458 MANUAL OF FABM ANIMALS 



width of the chest is often difficult to estimate, as the external 

 width depends much on the thickness and the way the shoulders 

 are attached; thus an animal wide from shoulder to shoulder 

 might have a small chest capacity, which would not leave suffi- 

 cient room for the organs to do their work as they should. 

 The flank, both front and rear, should be full and well let down, 

 as this also indicates good constitution. 



Uniformity. — One of the most important general considera- 

 tions in choosing a herd of swine, either for breeding or feeding, 

 is the uniformity. While this adds nothing to their ability to 

 make economic gains, it does add materially to their selling value. 

 This is one of the most neglected factors in American pork pro- 

 duction. The first thing the commission merchant does on re- 

 ceiving a mixed drove of hogs is to separate them into bunches 

 uniform in all important characters, as age, weight, and con- 

 dition. The butcher will very often pass by a mixed drove of 

 hogs, even though they are of good quality and in good flesh, 

 refusing to place a bid on them merely because he lacks the 

 facilities for handling such mixed lots. Separate them into uni- 

 form droves, and he is attracted to them at once and will pay an 

 extra premium for the same stuff he refused to bid on 

 before. 



Uniformity in color is perhaps not so essential as age, weight, 

 and quality, although a drove alike in color will command a 

 better price than mixed droves. White is not considered well 

 adapted to southern conditions, as it is likely to sun-scald or 

 blister, and this introduces skin diseases of various forms. For- 

 merly, by far the larger part of the hogs sent to the market 

 were black, but recently blacks have been decreasing and reds 

 increasing, with the whites remaining practically stationary. 

 From information gathered from the ten largest packing houses 

 in the United States, the color ran as follows: black, 55 per 

 cent; red, 35 per cent ; white, 10 per cent; all others, 5 

 per cent. 



