FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 387 



Sows should be from ten to twelve months of age when they are bred, as 

 a general proposition. If they are of a strong and vigorous type, possessing 

 remarkable vitality, perhaps a younger age will answer a good purpose. In 

 any event, the sow should give evidence of having developed sufficient 

 maturity to endure without iniury to her health or bodily vigor, or impair 

 the innate strength of her progeny. 



Obviously it is impossible to select first-class sows from the physical 

 appearance. There is the temperament that must be taken into considera- 

 tion There are some sows that are so constituted in disposition that, what- 

 ever iheir physical recommendations might be, they are unfitted for the rear- 

 ing of litters. A hog must be such that it may be handled without danger 

 to itself, the litter, or the owner. It will be apparent that a typical sow 

 would be quite useless were it too ugly and careless to raise its own litters. 



Another important thing is the prolificness of the sow. We know of no 

 means to determine this point other than by test. The record if properly 

 kept, will not only show what each individual sow can do, but what her 

 ancestry has been able to do. It is important that the sow be capable of 

 raising good litters, but, fundamentally, the capacity of producing them 

 comes first. 



It is true that the boar is half the drove, but the breeder must not forget 

 that the sows are the other half. 



THE YORKSHIRE HOG, 



James Atkinson, Des Moi?ies, Iowa. 



Twelve years ago the first improved Yorkshire hog was introduced into 

 the United States, and at the present time there are six thousand two hun- 

 dred animals recorded, with a large number of imported animals that are 

 on record in England and Canada. The breed had its origin in Yorkshire, 

 England, though it is now largely distributed throughout Lincoln and Lei- 

 cester counties, while it is at present the most popular breed in Canada. 



Compared with the so-called lard hogs, the Yorkshire is somewhat longer 

 in the body and slightly more leggy. The breed as a whole is characterized 

 by having uniformly strong bone, though it can not be called coarse. The 

 manner in which this breed has been handled for a half century or more 

 has resulted in imparting constitutional vigor in a marked degree. From 

 this strong constitution and long body we naturally expect that the sows 

 will produce large strong litters, and this I find to be the case. Mr. Thomas 

 H. Canfield, of Lake Park, Minn., who is the most extensive breeder of 

 Yorkshire hogs in America, informs me that in 1904 his thirty-six sows 

 averaged eleven and one-third pigs per sow. These pigs were farrowed by 

 sows weighing from five hundred to seven hundred and fifty pounds. Nine 

 of my sows farrowed during the month of March, of this year, and produced 

 ninety-one pigs. Four of these were yearling sows and five were gilts. The 

 entire ninety-one came into the world active and strong, while not in a 

 single case did a sow experience any difficulty in farrowing. 



