THE DUROC-JERSEY 



713 



well. The breed is getting a good foothold in the South, where it 

 seems quite adapted to cowpeas and velvet beans as pasture crops. 

 The Duroc- Jersey as a feeder holds its own with other breeds. 

 It has grown greatly in popularity for the feed lot, and this is 

 clearly shown by the remarkable increase in red hogs in the big 

 stockyards of the Middle West. Most of the feeding experiments 

 in which breeds are compared have been rather to the disadvan- 

 tage of the Duroc-Jersey, but in spite of this it seems to be the 



FIG. 336. Sky Pilot 121715 a, a yearling Duroc-Jersey boar of the big type, far- 

 rowed in 1917 and purchased by Thomas Johnson for service in the Oakland herd. 

 From photograph by the author 



opinion among investigators that there is essentially no material 

 difference in the lard-type breeds in feeding value. At the Iowa 

 Experiment Station, on low-priced feed, the cost of producing 

 100 pounds live weight with the Duroc-Jersey is given at the 

 very low figure of $2.27. In the experience of the writer with 

 this breed during the past ten years the Duroc makes a strictly 

 first-class showing. 



The maturing qualities of the Duroc-Jersey are distinctly high 

 class. Pigs easily mature at six months of age to dress out 175 

 pounds. At the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station 19 pigs at 

 an average of two hundred and fourteen days weighed an average 

 of 197 pounds. These are not unusual records and are such as 

 may be secured by any competent feeder with fair representatives 



