314 Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



ences in the kinds of feed available for pork production, have resulted 

 in the establishment of two distinct types of swine, lard type and bacon 

 type. 



The lard hog is an American production found chiefly in the corn- 

 belt states where corn is the principal feed for all farm animals. Corn 

 is a great fattening feed, and when fed to hogs it is converted into fat 

 from which lard is made. Breeders have therefore developed a type 

 of hog specially adapted to converting feed, principally corn, into fat, 

 and at the same time growing a carcass highly valued for the various 

 cuts of meat which it yields. 



The bacon hog is also found in America, principally in Canada, 

 however, which is outside the corn belt. In Canada the feeds available 

 for pork production are peas, barley, wheat, oats, rye, skim milk, and 

 roots. As compared with corn, these feeds are not so fattening; they 

 are muscle builders, and hogs produced with such feeds take on rela- 

 tively little fat and are not useful as a source of lard. Canadians have 

 made no effort to compete with the hogs of the corn belt; instead they 

 produce a hog suitable for the English and Canadian trade — a hog 

 whose carcass yields the largest proportion of high-grade bacon. 



From what has been said it may appear that there is no real 

 hereditary difference in the form, structure, and ability of the two types 

 of hogs, but that the differences between them are solely the result of 

 differences in the feeds upon which they are produced. This is largely 

 true, yet it is a fact that when pigs of the bacon type are brought into 

 the corn belt and fed on fat-producing feeds, they never entirely lose 

 the bacon type; and when the lard hog is taken into a bacon-producing 

 section and fed on muscle-building feeds, there is the same degree of 

 change, but the lard hog does not lose his identity under such a system 

 of feeding. Therefore we must conclude that there is something besides 

 the difference in the feeds which accounts for the two distinct types; 

 in other words, there is an hereditary difference between the two kinds 

 of swine. 



Careful selection and breeding and the establishment of definite 

 types of animals suitable to special purposes cannot accomplish the 

 desired ends unaided. The feeding and care must receive as much 

 attention as the breeding. No matter how well bred an animal may 

 be, and no matter how great may be its tendency to conform to a 

 given type, it must enjoy a favorable environment before its inherited 

 good qualities can fully assert themselves and thereby enable the animal 

 to fulfill its mission. 



The breeds of hogs, their classification according to type, and the 

 number of registered purebreds of each breed in the United States as 

 shown by the 1920 census, are as follows: 



