LECTURE LXXIII. 



PREPARATION AND FITTING SWINE FOR SHOW PUR- 

 POSES. 



The successful fitting and preparation of swine for the 

 show rings is a business in itself. It is something which a 

 man must study carefully for himself; and to a large meas- 

 ure obtain his knowledge by experience in the show ring and 

 in the preparation of the stock for the same. There are so 

 many little details which must be observed closely, the 

 neglect of which may mean failure. Perhaps no other line 

 of live stock management is so important, and especially so 

 hard to master, as the proper preparation and fitting of ani- 

 mals for exhibition purposes. The first consideration, how- 

 ever, is to use good judgment in selecting animals which 

 have some outcome to them. It is the height of folly to 

 think of making a show animal out of an animal which is 

 not bred right. This is the first and most important essen- 

 tial. Nothing but strong, vigorous, healthy animals should 

 be selected in the hope of making prize winners. They must 

 possess good form; must have the desired form of either the 

 fat or the bacon hog, depending upon which class they belong 

 to in this connection. For instance, with the bacon hog 

 it would be useless to select short, chubby youngsters with 

 the hope of making show animals out of them. On the 

 other hand, in the fat hog class, we must not select too 

 short and chubby animals if we hope to be successful. Still, 

 there is such a thing as selecting too long and rangy an 

 animal as to make a good fat hog for show purposes. The 

 medium length should govern. Perhaps in no other instance 

 is breed type so important as in those animals intended for 

 exhibition purposes. It is really the first and foremost requi- 

 site. There are various breeds of fat hogs as designated by 

 those points which characterize the breed type of the animal 

 in question. This being the case, no animal which is at all 

 deficient from a breed type standpoint should be selected for 



