CHAPTER m. 

 THE BREEDING AND CARE OF HOQ8. 



I. PRACTICAL VALUE OP IMPROVED BREEDS. II. CARE IN SELECTION. III. AGE 



OF BREEDING SWINE. IV. HOW TO SELECT BREEDING ANIMALS. V. FORM 



AND FEEDING QUALITIES. VI. THE CARE OP BREEDING STOCK. VII. FAR- 

 ROWING. VIII. WEANING THE PIGS. IX. CASTRATION. X. GESTATION 



OF SOWS. XI. NECESSITY OF GOOD CARE. XII. RINGING A HOG. 



I. Practical Value of Improved Breeds. 

 In no department of stock breeding has the value of superior breeds 

 been more fully asserted than in the breeding of swine. Cheap food and 

 the improvement of breeds have already made the West and Southwest the 

 great s\vine-breeding and swine-feeding regions of the world, and eventually 

 the Northwest and the South will share equalW in the profits of these great 

 industries. In all the West and Northwest, it is now difficult to find a f armei 

 who has not swine of some one of the improved breeds. When the South, 

 also, shall have taken hold of the business, in the extension of a di- 

 versified agriculture, millions of dollars will have been added to the wealth 

 of that section. From what Ave have said in the preceding chapter, it 

 should not be difficult for the young breeder to work undcrstandingl}' and 

 profitably. Nor can success be achieved by selecting a good breed, 

 and starving the hogs, or allowing them to shift for themselves. 

 Hogs of the improved breeds are not so well able to take care of 

 themselves as those of a half-wild breed, but well cared for they 

 will pay fifty per cent, in profit over the other breed, for the grain 

 fed. Why ? They are more quiet, and assimilate their food more 

 perfectly. This is all there is to any superior breed of any farm 

 stock, if we add that the flesh is better laid on in the prime parts. 

 n. Care in Selection. 



However good the breed, if care is not taken in the selection, or coup- 

 ling of animals, degeneration of the offspring will inevitably result. 

 This is true of all animals. But care in .selection is even more clearly 

 shown to be necessary in planting grains and vegetables, for the reason 

 that weeds, poverty of soil, and the sowing of imperfect seed, react at 

 once on the product. Hence the reason why seedsmen make fortunes io 



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