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roomy pen should be provided, with a sheltered outside yard. When practicable^ 

 it is a good plan to feed the boar outdoors at some distance from his sleeping 

 quarters, thus compelling him to take exercise in walking back and forth between 

 his pen and the feeding place. Icy ground is the greatest drawback to this method^ 

 but. this can be overcome by littering the walk with some strawy horse manure 

 Sometimes the boar can be fed in a well-littered barnyard, which makes a yery 

 good arrangement when practicable. 



When several boars are kept, it is diffieult to provide separate runs for each 

 boar, and it simplifies matters if they are taught to run together. The tusks 

 should be removed, and a cool day should be selected for turning them together 

 for the first time. It takes a very short time, as a rule, to settle the question of 

 supremacy, and when once settled no further disputes arise. The writer has had 

 considerable experience with this method, and has never known bad results to 

 follow. The two mentioned conditions are necessary — namely, the tusks must be 

 broken off and a cool day selected for the tournament. After the first struggle the 

 boars will live together as peaceably as sows. 



Removing Tusks.— Armed with long, sharp tusks, the boar is capable of 

 inflicting serious injury upon man or beast should he take the notion, but deprived 

 of his tusks he becomes comparatively harmless. It is the part of wisdom, there- 

 fore, to remove these tusks before any damage is done, because we never know what 

 the quietest boar may do under provocation. Several methods may be employed, 

 and the following one will answer very well : The boar is first made fast to a post 

 by means of a rope noosed about his upper jaw back of the upper tusks. Then one 

 man takes a crowbar and another a sharp cold chisel and a hammer. The sharp 

 edge of the crowbar is placed against the tusk near its base and held firmly in 

 position, and the edge of the cold chisel is placed on the opposite side of the tusk 

 directly opposite to the edge of the crowbar. A sharp blow with the hammer on 

 the cold chisel does the job. 



Feeding. — It requires good judgment to keep a boar in the best possible con- 

 dition. Extremes are to be avoided. The over-fat boar does not make a satisfactory 

 sire, as a rule, and a half-starved boar cannot transmit vigor and constitution to 

 his progeny to the same degree that he would if properly managed. To get the 

 best results the boar should be in fair flesh. A reasonable amount of fat on his 

 bones will do him no harm if he gets suSicient exercise. 



An exclusive meal ration will not give good results, especially if the ration 

 is made up of corn. It is true that corn can be fed to a boar without injuring him,, 

 but it must be fed in the right way. Corn is fattening, but its exclusive use is 

 debilitating, and the feeder must combine something with it to get good results. 

 Equal parts ground oats and wheat middlings make a first-class meal ration when 

 corn is not used. It gives sufficient bulk, and is nutritious without being heating 

 or too fattening. Ground oats, middlings, or bran may be used singly to dilute 

 corn or other heavy meal; in fact a very great variety of grains may be fed so long 

 as the feeder uses judgment. 



^Supplemental Feeds. — But a boar needs something besides grain and meal 

 to be in his best condition. Skim-milk and buttermilk are excellent, and will give 

 good results with meal even if nothing else is used. In winter roots of any kind 

 are much relished. They have a cooling, laxative effect, preventing constipation 

 and keeping the animal thrifty and vigorous. If roots are not available, alfalfa 

 hay of fine quality or even red clover may be used to give bulk to the ration. Some 

 feed the alfalfa hay dry in racks, and others prefer to cut it and soak it with the 



