258 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of nice, smooth, thrifty pigs, better than any you ever raised 

 with all your care. ' ' Mr. Harding said a sow should not be slopped 

 heavily before farrowing, but if the sow had been receiving a 

 heavy slop before farrowing, it should be continued afterwards. If 

 however, slop had not been used before, bad results as a rule would 

 follow, commencing afterward. 



Mr. Harding, being criticised for expressing his preference for 

 a slim-headed brood sow justified his judgment by saying: "The 

 best pig I raise every year is from just the type of sow I have 

 described. Did you ever see an outstanding winner that was the 

 product of a sow with a big masculine head? The point with me 

 is to obtain the best mother, and the masculine headed sow has 

 not been the one." He did mean the sharp nosed, peaked kind, 

 but one of the slim type. Mr. Swallow said he got his show pigs by 

 mating a coarse sow with a fine headed male with quality and 

 finish. Mr. McTavish, who breds Berkshires, said that with his 

 breed he had secured better results from sows that were quite 

 wide between the eyes, than from the narrow faced ones. 



W. G. Tittsworth of Avoca, Iowa, who in the words of Artemus 

 Ward, proved himself "an amusin' little cuss," in his humorous 

 way got very close to the question and threw the lime light on the 

 coarse hog-fine hog controversy. Among other things he said: 

 "I would just like to ask what the term coarse sow means. Is 

 it a long, thin sow that might be smooth in her hips and shoulders, 

 or is it a large, broad backed, rough looking sow ? You talk about 

 fine hogs, small hogs, big hogs and medium hogs. I have had some 

 of all sizes and kinds and was not satisfied with any of them. Some 

 were too small, some too course, some too fine some too big. I 

 have asked Mr. Swallow a dozen times just what the medium was 

 and never could get it out of him. The gentleman both seem to 

 like that sow with the long head and the long neck, but I don't 

 know which one it means. I have had sows that ate twenty-five 



ears of corn at once you needn't laugh at me, I fed it to 



them — and they were not coarse, either. In one way a man 

 might say they were, but their hips were no wider. I don't want 

 it understood I like a fine boned hog at all, but I don't know 

 what the coarse one is — the one they are speaking about. I know 

 what a coarse steer is in the market, but this hog has got me 

 rattled. Mr. Swallow says he bought a hog that cost $100 and 

 that is just my kind. Now that shows that he means to make 

 light of my kind. He has driven out a pretty good hog into the 

 ring and looked at me and said, "That is your kind, Billy," 



