THE BOAR : SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT IO3 



sire should have quahty and plenty of it, because of the 

 principle here stated. 



"In many lines of breeding, size in the sire is consid- 

 ered by many breeders as of first importance. This is 

 against reason and biological principles. We need in 

 the sire all the desirable characteristics possible, and these 

 are most readily found in animals of medium, not ex- 

 treme, size. It is comparatively easy to get size alone, 

 and this can be gotten on the side of the dam. The 

 swine herd must depend for uniformity largely upon the 

 sire, and he should be freed as much as possible from the 

 requirement of size. 



'Tn the matter of prepotency, neither parent has any 

 particular advantage over the other. But this refers to 

 a single offspring, and is only a part of the question. 

 The real dift'erence is one of numbers. The sire may 

 produce perhaps a hundred in a season, while the dam is 

 limited to one individual or at most (among hogs) to 

 two litters. For purely mathematical reasons, therefore, 

 tlie female is of vastly less consequence in herd or breed 

 improvement; indeed, wherever polygamous mating oc- 

 curs. It is here a question of numbers and opportunity. 

 As regards these, the upper limit of the male is very high 

 and of the female very low, which fact teaches the neces- 

 sity of extreme care in the selection of the sire, not so 

 much for biological as for numerical reasons. The single 

 female is, therefore, comparatively insignificant. Unless 

 she be one of the few phenomenal breeders her individual 

 power for good is exceedingly low, and the readiness of 



