22 SOUTHERN rORK PRODUCTION 



or records of ancestry. Especially are pedigrees im- 

 portant in determining the prepotency of breeding swine. 

 The boar or sow possessing for se\-eral generations back 

 high-class individualities in their ancestry gives greater 

 assurance of itself being prepotent over another boar or 

 sow with equally as good an individuality, but lacking in 

 high-class individualities in their pedigree. Our pedi- 

 grees are dependent on the record associations, and fre- 

 quently it is impossible to trace the pedigree of swine 

 back for more than twenty generations. 



Environment. — Environment is the external factor of 

 food, climate, shelter, etc., with which an animal is sur- 

 rounded. It is impossible to state just the exact influence 

 that environment has on animals, but, as a rule, it is 

 much greater than one might suppose. The quality of 

 early maturity, a much sought for character in our im- 

 proved swine, is greatly influenced by environment. 

 This factor of en\ironment is ver}^ largely under the 

 control of the breeder. With it he can accomplish a great 

 deal. Environment may be as valuable as inheritance, 

 and either alone is valueless. Since environment is 

 simply the development of inherited traits, heredity is 

 probably the most important. The one great value of 

 en\ironment to the breeder is that it so magnifies and 

 modifies the inherited traits as to make minute variations 

 between individuals discernible, so that selections can be 

 made with a considerable degree of reliability. 



Inbreeding. — Inbreeding consists in the mating of 

 rather closely related individuals that possess desirable 

 characteristics, with the object of fixing or stamping the 

 type into the ofl:'spring. When carried too far, or when 

 the crossing is too radical, a loss of size, vigor and fer- 

 tilit}^ occurs, accompanied by a strong tendency for the 



