GENERAL PROBLEMS IN SWINE HUSBANDRY 619 



parts, the packer desires a hog furnishing a maximum of these cuts. 

 Usually being well-fattened, lard hogs yield a high percentage of dressed 

 carcass. Formerly heavy hogs were in largest demand, but now pigs 

 weighing about 225 Ibs. or less will command the highest price under 

 usual conditions. 



During the past few years the "big type" of the lard breeds has come 

 into wide favor and is largely displacing the former extreme lard type. 

 These hogs are more heavily and strongly boned, are longer and taller, 

 and are more prolific. At a given weight they will carry less fat than 

 the extreme lard type. Due to this and also to their greater vigor, they 

 make more economical gains in weight. In trials by Eward at the Iowa 

 Station 31 big-type pigs have made more rapid and more economical gains 

 to given market weights than extreme lard type pigs. The gains of 

 the small-type pigs are especially costly after a weight of about 200 Ibs. 

 is reached, for they are then already very fat. Furthermore, there may 

 be considerable difficulty in carrying pigs of this type to the heavier 

 weights, because they seem more prone to pulmonary troubles. 



The true bacon type is raised but little in the United States, the do- 

 mestic demand for bacon being largely satisfied by the leaner pigs of the 

 lard type. The bacon pig is raised chiefly in Denmark, Great Britain, 

 and Canada, where corn is not the main feed for swine. Pigs of the 

 bacon breeds are longer of body and of leg than those of the lard breeds, 

 have less thickness and depth of body, and are lighter in the shoulder, 

 neck, and jowl. The highest quality bacon is that made for the English 

 market under the name of "Wiltshire side," which consists of the 

 whole half of the dressed pig, less the head, feet, shoulder blade, neck 

 bone, and aitch bone. For this purpose the pigs should weigh from 

 160 to 200 Ibs. and carry but medium fat, which should be uniformly 

 from 1 to 1.5 inches in thickness along the back. 32 



Breed tests have been conducted at several stations to determine 

 whether there is any difference in the economy of meat production by 

 the different breeds. Of these the most extensive were tests at the On- 

 tario Agricultural College 33 and the Iowa Station, 34 in which pigs of the 

 Berkshire, Poland-China, Duroc-Jersey, Chester-White, Tamworth, and 

 Yorkshire breeds were compared. A study of the results shows that there 

 was no consistent and uniform difference in gains or economy of pro- 

 duction, a breed which ranked high in some of the tests, being surpassed 

 by other breeds in the rest of the trials. The bacon breeds made as eco- 

 nomical gains as those of the lard type. We may conclude that there is 

 no best breed of swine so far as rate and economy of gains are concerned. 

 There are far greater differences between individuals of the same breed 

 than between the different breeds. One should select the breed which 



'"Iowa Rpts. 1918, pp. 19-20; 1919, pp. 19-20; 1920, p. 23. 

 ^Day, Productive Swine Husbandry, pp. 13-14. 

 M 0nt. Agr. Col., Rpts. 1896-8. 

 M Iowa Bui. 48. 



