1 88 JUDGING SWINE AND SHEEP 



Quality. — Quality is indicated by dean bones, free from 

 coarseness ; fine, smooth hair, free from swirls ; and soft skin, 

 indicating fineness of flesh. The head and ears should be 

 refined, indicating a low percentage of waste. If the body 

 -is evenly covered with firm flesh, the judge will know that 

 the fat and lean are well mixed in the carcass. Flabbiness, 

 which is undesirable, indicates too large a proportion of 

 fat meat in the carcass. 



Disposition. — In disposition, the hog should be quiet, 

 because the quiet hog will consume large rations, lie down, 

 and thus fatten more readily than the animal that takes a 

 great deal of exercise. 



Head and Neck. — In the examination of the head and 

 neck, one should look for a snout of medium length, not 

 too coarse. A long snout indicates a long frame and a rever- 

 sion to wild ancestry. The face should be short, with full, 

 plump cheeks. The short face indicates a compact body, 

 and the full cheeks, fleshing tendencies on the part of the 

 animal. Breadth of forehead indicates width of body and 

 Uberal capacity. The eyes of hogs are small, and in the case 

 of the extremely fat hog they are almost entirely concealed, 

 but they should be as large as possible and wide apart. The 

 ear is a good index to quality, the large coarse ear indicating 

 coarse meat. The ear of medium size and fine texture is 

 desirable as it indicates a carcass of good quality. If the 

 ear hangs too limply, it indicates sluggishness, which is 

 undesirable. The jowl, which is the flesh beneath the lower 

 jaw, should be neat and well tucked up, and at the same 

 time it should be full and wide. The hog's neck should be 

 short and thick, blending smoothly into the shoulders and 

 connecting nicely with the head. A long, thin neck on a 

 lard hog is very undesirable. 



