40 FoETY Yeabs' Bxpekience of a Practical Hog Man. 



necessary that the bone should be extremely large in dia- 

 meter, like that of a Clydesdale or Shire horse, for often 

 an extremely large bone in a hog does not have as much 

 firmness and strength as a bone that is not so large. The, 

 pasterns should be as short and upright as possible. This 

 is surely one of the important things that we should look 

 after in all of our present-day breeds. If the pastern is 

 short and the bone of good quality there will never be any 

 trouble with broken-down feet. 



When it comes to the foot proper, the toes should be 

 short and not too sprawling, or in other words they should 

 set rather close together. The legs should be straight 

 from a side view of the animal, as well as from an end 

 or front view. Often one finds a hog with a front leg 

 as crooked as a "Fist" dog, with the knees close together 

 and feet wide apart, giving a very bad appearance to the 

 animal. Regarding the hind legs, they should be as straight 

 and upright as those of the Shorthorn, rather than being 

 what is known as "sickle hocked" and should stand square 

 under the body. 



The coat of hair should be ample, yet not curly or coarse, 

 and the smoother it lays on the body the better ; all appear- 

 ance of what is known as "swirls" should be avoided, es- 

 pecially if the animals are intended for breeding purposes, 

 and the boar should not be considered if he has a ' ' swirl. ' ' 

 For the benefit of the beginner, I will explain that a 

 "swirl" is what would be called in the human race, a cow- 

 lick. In some hogs these are quite small and hardly notice- 

 able, while in others they appear as large as a saucer and 

 are generally located near the loin and some times near 

 the tail head. 



In selecting a herd of brood sows, it is my judgment 

 that the more uniform in type, size and conformation the 

 sows are, the better, and I would even go so far, if I were 

 selecting but a few, to have them all from one or two litters 

 if possible, rather than take the risk of getting such a great 

 variety of ty])es by the selection of individuals from differ- 

 ent families, and I would have them from reasonably large 

 litters. 



While we all like good-sized litters, I am not a crank 

 on this subject. I prefer litters running from seven to nine 



