Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



391 



hog feeding, and that our hogs will go to market carrying considerable 

 finish and that they will continue to be valued for the production of 

 both meat and lard, though varying in the percentage yield of lard 

 depending on the supply and price of com and the price of hogs. 



Some questions and answers. — The question is very frequently 

 asked why very large breeding animals are demanded by breeders of 

 purebred hogs inasmuch as the annual crop of farm pigs is sent to 

 market weighing around 225 to 250 pounds. This question may be 

 answered by the following brief statements, many of which summarize 

 facts presented in preceding chapters: 



1. In farm herds which produce market hogs there is a tendency 

 toward loss of size, due to feeding com too exclusively and also due in 



Fig. 143. — Excellent type in the herd boar. Duroc-Jersey boar, Great Orion 

 Sensation, champion at the National Swine Show in 1919 and 1921. Owned by Ed. 

 M. Kern, Stanton, Neb. A very large, heavy-boned, masculine type of boar with 

 great length and smoothness. 



some cases to lack of proper care and management. Corn is not a 

 good feed to produce bone, muscle, and growth, in fact it is a very poor 

 feed for these purposes. Pigs fed too exclusively on corn, without the 

 addition of feeds rich in protein and minerals, do not grow as large as 

 they would otherwise. They also lack in size and strength of bone. 

 The breeder of purebred hogs is therefore justified in selecting for very 

 large size, length of body, and heavy bone in order that he may supply 

 the farmer with boars and sows that will assist in maintaining good 

 (but not necessarily extreme) size, stretch, and bone in farm herds. 



