RAZOR-BACKS NOT CHOLERA-PROOF OR PROFITABLE 527 



forcibly suggesting that the alleged hardiness of the wild 

 hog, SO often claimed as disease-proof, exists 'mainly in 

 the imagination. Referring to this Prof. W. L. Carlyle, 

 who had the experiments in charge, says: "The epi- 

 demic took about 50 per cent of our pure-bred hogs and 

 about 92 per cent of the cross-bred Razor-Backs. Why 

 the fatality was greater with the cross-bred animals than 

 with the others I do not know, unless it was that their 

 ancestors had nev^er been afflicted to any extent with 

 this disease, and they were, therefore, more susceptible 

 to its inroads." The experiments at the Wisconsin sta- 

 tion were undertaken, at least in part, to determine pri- 

 marily whether pure Razor-Back hogs would consume as 

 much food of a similar kind and make from it as great 

 a live weight gain as pigs of crossed Razor-Back or im- 

 proved breeding, thus determining the truth as to the im- 

 ])ression among some stockmen that scrub stock will make 

 as good gains in feeding as animals better bred. Twelve 

 shotes were selected ; six were Razor-Backs, and the other 

 six were the get of a Razor-Back boar out of Berkshire 

 and Poland-China sows. Both lots were fed twice daily 

 all they would eat of a mixture in equal parts of ground 

 corn, ground rye and shorts, for four weeks, and at the 

 end of that time the feed was continued seven weeks 

 longer, but with the addition of 1.4 parts of milk to one 

 part of grain. The table on the next page shows the 

 initial weights, feeding, and weekly gains of the animals. 

 It was found that the cross-bred pigs ate considerably 

 greater quantities of grain than the Razor-Backs, and 

 made greater gains in proportion to the feed consumed. 



