CHAPTER XXII 



Razor-Backs Not "Cholera-Proof" 

 or Profitable 



There is a belief, perhaps justifiable, held by niimerons 

 l)reeders that many of the more highly bred swine are 

 over-refined, and that the system of mating and rearing 

 by which they were produced has made them delicate, 

 and more susceptible to disease, while lessening their 

 feeding qualities and growthiness. Those who have had 

 this belief have in many instances further believed that 

 the best available corrective of the defect and a restorer 

 of the desired robust hardiness would l)e an infusion of 

 blood from the supposedly hardier and more vigorous 

 wild or half-wild hogs quite common in some parts of 

 the South and Southwest, and known as Razor-Backs, 

 which unfounded tradition says are "cholera-proof." 



The Wisconsin experiment station made an attempt 

 to discover whether there were good grounds for the 

 belief in the extra hardiness or feeding qualities of the 

 wild hogs, and secured a stock of them from Texas, 

 which were used especially in crossing with improved 

 breeds, the story of which is told in Annual Reports 19 

 and 20 of the ^\'isconsin station. 



A striking incident of the experiments, not contem- 

 plated in the beginning, was that from an attack of 

 "cholera" the Razor-Back pigs were the first to die, thus 



