CHAPTER XIX 
CARE AND MANAGEMENT 
AsivE from the various points on care and management dis- 
cussed in the chapter on feeding, special attention is now given 
to improved sanitation and equipment. Many of the common 
diseases that often prove fatal to swine are due entirely or in a 
large measure to carelessness or indifference in management. It 
is well known to swine breeders that few hogs are free from lice. 
These vermin are blood suckers, and in a very short time they 
produce a weakened condition of the animal, thereby rendering 
it far more susceptible to other diseases; even cholera is more 
virulent and more deadly when the herd is infested with lice. 
Since swine are reared and finished in one place, if success is 
to be attained, the feeder must be a breeder as well. Many good 
swine feeders often fail to exercise proper judgment in breeding. 
Breeding swine is as much a business as feeding swine, and should 
be conducted with that understanding. When the price of hogs 
is high, the tendency is to rush into swine raising, forgetting the 
advantages of good quality, with the result that in a few months 
the hog market is glutted with animals of inferior quality which, 
of course, command only a low price. 
478. Plan of improvement.— Before formulatinga plan for breed- 
ing swine, we will have to decide upon the kind of hog we are 
going to breed. Some will wish to breed market hogs only, others 
breeding hogs only, while still others may wish to produce both mar- 
ket and breeding hogs. When market hogs only are to be produced, 
grades may prove as profitable as pure-bred animals, especially if 
much care is taken in the production of the grades, and a pure-bred 
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