THE CHESTER WHITE 745 



ordinary conditions as fed in the corn belt will the meat be quite 

 the equal in percentage of fat to lean to that of the Berkshire. 



The crossbred or grade Chester White makes a superior feeder ._ 

 The Chester White and Poland-China cross well and in the opin- 

 ion of many make better feeders than the pure-breds of either 

 breed. Both crossbreds and grade fat stock at the International 

 Live-Stock Exposition have made very high-class records. In 1911 

 F. E. Bone won the first prize in each class of heavy, medium, 

 and light-weight barrow with grade Chester Whites. Again, in 

 1912, Mr. Bone won first place on heavy and medium-weight 

 grade barrows in strong competition, and the first-prize light-weight 

 barrow was a cross of pure-bred Poland-China boar on Chester 

 W r hite sow, shown by John Erancis and Sons of Illinois, noted 

 Poland-China breeders. This same cross shown by Francis and 

 Sons won the grand championship on carcass. The 1917 Inter- 

 national grand-champion carcass was also a light-weight grade 

 Chester White exhibited by F. E. Bone, which sold at twenty- 

 eight cents a pound, three and one-half cents higher than the 

 next highest-priced carcass. In addition to advantages as feeders 

 that may be possessed by the crossbred or grade, prolificacy is 

 quite marked. 



The prolificacy of the Chester White is very pronounced ; in 

 fact, this may be regarded as one of the most prolific of the lard 

 type of pigs. In 1897 Dr. A. W. Bitting of Purdue University 

 made a special study of the prolificacy of swine, in which he 

 showed that the Chester White sows averaged 8.96 pigs per litter, 

 surpassing both Berkshire and Poland-China in the order given. 

 Chester White breeders have long maintained that prolificacy was 

 one of the strong features of the breed, and there is no doubt as 

 to the truth of the claim. This quality of reproduction is inter- 

 estingly set forth by O. H. Smith of Trumbull County, Ohio, 1 

 who reports on a sow of the breed owned by him that farrowed 

 1 6 pigs January 22, 1910; 14 pigs June 26, 1910; and 20 pigs 

 December 5, 1910 a total of 50 in three hundred and seventeen 

 days, which might be regarded as maximum production. Queen 

 Viola, one of the most noted sows of the breed, farrowed a litter 

 of 19 pigs in 1917. A writer in the National Stockman and 



1 Ohio Farmer, February 25, 1911. 



