84 SWINE IN AMERICA 



should be given to defects apparent in the sows when 

 the boar is selected. 



Strength of leg in bone, tendon, ligament and muscle 

 is important, and the animal with weak pasterns should 

 be avoided. The boar that cannot stand up squarely 

 on his feet is likely to prove of unsatisfactory breeding 

 service. Much is said in the farm papers about hogs 

 "breaking down," a condition which may result from 

 wrong feeding, but which, regardless of its first cause, 

 no breeder wishes to perpetuate by weakly built sires or 

 dams. Danger from this infirmity is not to be lost sight 

 of. An effeminate frame, delicate features and legs and 

 a tendency to walk upon the pastern bones stamp the 

 boar as wrongly fed, overbred or of a faulty ancestry, 

 accordingly weak in constitution, and likely to be a 

 disappointing sire. 



SOME EXTERIOR INDICATIONS 



As S. M. Shepard has well said in his excellent book, 

 "The Hog in America," and also to the author, the skin, 

 hair, eyes and tail are all outside sentinels which tell 

 whether the internal organs are working properly. "If 

 the eye is clear and bright, the hair smooth and lying 

 close to the body, and the skin soft, elastic, moist or oily 

 to the touch, and the tail carried in a curl, the internal 

 organs are doing their duty: on the contrary, if the eye 

 is red, watery or dull, the hair dry, harsh and standing up 

 from the body, the skin harsh and dry, and the tail hang- 

 ing straight and lifeless, there is something wrong inside, 



