HINTS ON SELECTION, CARE AND MANAGEiMENT OF SWINE. 329 



be stated, that a boar should combine the best of the dominant charac- 

 teristics of the breed to which he belongs, He should be close, com- 

 pact, shorter than the model, rather than longer, and should be 

 sprightly, active and vigorous even bold in appearance. If breeding 

 to secure any particular result, the boar should be selected with refer- 

 ence to the particular characteristics desired ; if breeding to sows too 

 long and straight in the face a very common fault he should have an 

 unusually short and sharply dished face ; if bred to sows inclined to be 

 peaked and narrow across the back, he should have especial width and 

 fullness in these parts ; if mated with sows that are inclined to lay on 

 fat in bunches, he should be selected from a strain or breed that is 

 noted for interlarding its fat and lean ; in brief, select the boar with ref- 

 erence, always, to correcting whatever evils may exist in your herd, 

 and you will obtain satisfactory results. 



The sow is selected with a view to modifying the impress of the 

 male on their combined offspring. She controls almost entirely the num- 

 ber of pigs in a litter, and exercises a very important influence on their 

 strength and stamina at the time they are ushered into the world. The 

 sow should always be selected from a family noted for its prolificacy ; it 

 is a well known fact that the quality of bearing either large or small litters 

 is one which runs in families, and when a sow is selected for profitable 

 breeding she should, by all means, be taken from one of these large 

 bearing strains. The sow should be almost the opposite of the boar in 

 many ways instead of being short and close-coupled, she should be 

 long and rangy in her make up, especially wide and deep at the pelvis, 

 and with at least twelve well developed, prominent nipples. As a rule, 

 better pigs, larger litters and greater profits will be obtained from sows 

 fully matured in all respects. Those who practice breeding young sows 

 turning them off for the market after one, or at most two litters can- 

 not compete with equally skillful breeders who breed only from matured 

 sows. The sow should not be selected before she has reached an age of 

 at least four or five months ; about this time changes occur which might 

 lead to quite a different choice from selections made when the pigs were 

 only a few weeks old. Health and constitution are two prime factors in 

 profitable pork raising, and to secure these, both sow and boar must 

 have a large girth back of the fore legs, and be deep and wide in the 

 chest. Clean skin ; thin, soft, glossy hair ; fine, delicate ears ; short, 

 neatly-dished face ; short neck, and fine-boned, trimly made legs, are 

 sure indications, in either boar or sow, that the animal will be an easy 

 keeper ; while the reverse long head, straight nose, and narrow or flat- 

 sided body almost always denote a large appetite, and not always an 

 equivalent return. A mean between these two types will usually be 

 found more profitable, and there are many breeds now known that fill 

 this middle ground to perfection. 



