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 
