SC - Pigs revisited-long

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/21/98 7:03:04 AM Eastern Standard Time,
Mordonna22 at aol.com writes:

<< Okay, I'm teachable.  What is the difference between a "hog" and a "pig"?
 I was taught as a young city girl marrying into a farm family that a pig was
 under 100 lbs., and a hog was over.  
 
 Mordonna >>

Actually marketable weight is the key here. That weight  is rather arbitrary
but it is based on a time frame when all swine are to have expected to attain
a certain weight. Apparently the wondrous thing about the 'pig' that Platina
refers to is that it weighed so much at an age when any term except pig would
be inappropriate , IMO. I have no available data to support this viewpoint but
there are entirely different words in Italian and Latin desognating a pig and
a hog.

Although modern pigs usually reach marketable weight in November because of
the introduced Chinese swine genes, there is some evidence from at least one
French medieval source that  marketable weight in French medieval pigs was not
reached until St. Michaelmas in February. Unfortunately, the reference is lost
in the myriad files in my 'to file' file. :-( 

Ras
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