204 HARRIS OX THE PIG. 



there is some latent disease in the parents ; and even 

 though we breed from none of their offspring but those 

 apparently sound, yet we are never sure that the disease 

 will not manifest itself in the next generation. 



Next to health, the digestive and assimilating power 

 of a thorough-bred pig is of the greatest importance. 

 Without good digestion, rapid growth is impossible. The 

 pig must have a stomach capable of extracting the nutri- 

 ment from a large amount of food, and the process of as- 

 similation must proceed with equal rapidity. These 

 qualities are, in a good degree, under our control. In a 

 thoroughly established breed, " like begets like," not only 

 in form and color, but also in those qualities which deter- 

 mine rapid growth, early maturity, and a disposition to 

 fatten easily. Check the growth of a young boar and 

 sow by keeping them in cold, wet pens, on short allow- 

 ance, and, though they themselves may afterwards appar- 

 ently recover from feuch treatment, the evil effects will be 

 seen in their offspring. They may be perfect in form, 

 but they will not possess the maximum capacity of growth 

 and fattening qualities. In the management of thorough- 

 bred pigs, this idea must never be absent from the breed- 

 er's mind. So far as is consistent with health, the young 

 pigs must be daily kept in such a way as to secure a rapid 

 growth. All thoughts of " hardening" them by exposure 

 to cold storms must be abandoned. All attempts at starv- 

 ing them, in hopes of making them more healthy and 

 vigorous, must be given up first, because it will not ac- 

 complish the object, and secondly, because if it would, we 

 should lose one of the first objects we have in getting 

 an improved breed of pigs the capacity of converting a 

 large amount of food into flesh and fat. 



It has been supposed that the success of a breeder de- 

 pends almost entirely on his judgment in selecting a male 

 adapted to correct any deficiencies in the form or quali- 

 ties of the females. But while this is sometimes very im- 



