Anthony Rowe, age 10, of North Brunswick, New Jersey, for his question:
How fast can pigs run?
A well padded paunchy old porker would plumb refuse to enter himself in a running contest. If he could talk our language, he might ask a question of his own How fast can a two legged human run? He also might brag that some of his wild relatives can out¬run the fastest man.
The farmer who keeps domesticated porkers is not interested in how fast the fat fellows can run. Far from it. He wants them to grow fat and well padded with tender meat. The heaviest pigs, of course, yield the most bacon and pork chops, the biggest roasts and the heaviest hams. They bring more money when times comes to take them to market. A well padded domestic pig may win a blue ribbon at the county fair, but he is in no shape to compete with the horses and the fleet footed greyhounds. In order to become a prize porker, he must stuff himself with all he can eat, take life easy and give up all ambition to exercise and develop speedy muscles.
In bodily biology, mankind shares many features with nature's children of the ' animal kingdom. Some people overeat and neglect the exhilarating exercises required to build supple muscles. If they carry this way of life too far, their everyday chores make them puffy and breathless. Even walking, around becomes a wearisome effort to be avoided when possible.
Such people enjoy sit down pastimes and rarely take part in physical sports. Certainly they never enter a running contest. Perhaps we should be glad of this, because they surely would shame the human race in a contest with nature's speedy animals. For such a contest, we need a trained athlete who eats regular, proper sized meals of body building foods and gives his supple muscles a happy routine of daily exercises.
We cannot blame our Mr. Porker because he cannot trot fast. But his domesticated kinfolk are descended from wild piggy relatives, and some of his cousins who kept their freedom can outrace the fastest, best trained human runner in the whole world. In a distance race, a human athlete can run about 25 miles an hour. The tough and tusky ..warthog of Africa can dash along at almost 35 miles an hour.
When it comes to racing, the many members of the pig family have a choice of entries. Family pride will never Allow them to enter their tame cousin of the barnyard. Their best choice would be the athletic warthog. But several wild boars of Europe and Asia also can outrun camels, bison and ostriches and almost match the speed of our fastest dogs.
Like most wild pigs, the warthog enjoys life in forested regions. He is five feet long, plus an 18 inch tufted tail that has no piggy twirl. His sturdy shoulders are 2 1/2 feet high and he tips the scales at 200 pounds. He maneuvers his muscular body on short legs and two pronged pig type trotters. But the athlete of the pig clan is no beauty. He has a rough, slaty skin and a stubby mane of stiff bristles. His saggy face is covered with wrinkles and bumpy warts. He has a pair of fearsome tusks, maybe two feet long, that curve up from his lower jaw around his over sized snout. A beauty contest he could never win. But he can almost equal the speed of a fast grey hound.