CHAPTER XV 

 THE TYPES OF SWINE 



THE hog (Sus scrofa) is a monogastric, omnivorous 

 animal with an especial predisposition to obesity and a 

 propensity for making extremely rapid gains in weight. 

 Unlike the ruminant, the hog is ill adapted to the consump- 

 tion of rough foodstuffs but requires his ration in concen- 

 trated form. His scavenger habits render him an indis- 

 pensable party to the great industry of marketing corn 

 through cattle, as it is practiced throughout the middle 

 western United States, and he furnishes a most profitable 

 outlet for the dairy by-products of the eastern United 

 States and southeastern Canada. 



Types. There are two distinct types of swine, fat and 

 bacon, each directly opposed to the other in the character 

 of their products, their ration requirements and, conse- 

 quently, in their forms. 



THE FAT HOG 



There is no more efficient means of transforming corn, 

 the staple crop of the American farmer, into lard and a fat, 

 energizing meat upon which the great masses of laboring 

 people depend, than the fat hog. 



280. Production. The fat or lard hog supplies fresh 

 pork for roasts and chops from his ribs and loin, cured 

 pork products, as hams, shoulders, and bacon sides, lard, 



271 



