426 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



back, and weak pasterns. These are faults which the swine growers 

 of the corn belt have learned from years of costly experience to 

 avoid, and no other good qualities will compensate for these defects. 

 (Colo. Bui. 146.) 



If you have decided upon the breed you are going to raise, 

 remember that the individuals of any breed vary widely in merit, 

 and for that reason much care should be exercised in selecting 

 animals for breeding purposes. There are many pure breds of all 

 breeds that are very inferior and the only merit they have is their 

 purity of breeding. Many are offered for sale as pure breds which 

 in reality are only grades, which accounts for their lack of good 

 conformation. The lack of care and feeding, however, is the chief 

 reason for the presence of so many inferior pure breds. (N. D. 

 Bui. 83.) 



The pigs which are to be used for breeding purposes should be 

 selected during the time when the pigs are with the sow. If the 

 breeder is raising hogs for market he will select only sows, castrating 

 all boars. No boar should be used or sold that is not eligible to 

 registry. If the breeder is raising pure-bred stock the inferior boars 

 will be culled out and castrated, the others being kept for the breed- 

 ing market (F. B. 205.) 



Selecting the Boar. The male has the greater influence on the 

 herd, for the simple reason that every pig in the herd is sired by 

 him, whereas they have not all the same dam. To achieve the best 

 results a breeder should never allow the standard of his sows to be 

 lowered, and should always couple them with a boar of a little better 

 grade. A superior boar may be used on a herd of inferior sows 

 with good results, but the use of an inferior boar on sows of high 

 quality will have a disastrous outcome. The one method raises the 

 standard of the herd ; the other inevitably lowers it. 



A boar with the male characteristics strongly developed should 

 be selected, preferably as a yearling, or else as a pig that has been 

 purchased at the same time as the sows and allowed to come to 

 maturity before being used. He should have a strongly masculine 

 head and a well-crested neck. His shoulders should be developed 

 according to age; but strong shoulder development in pigs under a 

 year or eighteen months is objectionable. The same indications of 

 a good pork-producing carcass that the sows required should be seen 

 in the boar a broad, straight, deeply fleshed back, much depth and 

 length of side, and well-developed hind quarters. The boar should 

 be selected to correct any defects that may be common to the sows ; 

 for example, if the sows are rather coarse in bone and loosely built, 

 the boar should have high quality fine bone, skin, and hair. If 

 the sows tend toward over-refinement and delicacy, the boar should 

 be rather rangy and strong-boned. There is a common belief that 

 the male parent influences principally the extremities and general 

 appearance of the offspring, while the vital organs (the heart, lungs, 

 and viscera), conformation, and size resemble those of the female 

 parent. This theory is strongly questioned by some modern author- 

 ities on heredity; but so long as our knowledge of the subject is so 



