BREEDING. 151 



all seasons to the butchers, great attention must be paid to quickness 

 of growth and facility of gaining flesh, so that the animals may 

 attain their full growth and be ready for killing before they are a 

 year old. This quality is particularly prominent in the Chinese 

 and African breeds ; but among our ordinary varieties, hogs are often 

 met with which are better adapted for this purpose than for produc- 

 ing large quantities of bacon and lard. 



" The boar should be selected from a breed Well suited to these 

 several purposes ; he must be sound and free from hereditary blem- 

 ishes ; and should be kept separate from the sows till he is about a 

 year old, and has finished his growth, or he will begin to leap too 

 early. He is usually castrated before completing his third year, 

 otherwise his flesh becomes uneatable. If, however, he is of a pecu- 

 liarly excellent breed, one which cannot be easily replaced, his flesh 

 may be sacrificed for the sake of preserving him for breeding from 

 a few years longer. 



"A boar left on the pasture at liberty, with the sows, might 

 suffice for thirty or forty of them ; but as he is usually shut up, and 

 allowed to leap at stated times only, so that the young ones may 

 be born nearly at the same time, it is usual to keep one boar for 

 ten or twelve sows. Full-grown boars being often savage, and diffi 

 cult to tame, and attacking men and animals, must be deprived of 

 their tusks. 



" The sow must be chosen from a breed of proper size and shape, 

 sound and free from blemishes and defects. She should have at 

 least twelve teats ; for it is observed that each pig selects a teat for 

 himself and keeps to it, so that a pig not having one belonging to 

 him would be starved. A good sow should produce a great number 

 of pigs, all of equal vigor. She must be very careful of them, and 

 not crush them by her weight ; above all, she must not be addicted 

 to eating the after-birth, and what may often follow, her own young 

 ones. If a sow is tainted with these bad habits, or if she has diffi- 

 cult labors, or brings forth dead pigs, she must be castrated forth- 

 with. It is therefore proper to bring up several young sows at once, 

 so as to keep those only which are free from defects. Breeding sows 

 and boars should never be raised from defective animals." 



According to Varro and Columella, the ancients considered the dis- 

 tinguishing marks of a good boar to be a small head, short legs, a 

 long body, large thighs and neck, and this latter part thickly covered 

 with strong erect bristles. 



Our most experienced breeders prefer an animal with a long cylin- 

 drical body, small bones, well-developed muscles, a wide chest 

 which denotes strength of constitution, a broad straight back, short 

 head and fine snout, brilliant eyes, a short thick neck, broad well- 

 developed shoulders, a loose mellow skin, fine bright long hair, and 

 few bristles, and small legs and hoofs. Some give tie preference to 



