646 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



seems to be established that the Poland and big boned China entered into 

 to make up the new breed, hence the name adopted later when the various 

 breeders organized into a record company. 



It is doubtful if any of the several men instrumental in the founding 

 of this new breed had any conception of the wonderful results that would 

 grow out of the movement. Truly, they "builded broader than they knew." 

 The big spotted breed soon became popular in Ohio, and spreading to the 

 other states westward soon became the leading variety throughout the 

 corn belt, driving out and superseding other and older breeds. The orig- 

 inal Poland-China hog, however, was not the Poland-China of today. The 

 earlier specimens of the breed were large and coarse, with long, deep 

 bodies, coarse heads and large, drooping ears. They were spotted black 

 and white with occasional splashes of sandy. They could be fed to very 

 heavy weights, and were well adapted to the then prevailing custom of 

 feeding, being usually fattened at a year and a half old. But American 

 push and energy demanded a hog of quicker growth, and early maturity. 

 The custom of feeding until 18 months old gave place to the method of 

 pushing from start to finish, and finishing at 9 or 10 months. It was here 

 the breeders' skill became apparent in transforming the coarse, ungainly 

 type of an early day to the smooth, symmetrical type of today, the smooth- 

 est, most symmetrical, easiest feeding and most profitable hog on the face 

 of the earth. It is claimed by some that this fining process has been over- 

 done; that size and vigor have been sacrificed for fancy points. It may 

 be that in many instances this is true, and, from the almost universal 

 demand for size and bone, 1 believe the limit has been reached, and per- 

 haps in many cases, passed, and the breeder who would promote the best 

 interests of the breed, and incidentally find a ready sale for his product, 

 should give due attention to size, if a little less to style, finish, etc. An- 

 other objection that is sometimes urged against the breed is want of fe- 

 cundity, and we hear advocates of other breeds boasting of large litters — 

 12, 15 and 18 pigs at a litter. But who wants a sow to have 18 pigs? I 

 do not; nor 15, nor 12. It is more than a sow has any business with; more 

 than she can properly nourish with ordinary care, and with the best of 

 care there is likely to be several unprofitable runts, or a whole litter 

 stunted. The sow that will uniformly produce six to nine strong, healthy 

 pigs, and suckle them properly, is the true money maker. Taking Volume 

 2807, American Record, and taking 100 pedigrees entirely at random, and 

 noting number of litter in each, I find on footing up an average of eight 

 pigs to the litter which is, I think, a sufficient answer to the objections 

 under consideration. 



The growth of the Poland-China hog in public, favor, considering the 

 short time it has been before the public, is unparalled. From an humble 

 beginning in a few counties in Ohio, it has rapidly spread over the western 

 states, the great corn and pork producing states, driving out and super- 

 seding other breeds, until now perhaps fully two-thirds of the hogs mar- 

 keted from these states are more or less pure Poland-China blood. 



From a small beginning also.the breeding of registered stock has grown 

 to gigantic proportions. Four large record companies are doing business 



