No. 4.] SWINE BREEDING AND FEEDING. 195 



of them, he will find that the herd warms itself. They lie 

 five or six in each of these small stables, and the animal heat 

 will keep them perfectly warm if they are bedded, and the 

 bedding will keep them perfectly clean. 



I will not advise as to the breed of the sire. But he 

 should be of great vigor ; he should be broad between his 

 eyes ; his eyes should be full ; he should be short in his 

 neck, let down in his hams, broad through his shoulders, 

 straight on his back. If the sows are rangy, long and loose 

 built, have the boar compact. If the dams are too compact, 

 we should have the reverse in the sire. The market of to-day 

 demands a different hog from what it formerly did. In for- 

 mer years I fattened from sixty to eighty hogs that turned the 

 scale at five hundred and six hundred pounds. When the 

 drover came he would say: "Mr. Louis, I will pay you 

 so much for these hogs ; that is more than I have paid any- 

 where else in the market. I want them for the Boston mar- 

 ket, for marine purposes." The Boston buyer is the most 

 liberal man in the Chicago market, and the best competitor. 

 I do not mean to flatter Boston in that respect, but it is true. 

 To-day a two hundred and fifty pound hog is what the mar- 

 ket requires, because the lard product is supplanted by an 

 imitation, just the same as butter is by oleomargarine. 

 Besides, the capricious appetite of the masses demands to-day 

 a meat that is marbled, and not either all fat or all lean. So, 

 then, we do not stand in need of the immensely large animal 

 to-day, and we need not seek for an immensely large sire. 

 But here comes another consideration. As a rule, the 

 farmer breeds from young sows, changing his sows every 

 year. He says, " It is cheaper ; I cannot afford to keep the 

 old sows." You know that when we are doing this we are 

 acquiring more immature stock from year to year ; we are 

 lessening their vitality. 



Breeders or feeders are breedino; animals regardless of 

 age, and the animal is often subjected to the severe trial 

 of maternal duties at the age of eight or nine months, when 

 she should really be twelve months of age. By the excessive 

 use of the sire the vitality of our feeding stock is lessened. 

 I always have thought that the one-service plan is the safest 

 and best, and the second day of a sow's heat the best time 



