36 HABEIS ON THE PIG. 



cause of this result may be found in the erroneous ideas 

 prevalent in regard to the object of keeping improved 

 thorough-bred animals. No farmer could afford to keep a 

 herd of high-bred Duchess Shorthorns simply for the pur- 

 pose of raising beef for the butcher. Their value consists 

 in their capacity to convert a large amount of highly 

 nutritious food into a large amount of valuable beef, and 

 in the power they have of transmitting this quality to their 

 offspring when crossed with ordinary cows. It is in this 

 last respect that pedigree is so important. But the former 

 quality is due in a great degree to persistent high feeding 

 for several generations. Were they submitted to ordinary 

 food and treatment, especially when young, they would 

 rapidly deteriorate. But put one of these splendid Short- 

 horn bulls to a carefully selected ordinary cow, and we 

 get a grade Shorthorn that, with ordinary good feed and 

 treatment, will prove highly profitable for the butcher. 



The same is true of improved thorough-bred pigs. 

 Their valuable qualities have been produced by persistent 

 high feeding, and by selecting from their offspring those 

 best adapted to high feeding. Pigs that grew slowly were 

 rejected, while those which grew rapidly and matured 

 early were reserved to breed from. In this way these quali- 

 ties became established in the breed ; and these qualities 

 cannot be maintained without good care and good feeding. 



In the case of pigs, we could well afford to give the 

 necessary food to fatten thorough-bred pigs for the butch- 

 er. But we cannot afford to raise the young thorough- 

 breds for this purpose. This would be true, even if we could 

 buy thorough-bred sows and boars to breed from, at the 

 price of ordinary pigs. The reason we cannot afford to 

 raise highly refined, thorough-bred pigs for ordinary pur- 

 poses, is, that if we feed them as they must be fed to 

 maintain their qualities, they are apt to become too fat 

 for breeding ; and if we feed and treat them as ordinary 

 slow-growing pigs are treated and fed, they lose the qual- 



