Ron Henderson, age 12, of Dodge City, Kans., for his question:
HAS THE HOG BEEN DOMESTICATED LONG?
One of the world's first animals to be tamed by men was the hog. It was and still is among the most important farm animals. The Asiatic swine were tamed as early as 3000 B.C., while the European varieties came to live on men's farms in about 1500 B.C.
Hog is a term that is often used for full grown domestic swine. The term "pig" usually is used to describe younger or smaller hogs although it also is used many times for all domestic swine in general.
American hogs can be traced back to animals brought from the Old World. Some breeds have been derived from various combinations of stock that has been used for centuries in Europe.
Usually hogs are divided into two types: bacon hogs and lard hogs.
Lard hogs have been the most plentiful in the United States. They are fat backed, deep and broad animals that have much more fat on them than lean meat. However, in recent years there has been a tendency to change the lard type hog into what is now nailed a "meat type."
A large and popular breed of meat hog 1s called the Poland China. Its ancestors are a combination of Byfield, Big China, Russian, Irish Crazier and Berkshire breeding. The male is called a boar and he may weigh as such as 1,000 pounds. The female is called a sow and she may weigh as much as 800 pounds. The Poland China is black and has six white points.
Bacon hogs are longer and narrower than hogs of the lard or meat type. The most popular bacon hogs in the United States are the Yorkshire and the Tamworth, both English breeds.
Hogs furnish some of the most commonly eaten meat dishes we have. Included are bacon, ham, pork chops, roasts, ribs, pigs' feet and knuckles, pork sausage and pigs' jowls. Their fat yields lard while their hides make excellent pigskin leather. A hog's hair can be used for stuffing mattresses and also for making brushes.
And there's more that comes from a hog: glue can be made from its hoofs; fertilizer from its bones; and sausage casings from its intestines.
Hogs on a farm eat cereal grains including corn, oats and barley as wall as a protein supplement (such as skim milk), tankage or oil meal. Ground alfalfa and some minerals are sometimes added to the diet. Young pigs are often fad skim milk for a time after they are weaned.
Hogs can be raised either in close confinement or with lots of space. Breading hogs and young growing pigs can make especially good use of pasture.
Hogs have rather small digestive tracts and cannot handle large quantities of coarse, rough feeds such as hay or fodder.
Hogs will bread rapidly. Often a female will have as many as 12 pigs in a single litter. The babies are usually born in the spring or in the fall. The average time of gestation or pregnancy is about four months.