110 SWINE 



poorest grade. This probably is true because pure bred 

 animals with the widest possible variation are bred. The 

 impression seems to prevail in the minds of many breed- 

 ers that a hog with a pedigree, or the pure bred hog, must 

 necessarily be a good individual. Many breeders make 

 a practice of selling for breeding purposes all the pure 

 bred hogs produced in the herd. Consequently the poor- 

 est pure bred individuals are used for breeding purposes. 

 This is not true for any other class of breeding. The 

 man who practices grading, or breeds from scrubs, makes 

 a practice of selecting only the best individuals. This 

 is also true to a greater or less extent with cross bred 

 hogs. 



Thus it is seen that if success is to be attained with 

 pure bred hogs, they must be selected just as closely as 

 hogs with no pedigree, or of any other form of breeding. 

 If good results are to be obtained, outstanding individ- 

 uals must be taken to use in the breeding herd. The 

 best individuals, those that may be considered really out- 

 standing, or the ones that bring about improvement in 

 the breed, appear only occasionally and sometimes very 

 rarely, as will be seen from the diamond-shaped figure 

 where the number of individuals in the upper point are 

 very few as compared to the total number produced. 



It will be seen by comparing figures 5 and 4, which 

 represent pure bred and grade respectively, that a man 

 may succeed better with the best grade than with the 

 average pure bred. This of course will apply only to 

 the production of market hogs. The poorest pure bred 

 individuals are very much poorer as individuals than the 

 average grade. 



Figure 6 in the same cut represents the cross bred hog 

 that is used for market purposes. This does not show 



