
ARE PIGS SMARTER THAN HORSES?
Farmers will tell you that the hog is an intelligent animal. The scientists rate the hog high on the animal scale. Among all the hoofed animals, the elephant and the horse respond remarkably well to commands and signals. But the hog comes out number one ahead of the others in the hoofed class as being the best problem solver.
In an intelligence contest between a pig and a horse, the pig is clearly the winner.
A pig, by the way, is a hog that is usually less than 10 weeks old.
As long as 6 million years ago, wild hogs roamed throughout Europe and other parts of the world. Man started taming them about 8,000 years ago, scientists estimate.
Hogs were taken to North and South America by explorers and colonists from Spain and England in the early 1500s.
Wild hogs continue to live in the forests and jungles in many parts of the world. They include the babirussa, or babirusa, of the East Indies, the wart hog of Africa and the wild boar that can be found in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.
In parts of the southeastern United States, you will find wild hogs that are called razorbacks. They have sharp, narrow backs but are descended from tame hogs that escaped from farms and became wild again.
About a third of the world's total hog population lives in China. Brazil, Russia and the United States each have about 10 percent.
Hogs now eat about 40 percent of all the corn that is grown in the U.S. A special diet, heavy in corn, makes it possible for hogs to gain weight at the rate of about a pound and a half or more every day.
About a quarter of all the meat eaten in the U.S. and Canada these days comes from hogs. This animal provides bacon, ham, sausage and pork chops.
When fully grown, a male hog may weigh more than 500 pounds while a female will weigh between 300 and 450 pounds. Pigs weigh about two and a half pounds at birth but usually double their weight in the first week.
Most hogs are marketed when they are between 6 and 7 months old and weigh from 180 to 240 pounds. Hogs kept beyond this age are usually used for breeding purposes.
The leading hog raising state is Iowa, where about 15 million of the animals go to market each year. The next leading states, in order, are Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota.
Farmers and ranchers feed their hogs lots of corn and other grains, including sorghum, barley, wheat, rye and oats.
The ranchers also feed the animals a special protein supplement called tankage that is made from bones and tendons.