THE boar: selection and AIAxXAGExMENT 95 



tiirity. Immature sires cannot be expected to beget a 

 vigorous progeny. Use before he is a year old should 

 mainly be with a Nievv of testing his ability, and such tests 

 should be infrequent. He may sometimes be used to ad- 

 vantage on a few sows after eight or nine months old, 

 but, as a rule, it is more profitable to defer service while 

 the animal is attaining the best of his growth. At a 

 year old reasonable service will do no harm, and, prop- 

 erly kept, he should be at his best as a sire from then to 

 five years old, when he is fully developed and has every 

 advantage over a partly grown pig; the finest, strongest 

 litters are invariably obtained from large, old sows bred 

 to matured boars. 



The first service may require considerable patience. A 

 young boar will sometimes refuse to give service at first, 

 but it does not therefore follow that he wmII not be a 

 useful animal. He may generally ])e expected to give 

 better service in the second year than in the first. 



One service to a sow is sufticient, and from it she will 

 have as many and as good pigs as there would be if the 

 boar was i^ermitted to chase and worry her for three days 

 and nights. The most experienced breeders agree in this, 

 and will allow but a single ser\ice. Alany breeders, how- 

 ever, do not seem to realize that double service to a. sow 

 is the equivalent of using a boar on two different sows, 

 and not infrequently a breeder who would vigorously 

 combat the idea of allowing two or more services in a 

 day will himself leave a sow with a boar to be served five 

 or si.x times. The sow should be brought to the boar's 

 quarters, rdlowed one service and then removed. The 



