BREEDING. 157 



flapping, especially in those which incline to the old stocK. Good 

 pigs, it is true, may show such ears, but small sharp erect ears 

 accompany what may be called blood. In a well-formed boar the 

 barrels should be rather long and cylindrical, the limbs should be 

 small in the bone, the hoofs neat and compact, the skin should be 

 rather loose and mellow, with the bristles fine but scanty ; the snout 

 should be short and sharp, the forehead rise boldly between the ears 

 and merge into an arched neck ; the back should be straight and 

 broad ; the hams rounded and ample ; the chest should be wide, indi 

 cative of the amplitude and vigor of the vital organs. The tail 

 should be slender, the eyes should be lively, the temper or disposi- 

 tion cheerful, without moroseness. As to color, some breeds are 

 black, others are white ; but we think black pigs are thinner in the 

 skin, and are moreover less subject to cutaneous affections. 



" Equal care should be taken in the selection of a breeding sow as 

 of a boar ; she should be of good stature and form, sound, healthy, 

 and free from defects ; she should have twelve teats at least ; for, as 

 may be observed, each little pig selects its own teat, and keeps to it, 

 so that a pig not having one belonging to it would in all probability 

 be starved. A sow not pregnant, whose belly hangs low, almost 

 touching the ground, seldom produces large litters or fine pigs ; the 

 pendulous condition of the abdomen is the result of weakness and 

 relaxation from ill-feeding and ill-breeding, neglect, with other causes, 

 and is generally accompanied with flat sides, a long snout, and a 

 raw-boned, unthrifty carcass, yielding coarse meat, which will not 

 repay the outlay of feeding. 



" Early breeding not only weakens the sow, but, as her physical 

 powers are not yet fully developed, results in the production of un- 

 dersized weakly pigs, and perhaps incomplete as to number ; and 

 these, perhaps, she will scarcely be able to nourish. A young sow 

 of good stock, who produces a large litter at her first parturition of 

 pigs, all of equal size, and proves a good nurse, is valuable ; she 

 promises well, for her first litter may be taken as an example of 

 those to succeed. As long as such a sow continues to return to the 

 breeder such litters twice a year, he will do well to keep her, more* 

 especially, if he finds upon trial that her progeny fatten kindly, 

 whether as porkers or bacon hogs. Some persons, after obtaining 

 one or two litters from a sow, have her spayed, and then fattened 

 off as quickly as possible for bacon. Some keep to their second or 

 even third year of breeding ; but if the last litter was good, and the 

 sow continues vigorous, it becomes a question how far it may not 

 be more advantageous to keep her still longer, even until the dimi- 

 nished number of pigs produced indicates a decline in fruitful ness. 



"Cold sleety weather, with keen winds, is very detrimental to young 

 pigs, and not favorable to their mother; hence, early in the spring, 

 and late in the summer or early in the autumn, are the best periods 



