PRINCIPLES OF SWINE BREEDING 41 



expense. The trouble is that too many look at the first 

 cost alone. Twenty-five dollars is not an unreasonable 

 price to pay for a registered pig to make a herd header 

 of, and a sire selected at $75 to $100 would probably be 

 far more profitable in the long run than a cheaper one. 

 The additional value placed upon each pig in the first 

 crop generally much more than pays the difference be- 

 tween a cheap or scrub sire and a good, pure-bred one. 



Swine-breeding terms. Before one can intelligently 

 understand the underlying principles of swine breeding, 

 it is necessary that he familiarize himself with certain 

 terms that are met with more or less frequently in dis- 

 cussing the subject. Among these terms we frequently 

 find "pure bred," "full blooded," "thoroughbred," "cross- 

 bred," "high grade," "grade," "unimproved," "scrub," 



Pure bred. Used synonymously, but erroneously, with 

 the term "pure bred," are the terms "full blooded" and 

 "thoroughbred." In speaking of any phase of swine 

 breeding it is never necessary to make use of the latter 

 two terms, and their use should be avoided as they are 

 more or less confusing. In discussions on swine breeding 

 the term "pure bred" is probably met with more fre- 

 quently than any other of the terms used. This term is 

 applied to those hogs whose ancestors came from the 

 native homes of the breeds in question and conformed to 

 the requirements of the breed. The blood must be pure 

 and the breeding and ancestry must be known for several 

 generations back. An animal cannot be considered as a 

 pure bred unless it is capable of being registered in the 

 standard herd book for the breed to which it lays claim. 

 The advantage of a pure-bred animal lies in the fact that 



