646^ IOWA DEPARTMENT 01* AGRICULTURE. 



Head paost likely to promise, or rather to be the concomitant of high breed- 

 ing, is one. not carrying heavy bone not too flat on the forehead or possess- 

 ing too elongated a snout; indeed the snout should on the other hand be 

 short and the forehead rather convex, recurving upward. The ear, while 

 pendulous, should also incline somewhat forward and at the same time 

 should be light and thin. 



Nor should the buyer pass over even the carriage of the hog. If this 

 be dull, heavy and defective it would be safer to reject a boar on suspicion 

 of ill health, if not of some concealed disorder actually existing or just 

 about to break forth. Nor is color to be altogether lost sight of. In the 

 case of hogs and in reference to any other description of live stock those 

 colors are to be preferred . which are characteristic of the most esteemed 

 breeds. 



One cannot be too careful in the selection of proper stock to breed 

 from. If the desire is to get early into the market and to produce pork, 

 the varieties most likely to take on flesh quickest and come earliest to 

 maturity should be chosen. If on the other hand bacon is the object the 

 larger breeds are most suitable. In any case the boar should be rather 

 less in size than the sow and more compact and hard in the flesh. 



■ With hogs as with cattle in-and-in-breeding is disapproved by most 

 lieople as calculated to decrease the size of the progeny and weaken the- 

 constitution. Several instances could be mentioned of successful close 

 breeding of this kind among cattle, but few among hogs, so that in the 

 case of the latter at any rate, it should be and generally is studiously 

 avoided. To secure a vigorous progeny, hogs should not be allowed to 

 breed during the first year of their existence. 



Feeding is a matter of first importance in making a success in the 

 swine industry, whether one is engaged in breeding and improving the 

 hog or merely producing market hogs for pork. The successful feeder 

 must have a knowledge of his business much of which he obtains by 

 practical experience. There are some feeders who have been feeding hogs 

 from their boyhood days and have grown gray without having learned the 

 science of feeding. The feeder who desires to make a sucess of the busi- 

 ness should obtain a knowledge of the values of the different feds and the 

 proper combinations of them for producing the best results. The farmer 

 should study the tables prepared from the laboratories of the Government 

 experiment stations. 



It is not necessary that the feeder should be a scientific chemist to 

 make a success of his business, but he should utilize the knowledge that 

 domes from these analyses of the various feeds. 



At one time it was supposed that shoveling corn over to the hogs or 

 driving them into the field to hog it down was the proper method of hog 

 feeding. It is now generally known that this is unbusinesslike, unscien- 

 tific and wasteful, therefore unprofitable. 



It is of prime importance that hogs should have an appetite and 

 desire to eat; also that they should be healthy, as sick hogs are without 

 appetite. In this condition they lose instead of gain flesh. 



The feeder should keep a vigilant lookout for the condition of his hogs. 

 It is much easier at the beginning of the loss of appetite or condition 



