THE TAMWORTH 



797 



American sows will produce a very attractive, easy-feeding, highly 

 marketable porker. A Champaign County (Ohio) farmer, K. S. 

 Hawk, produced feeding shoats with much success, using a Tam- 

 worth boar on grade Duroc-Jersey sows. In January he shipped 

 forty-six April, May, and June pigs that averaged 318 pounds and 

 brought ^6.80 straight at Cleveland, 13 cents over the general 

 market. The Tamworth, being very prepotent, sires offspring 

 uniformly red in color and, when mated with the lard-type female, 

 produces a very neat and attractive killer that dresses out well. 



The fecundity of the Tamworth is a striking feature of the 

 breed. Mr. Fidgeon reports his sows as usually bringing from ten 

 to fifteen pigs at a litter. It is generally conceded in Britain that 

 the Tamworth is unsurpassed for fecundity and size of litter. One 

 of the quoted objections to the breed in England was that it was 

 too prolific, the sows bringing 50 per cent too many young ones. 

 Professor H. M. Cottrell writes r^ 



The two strongest characteristics of the Tamworth are lean meat and large 

 litters. For two years on the agricultural college (Colorado) farm, the average for 

 all sows was 10 live pigs to a litter. A two-year-old sow, weighing 750 pounds, 

 had 18 live pigs at one farrowing. Fully matured sows, well cared for, can 

 produce two litters a year. A Tamworth sow at the Iowa Agricultural College 

 raised 33 pigs in one year. 



It is this highly important quality of fecundity which has furnished 

 important arguments for Tamworth breeders in behalf of the breed. 

 The sows make excellent mothers and, as might be expected in 

 this type, produce an abundance of milk. 



The Tamworth as a grazer ranks very high. While not used as 

 a grazing pig in its native home, in the United States it has proved 

 very satisfactory in this respect. The pigs are hardy and naturally 

 adapt themselves to clover or rape or any other pasture suited to 

 swine. Day states ^ that the Tamworth, like the Large Yorkshire, 

 " is probably rather better adapted to pen feeding than to pastur- 

 ing " ; however, these hogs have grazed well at several experi- 

 mental farms in the United States. The late Professor John A. 

 Craig states 3 that the Tamworth holds first rank in this respect. 



1 Indiana Farmer, July 4, igo8. 



2 Productive Swine Husbandry (1913), P- 100. 

 ^ National Swine Magazine, July, 1909. 



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