g has been, as we
have said, to obtain the most rapid growth along with the greatest
weight of fat, and to accomplish the results with the least
expenditure in the way of food. Although the animal has been subjected
to selective experiments, looking to these ends, for not more than a
century, or say about forty generations of the species, the amount of
variation which has been attained is singularly great, the form and
habits having been changed more rapidly, and in a larger measure, than
in the case of any other of our domesticated animals. It may fairly be
said that this creature is more obedient to the will of the practical
selectionist than any other with which we have experimented.

It is commonly assumed that our pigs are among the least intelligent
of the creatures which man has turned to his use. This impression is
due to the fact that the conditions in which these animals are kept
insure their degradation by cutting them off from all the natural
mental training which wild animals, as well as the other tenants of
the fields, receive. In the state of nature or in the condition of
domestication which existed before pigs became captives in their
pens, they were among the most alert and sagacious animals with which
man has come in contact. Their wits were quick and their sympathies
with their kind remarkably strong. Trainers have found these
creatures more apt in receiving instruction than any other of our
mammals, and the things which they can be made to do appear to
indicate a native intelligence nearer to that of man than is found in
any other species below the level of the apes.

As there is little in the books of anecdotes of animals concerning
pigs, I venture to give an account of a learned individual of this
species whose performances I had an opportunity of observing in much
detail. The creature, an ordinary specimen about three years old, had
been trained by a peasant in the mountain district of Virginia who
made his living by instructing animals for show purposes. He stated
that in selecting pigs for education it was his practice to choose
those characterized by a considerable width between the eyes and
whose skulls projected in this part of their periphery to a more than
usual degree. He said that from many experiments he was satisfied
that there was a very great difference in the capacity of the animals
to receive training, and that the above-mentioned indices afforded
him sufficient guidance in his ch