Page:The Hog.djvu/153

151 all seasons to the butchers, great attention must be paid to quickness of growth and facility of gaining flesh, so that the animals may attain their full growth and be ready for killing before they are a year old. This quality is particularly prominent in the Chinese and African breeds; but among our ordinary varieties, hogs are often met with which are better adapted for this purpose than for producing large quantities of bacon and lard.

"The boar should be selected from a breed well suited to these several purposes; he must be sound and free from hereditary blemishes; and should be kept separate from the sows till he is about a year old, and has finished his growth, or he will begin to leap too early. He is usually castrated before completing his third year, otherwise his flesh becomes uneatable. If, however, he is of a peculiarly excellent breed, one which cannot be easily replaced, his flesh may be sacrificed for the sake of preserving him for breeding from a few years longer.

"A boar left on the pasture at liberty, with the sows, might suffice for thirty or forty of them; but as he is usually shut up, and allowed to leap at stated times only, so that the young ones may be born nearly at the same time, it is usual to keep one boar for ten or twelve sows. Full-grown boars being often savage, and diffcult to tame, and attacking men and animals, must be deprived of their tusks.

"The sow must be chosen from a breed of proper size and shape, sound and free from blemishes and defects. She should have at least twelve teats; for it is observed that each pig selects a teat for himself and keeps to it, so that a pig not having one belonging to him would be starved. A good sow should produce a great number of pigs, all of equal vigor. She must be very careful of them, and not crush them by her weight; above all, she must not be addicted to eating the after-birth, and what may often follow, her own young ones. If a sow is tainted with these bad habits, or if she has difficult labors, or brings forth dead pigs, she must be castrated forthwith. It is therefore proper to bring up several young sows at once, so as to keep those only which are free from defects. Breeding sows and boars should never be raised from defective animals."

According to Varro and Columella, the ancients considered the distinguishing marks of a good boar to be—a small head, short legs, a long body, large thighs and neck, and this latter part thickly covered with strong erect bristles.

Our most experienced breeders prefer an animal with a long cylindrical body, small bones, well-developed muscles, a wide chest—which denotes strength of constitution, a broad straight back, short head and fine snout, brilliant eyes, a short thick neck, broad well-developed shoulders, a loose mellow skin, fine bright long hair, and few bristles, and small legs and hoofs. Some give the preference to