CHAPTER V 



SWINE 



Improving the Hog. Hogs, like most other do- 

 mestic animals, were brDught to America from 

 Europe. Most of the breeds of fat hogs have 

 developed here. By carefully choosing and keeping 

 the best hogs the farmers have made the fine breeds 

 of to-day quite different from the- fierce wild boar. 

 The wild hog did not take on fat, but our domestic 

 breeds will fatten in a remarkably short time. 



The hog yields meat at a lower cost than any 

 other animal when he is well cared for and prop- 

 erly fed. Intelligent farmers do not raise scrub 

 hogs, which are sometimes called ^^ razor backs. '^ 

 It takes two years to get a scrub to weigli as much 

 as a well-bred pig will weigli when nine months 

 old. If a farmer has only scrub stock he can 

 improve his herd in a very few years by the use 

 of a well-bred sire. 

 Among the standard 

 breeds of hogs popu- 

 lar on the great hog 

 farms of the Central 

 West are the York- 

 shire, Tamworth, '''<- •^•^- ^ ^''" ^'''''^ p^o- 



Cheshire, Berkshire, Chester-White, Duroc-Jersey, 

 mid Poland-China. (Figs. 23, 24, 25, and 26.) 



39 



