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prepotency which is lacking in the scrubs or grades. Hence, 

 there is an improvement which is very soon evident. 



In the selection of a boar of any breed, it is best personally to 

 pick him out. Look at the registration papers of his sire and 

 dam and then at those individuals themselves. See some of his 

 litter mates. Inquire into the litter record of his dam. Then 

 look at the individual himself. He must be masculine, active, 

 compact, large for his age and possess those qualities (deep, wide 

 chest ; broad, arched back ; deep body, short neck, shori: legs, big 

 bone, large, strong hams, etc.) which go with perfect individu- 

 ality. See that he is strong in those points where the sows are 

 weak, for the mating of animals with common weaknesses tends 

 to accentuate this weakness in the ofifspring. 



The next step is to control the matings. The boar should not be 

 allowed to run with the sows, or he will breed young sows at too 

 early an age, breed mature sows too soon after farrowing and 

 waste his vitality with too frequent service. Then again it is 

 well to know when a sow is served so that an attendant may be 

 on hand to assist her when her young are due to arrive. This 

 attendance will save many pigs which otherwise are killed soon 

 after their birth. 



After the sow is bred she should be properly fed and cared 

 for so that she will have plenty of milk for her family when it 

 arrives. She will not be able to do this well if she has had to 

 find all of her living. A little extra food at the time will more 

 than pay for itself when the pigs come. 



At farrowing time, reduce the feed and, for 4(S hours after 

 farrowing, give the sow nothing but water. This will prevent 

 udder troubles and sickness among the young pigs. Later the 

 sow must be brought gradually to her full feed, taking 10 to 14 

 days before she is getting all she wants. 



If the sow is properly fed and the young pigs given shade, 

 exercise, clean water and sanitary quarters they will grow and 

 thrive on the sow's milk until four weeks old. Then they will 

 want additional food and will eat with their dam. At this time 

 a growing food rather than a fattening food is essential, for we 

 want size in a hog before we begin to fatten it. The young pig 

 must now be kept growing or it, too, will fall back again into the 

 scrub hog class. 



In conclusion, it may be added that there is no excuse for the 

 man whose place today is overrun with scrub hogs. Good boars 

 are not expensive and the prices paid for market pork easily 

 warrant the outlay of some money for proper feed. There is 

 plenty of work to be done in grading up scrub herds of hogs, but 

 each hog raiser who enters upon this work, and considers each 

 hog as an investment capable of paying yearly dividends instead 

 of merely a possession, will find himself on the road to success 

 and will not only benefit himself and fellow hog raisers, but the 

 pork eaters of our Islands as well. 



