FAKMEKS' INSTITUTES. 397 



good milker and butter maker, but it will not possess the superior excellence in 

 eacli department of the three breeds ; nor will it be able to transmit these excel- 

 lencies to its offspring. 



We may compare the fine breeds of pigs to the Shorthorn cattle, as it is 

 the aim of the breeders in each to produce animals that will mature early, 

 fatten easily, make meat, and transmit these characteristics to the offspring, 

 and nothing else. If we visit the finest herds of Shorthorns, we find the coavs 

 indifferent milkers. Common cows are kept to furnish milk for the calves, and 

 the animals receive more care and attention than many members of the human 

 family. The cows are neither good breeders nor milkers. The owners are 

 often "disappointed by their finest heifers proving barren. All other qualifica- 

 tions have been sacrificed to produce meat. 



If the cows were to receive the treatment of a large portion of our common 

 cows, — a rail fence for shelter in the winter, a straw stack to feed on, and 

 allowed to drop their calves when and where they pleased, there would be few 

 calves raised, and they would be worthless. We may have a machine that will 

 be perfect, as a grain thresher and separator, but the same adjustment will not 

 thresh clover. Neither can we produce an animal that cannot be excelled as an 

 early maturing meat producer, with the power to transmit these qualities, and 

 still not be surpassed as a breeder and milker. 



In reducing the coarse parts to produce the fine-boned pigs, the organs of 

 reproduction have been reduced with the rest, and the sow cannot produce and 

 raise a litter of pigs as successfully as a coarser animal. 



While butchering I have often noticed the difference in opening the common 

 sows and the thoroughbreds or high grades. The first Avith large paunchy 

 stomach, covered with a thin layer of meat an inch or two thick, and intestines 

 sufficient to fill a bushel basket, while the others would be as round and straight 

 as a Shorthorn steer, with four or five inches of solid neat, and intestines hardly 

 sufficient to fill a common pail. Can the one produce as many or as strong pigs 

 as the other or feed them afterwards? 



Wherein does the value of these pigs lie? The object of fine bred swine is to 

 produce males with certain desirable qualities so firmly fixed in them that when 

 they are bred on common or grade sows the offspring will inherit the desirable 

 qualities of the sire. The object in using the common or grade sow, instead of 

 the thoroughbred, is to get an animal that will produce larger and stronger lit- 

 ters, furnish more milk, while the offspring will inherit the early maturing, easy 

 fattening disposition of the sire, combined with the vigorous appetite and har- 

 dier constitution of the dam. 



If a man were to purchase a high-priced Shorthorn bull and Duchess cows 

 merely to raise beef, we would consider him crazy ; but if he should procure 

 some good common or grade cows we would consider him on the road to success. 

 If I were about to commence a herd of swine merely to raise pork, I would pur- 

 chase a fine bred boar from some responsible breeder and some good ordinary 

 sows to use him on. From the pigs thus produced I would select my breeding 

 sows, not taking the shortest nosed, finest boned pigs, but rather selecting those 

 with long bodies and strong, roomy frame, expecting the sire to transmit his 

 characteristics on the young. On these half-bred sows I would use another boar 

 of the same kind as their sire, but not related to him. 



There are several breeders of Shorthorns present, and I believe they will agree 

 with me when I say we can put a pound of flesh on a high grade as cheaply as 

 on a thoroughbred. It certainly does not cost so much to raise the grade, as 



