Hog Hunting in Tallow Flat

MILTON PARTAIN Contributing Writer.. .

The rural residents of Tallow Flat had led mainly a subsistence life before World War II : cutting and hauling logs and pulpwood (weather permitting), growing their own food and livestock feed, and canning vegetables and fruits.
They also made jams and jellies from wild and domestic plants, and slaughtered the semi-wild hogs that roamed the woods.
They then smoked, salted and . sugarcured the meat for ham, bacon and salt pork. Salt pork was used to flavor beans and the greens of turnips, mustard and collards.
In early fall the local residents would get together and have a hog hunt.
There were no stock laws in those days and everyone let their hogs and cattle roam free on the land that was owned by large timber and lumber companies.
Tbe shoats and pigs that seemed to belong to a particular sow with marked ears were marked the same, castrated and turned loose to feed on the acorn mast that was their primary food for the winter.
The barrows, pronounced "bars" from the year before, were captured and taken to be penned and fed at home. This fattened them for hog-killing time that came with a good cold spell, usually in December.
The weather had to be cold because no one had electricity for refrigeration. and the iceboxes that most people had could not keep a whole hog from spoiling but for a short time.
The hog hunt was a big event. It allowed everyone to claim some hogs as their own, even though true ownership was difficult to establish.
The marking of a hog's ears was done with a razor-sharp pocket knife. Everyone had their mark registered at the county courthouse and it was as valid as a brand on a cow.

The marks were designated by a series of cuts called crops, sharps, slopes, bits and other terms that I can't remember.
I learned to read marks when I was young, but today I would have no idea whose mark was whose.
Some of the hog hunters rode horses and some were on foot, but all were accompanied by hog dogs. The dogs were necessary to find the groups of hogs that roamed independently.
These groups were under the leadership of a boar and comprised a few sows, last year's shoats and this year's pigs.
The hog dogs were usually cur dogs or leopards, so-called because of their spots, or other breeds or mixes that made good stock dogs.
Hounds were not good stock dogs because they liked to chase and run.
A good pack of hog dogs would surround the group and bring them to bay, dodging the sharp tusks of the boars, and then help drive them to pens that were built in the woods.
The hogs were then marked, castrated and released or selected for ham and bacon.
The ownership of these hogs was really an honor system you did not kill a hog that had someone else's mark.
In this small community, everyone was poor and could not afford to buy meat at the grocery store. Cured pork was often the only meat, other than wild game, that was available to feed families.
The hogs provided lard for frying and baking, salt pork for flavoring and bacon and ham for breakfast. The marking and castrating was not a pleasant experience for the shoats. Two men would hold anJ one would wield the knife. The shoat would scream in mortal agony, blood was flying everywhere, and when the cuts were finished, the hog had to be held long enough to be daubed with medicine. . II The men made a lot of jokes about "mountain oysters," but I never saw anybody actually eat them.