16 BULLETIN 48, HAWAII AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
and conformation, and producers of good litters which they are 
capable of properly mothering. The brood sow should show femi- 
ninity, as is characterized by quality and refinement in all parts of 
the body. The body should be rather long, the ribs well sprung, 
and the sides long and deep. The shoulders should be smoothly 
covered and the hams well rounded and plump. The legs should 
be well placed and the pasterns strong and straight. Roomy sows 
are regarded by many judges of swine as being especially high in 
fecundity. 
No effort should be spared to select the best boar that can be 
afforded. To be of the greatest usefulness, he must be prepotent 
in transmitting his best qualities. He represents half of the breed- 
ing stock and is rated the most important animal in the herd because 
he exerts a strong influence upon every pig that he sires. A supe- 
rior boar will improve the progeny of inferior sows, but an inferior 
boar will depreciate the offspring of sows of high quality. The boar 
should not only have every appearance of quality but also be of as 
high breeding as possible. The show ring tells only half the story : 
the record of performance in the herd tells the other half, which is 
the more important factor of the two. 
The essential qualities in the boar are that he be strongly masculine 
and, if mature, have well-developed shoulders and hindquarters, a 
slightly arched and deeply fleshed back, and sides of good length and 
depth. He should stand up well on his hoofs and show no weakness 
in the pasterns. The testicles should be prominent and uniform. 
The successful hog raiser, whether he is a breeder of market hogs 
or of pure-bred stock for sale as such, is always a close observer, and 
soon learns the strong and weak points of his herd boars and sows 
and what their prepotency is in transmitting these qualities. Brood 
sows that are shy breeders, poor in nursing their young, difficult 
to manage, or inclined to be savage, and boars that are unable to 
transmit their good qualities should be discarded before their in- 
fluence has made much headway. 
The beginner in swine raising, especially of pure-bred stock, may 
as well learn at the start that he will have to do some culling if he 
would attain high standing. No breeder ever made a greater mis- 
take than that of expecting a large percentage of the progenies of. 
say, a trio of prize winners to become prize winners in turn. This 
does happen sometimes, but only under the care of the master 
breeder. 
Prospective buyers are advised to attend the swine exhibits at agri- 
cultural fairs and to follow these observations with visits to the show 
herd in their homes. Grade sows for the production of market pigs 
usually can be bought at costs slightly above butcher market prices. 
When large numbers of sows are to be purchased, the buyer, if he is a 
judge of hogs, should watch shipments at points of embarkation or 
destination, and also search for desirable animals among the herds 
of the numerous small swine raisers who are scattered throughout 
the Territory. It often happens that some of the best looking sows, 
when purchased on the market, are nonbreeders. This is more or 
less likely to be the case unless the animals are guaranteed to be 
breeders/ No pure-bred swine, either male or female, should be 
bought without such a guaranty. 
