324 TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 



It is made into mess pork, short-cut mess pork, dry-salt sides, 

 and the hams and shoulders are cured. These hogs range in 

 age from nine months upward. A 200-pound packing hog 

 is usually an older hog than a 200-pound butcher hog. Packing 

 hogs differ widely in character. The class includes old sows 

 that bear evidence of once having had pigs, called "seedy" 

 sows, but are fitted in very high condition; good packing hogs, 

 either heavy or medium according to weight; barrows that are 

 not well enough developed and not good enough in form, quality, 

 and condition to go into the butcher hog class, and there may be 

 a mixture of sows and barrows quite varying in quality and 

 condition. Pregnant sows sell with a dockage of 40 pounds. 



Fig. 101. Prime Butcher Hogs. 



Sub-classes of packing hogs. Heavy packing includes 

 the heavy hogs of the packing hog class, and medium packing 

 includes the lighter hogs. Mixed packing is a sub-class that 

 is somewhat characteristic in itself, for it includes hogs coming 

 from local buyers in the country, and represents hogs of different 

 classes as well as different grades, as the name indicates. There 

 may be heavy packing, medium packing, some light hogs, and 

 even a few butcher hogs in the drove. Many such droves come 

 to the market and are sold to the packer without sorting. In 

 such cases the sorting is done after slaughtering when the car- 

 casses are being cut, the heavy ones being sent one way and the 

 lighter ones another. It is principally mixed packing hogs that 

 furnish a field for operation to the speculator. He buys several 

 carloads of these mixed packing hogs and sorts them into various 

 classes and resells them. 



