498 JUDGING FARM ANIMALS 



front or one side, straight and well set. A nat- 

 ural tendency is for the legs to curve in at the 

 knees, and sometimes the knee joint is markedly curved. 

 As viewed from in front, a slight curve of joint may be 

 expected, but only as consistent with natural joint develop- 

 ment, not enough, however, to justify the term "buck 

 kneed. " A narrow placing of the legs naturally indicates 

 lack of heart capacity and vitality, and when the knee 

 joints approach too closely to each other, a narrow chest 

 formation is sure to occur. The pasterns occupy the space 

 between toes and ankle joints. Much has been said by 

 swine men regarding the pasterns. Modern requirements 

 demand a pastern that is rather short and carried strongly 

 upright, with the hog well supported on the toes. It is 

 assumed that modern methods of feeding produce hogs that 

 are often unable to support their weight on upright toes 

 and pasterns, especially if they have been fattened and 

 pushed for early maturity. The reason so many hogs have 

 badly sloping or broken down pasterns, with the dew claws 

 touching the ground, is said to be because of this excessive 

 weight. However, the author questions the soundness of this 

 argument. It has been his observation, both on wild boars in 

 captivity, and with the bacon type of hogs, that weak pas- 

 terns are as much in evidence with these as with hogs of the 

 lard type, which carry much heavier weight. The upright, 

 strong pastern is probably more a feature of the improved 

 swine than of the old, wild or native stock. In early days, 

 before the railways, when hogs were driven to market, 

 strong legs and pasterns were most essential if an animal 

 was to be a good traveller. The necessity of upright pas- 

 terns probably is not so great to-day, nevertheless, it may 

 be assumed that they add to the strength of footing, and 

 carry bodily weight more easily than does the sloping so- 

 called weak pastern. The toes should not spread too wide 

 apart and, as viewed from in front, they should point 

 squarely ahead. A common weakness of front toe position 

 is "toeing in" or pigeon toe. From a side view the toes 



