Page:The Hog.djvu/159

157 flapping, especially in those which incline to the old stock. Good pigs, it is true, may show such ears, but small sharp erect ears accompany what may be called blood. In a well-formed boar the barrels should be rather long and cylindrical, the limbs should be small in the bone, the hoofs neat and compact, the skin should be rather loose and mellow, with the bristles fine but scanty; the snout should be short and sharp, the forehead rise boldly between the ears and merge into an arched neck; the back should be straight and broad; the hams rounded and ample; the chest should be wide, indicative of the amplitude and vigor of the vital organs. The tail should be slender, the eyes should be lively, the temper or disposition cheerful, without moroseness. As to color, some breeds are black, others are white; but we think black pigs are thinner in the skin, and are moreover less subject to cutaneous affections.

"Equal care should be taken in the selection of a breeding sow as of a boar; she should be of good stature and form, sound, healthy, and free from defects; she should have twelve teats at least; for, as may be observed, each little pig selects its own teat, and keeps to it, so that a pig not having one belonging to it would in all probability be starved. A sow not pregnant, whose belly hangs low, almost touching the ground, seldom produces large litters or fine pigs; the pendulous condition of the abdomen is the result of weakness and relaxation from ill-feeding and ill-breeding, neglect, with other causes, and is generally accompanied with flat sides, a long snout, and a raw-boned, unthrifty carcass, yielding coarse meat, which will not repay the outlay of feeding.

"Early breeding not only weakens the sow, but, as her physical powers are not yet fully developed, results in the production of undersized weakly pigs, and perhaps incomplete as to number; and these, perhaps, she will scarcely be able to nourish. A young sow of good stock, who produces a large litter at her first parturition of pigs, all of equal size, and proves a good nurse, is valuable; she promises well, for her first litter may be taken as an example of those to succeed. As long as such a sow continues to return to the breeder such litters twice a year, he will do well to keep her, more especially, if he finds upon trial that her progeny fatten kindly, whether as porkers or bacon hogs. Some persons, after obtaining one or two litters from a sow, have her spayed, and then fattened off as quickly as possible for bacon. Some keep to their second or even third year of breeding; but if the last litter was good, and the sow continues vigorous, it becomes a question how far it may not be more advantageous to keep her still longer, even until the diminished number of pigs produced indicates a decline in fruitfulness. "Cold sleety weather, with keen winds, is very detrimental to young pigs, and not favorable to their mother; hence, early in the spring, and late in the summer or early in the autumn, are the best periods