Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



393 



hogs fatten more readily and to a greater degree than cattle or sheep . 

 It is necessary to foster a blocky type in the latter animals because^ 

 as a rule, a good finish at the desired age cannot be attained without 

 it. This is especially true of market lambs and baby beeves. The 

 rather upstanding, rangy pig, of growthy type, if possessed of good 

 feeding qualities and if properly fed, can be given a good finish at any 

 weight above 150 pounds. It is acknowledged that an upstanding 

 form and ranginess in the pig do not alone insure efficiency as a pork 

 producer. He must have other essential points in type as well. Never- 

 theless, there is no inconsistency in demanding blockiness in beef cattle 

 and sheep, and ranginess and a rather upstanding form in hogs. 



Fig. 1 14, G(Hi(l type ill tln' l.oar. Chester Wliito Lour <'liaiiipiMn at the 

 Iowa State Fair, owned by A. B. Somerville, Monroe, Iowa. 



Now comes a third question. Is it not true that the packer pre- 

 fers a hog of great smoothness and great refinement of bone? Yes, 

 this is true, as shown by the study of the hog carcass. Packers do 

 prefer a high-quality hog. But they offer such a slight premium for 

 this kind of a hog as compared to a rangy pig with medium or large 

 bone that there is no incentive to produce the packer's type. The 

 advantage of large, stretchy breeding stock in prolificacy and of their 

 pigs in economy of gains more than counterbalances the very slight 

 premium paid for market-topping hogs. 



The modem barrow of stretchy, growthy type has no difficulty in 

 gaining admission to the butcher hog class where he competes with the 

 packer-type hog, and we have seen in the preceding chapter that in 



