Operations and Minor Ailments 425 



CUTTING boars' TUSKS 



Boars which are a year old or over, develop long tusks 

 with which they may injure other hogs or the keeper or 

 which sometimes may interfere with the boar's eating. 

 Removing the tusks makes the boar more quiet and tract- 

 able besides making him safer to handle. Several instru- 

 ments have been suggested for the purpose ; among these 

 being the file, hack saw, crowbar and cold chisel, pinchers, 

 and clippers. The last method is preferred. 



The boar should be confined in a small pen, preferably 

 where there are strong posts to which he can be snubbed. 

 A loop of rope should be placed over the upper jaw of 

 the boar far enough back so that he cannot pull out of it. 

 He should then be snubbed up fairly short to a strong post, 

 and the operator should keep behind the boar's head ; 

 that is, farther from the post than the boar's mouth. In 

 this way, the operator keeps out of the way of the boar's 

 reach. With a pair of clippers the tusks can be cut off 

 close to the gum, but care should be exercised to avoid 

 breaking them in the gum, thus causing a sore mouth. 

 Plate XVI is of a 600-pound vicious boar which was oper- 

 ated on by one man. 



MARKING 



Marking pigs for future identification may be done in 

 several ways. The two most common methods are ear 

 buttons, and notches in the ears. Buttons are rather 

 easily torn out by the pigs fighting, and are hard to read. 

 Notches sometimes become obliterated by pigs biting 

 each other's ears, but will not be destroyed nearly as 

 often as will the ear buttons. 



A system of marking, to be remembered, should be 



