246 



for the growing of 20,000 tree seedlings. The course at present 

 is confined to three trees — the ironwood, swamp mahogany, and 

 koa — and it is certain that the men will know a great deal al:)Out 

 these trees when the school term is ended. 



IMPROVING HOGS IN HAWAII 



By Ralph J. Borden. 



Traveling about the country districts and even through those 

 more thickly populated sections where hogs are being raised, one 

 is impressed by the "scrubby" appearance of the greater majority 

 of hogs he sees. Why is this so ? Wliy do so many of these hogs 

 "simply exist" when a little care and feeding might turn them 

 into a profitable investment? Among such a varied population as 

 ours is, there are large quantities of pork and pork products con- 

 sumed and yet most of these are brought into the Islands from 

 outside. Why not raise more pork here, by improving what hogs 

 we have and increasing our herds ? 



The typical "scrub" hog which is so prevalent is long of legs, 

 neck and snout, has a narrow back, small thin hams, very little 

 spring of ribs and is spare in flesh. She will eat ravenously and 

 develop a large belly, but wdll not put much meat on her body. 

 Her development is slow and when fattened she puts most of 

 her fat around the digestive organs. This scrub hog is the 

 product of poor feed and care, close inbreeding, uncontrolled 

 mating or allowing hogs of all ages, sizes, sexes and breeds to 

 run together. She will eat the same food which a superior indi- 

 vidual would make better use of, is just as expensive to keep, 

 and costs even more to raise because of her slow development 

 and the fact that when she is grown she will not return as large 

 a percentage of edible products. Being left to herself, she either 

 produces progeny which resemble her and have her breed char- 

 acteristics or gives birth to a degenerate type even worse than 

 herself, being forced, as she is, to forage for most of her food, 

 she develops a strong constitution and is vigorous, healthy and 

 prolific. These qualities are admirable and worthy of being 

 saved. 



The primary factor in the improvement of these scrub hogs is 

 to eliminate the scrub boar and use nothing but purebred boars. 

 Boars of improved breeding are not expensive when one realizes 

 what they will do to pigs sired by them. Scrub boars or cross- 

 bred boars cannot be depended upon as breeders. Their progeny 

 are sure to be inferior in form and quality. Purebred boars are 

 prepotent; that is, because they are the product of a long line 

 of ancestry that have been bred true to breed type, they transmit 

 their breed characteristics and their individual type to their off- 

 spring. When mated with scrub sows, the resultant litters will 

 take on more of the characteristics of the boar because of this 



