354 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
equally important consideration too, is whether she have four 
or twelve pigs at a litter. 
Of course the appetite desired must have corresponding di¬ 
gestion and assimilation, and the rapid and liberal breeder 
must have corresponding nursing powers. It will not do to 
have a sow that brings you thirty-six pigs a year, so loaded 
down wdth vital force and peponderance of muscle, as to fur¬ 
nish milk for only one-third that number, and that only for four 
weeks at a time. 
After these two general and leading properties are secured, 
you must regard that conformation and adjustment of vital 
functions which secures the most rapid development and great¬ 
est fattening facility with the least waste. In this, you can 
reach nothing demonstrative, without considering the extreme 
and sudden transitions of heat and cold, dryness and moisture. 
The choice points of development must certainly not be 
neglected in the aggregate but collateral bearings of the calcu¬ 
lations. It does make some difference in cash entries whether 
there are 50 or 150 pounds of the hog behind his shoulders. 
It does make a difference whether there be 10 or 25 per cent, 
of lard in. the marketable results of what he eats. A few 
ounces less or more of souse, at either end, is not so material, 
except as an exponent of intelligent enterprise. lienee we 
conclude that whoever takes one breed of hogs as the stand¬ 
ard index of porkdom’s varied wants, is certainly given over 
to a very uniform sort of error. 
