The Globe-republican., 1901-08-01
Out-Crossing for ProIificacy.

It is wel1-estab1ished law in breed
ing that animals long bred in the same
line without change of latitude, en-
vironment and food tend to become
shy breeders, while in the case of an
ima1s consanguineous1y mated 1in-
and-in bred) steri1ity more or less
complete is no uncommon result of
such unchanged admixture of blood
This subject has been explained be
fore in this department It has been
stated that long continued feeding of
corn as a well nigh exclusive ration
has made the PoIand-China breed of
swine noted for remarkable develop
ment of form for lard production, but
that the present character of the breed
has been attained at the loss of the
desirable qualification of large litter
production. In short, it has been
shown that the Poland-China SOW is
! usually the dam of a. small litter of
pigs, Whereas the old-fashioned SOW
brought forth large filters of strong,
healthy pigs and furnished bounte
Gus supply of milk for their susie
| nance. Taking these facts into con-
sideration it has been suggested here
that the way to improve the breeding
qualifications of the Po1and-China
SOW and indeed any breed of swine is
| to go back to natural methods of
breeding and feeding Left to nature
| hogs take from the bosom of mother
| earth a number of different feeding
| acquire all of the things necessary
| for perfect maintenance and full de-
| velopment of bone, muscle, blood, vim,
| vigor, vitality Exercising as they do
| in the open air every function of the
| body is perfectly performed and the
| blood at all times is perfectly circu-
lated and oxidized, so that the animal
is vigorous and healthy. Under these
circumstances the males and their
mates are active and vigorous The
fc,<Sx brine Of bat III
| three Or four or five pigs, but a large
number at a time of pigs that, like
/ their parents, are able to rustic for
| a giving in the open Such swine have
| not the modern perfection of form.
| Their backs are built for their bur
| dens=in other words excessive ex-
! erecise in gathering food develops a
form suited for such work, and to this
shape has been given the suggestive
deep chests and we'll developed thighs
and strong bones and stand up per
fect1y upon their feet. They have,
moreover, remarkable shouts, emil
nentIy we'll adapted for deep shovel
ing after the hidden roots and other
| vegetable treasures of the earth They
with lot of points that cannot be
commended. Their vitality, vim, Wig
or, virility are, however. attributes of
| high value in any breed and just the
ones that tend to vanish the modern
environment, close breeding and ex-
cessive use of corn. To some this may
|
per, but not corroborated in practice
The facts mentioned cannot be denied;
the deductions from the facts require
confederation, and this is forthcOm-
ing. At the Wisconsin Agricultural
station may be seen some wonderful
specimens of the razor back breed
of hogs. They were discovered and
corralled with assistance of dogs in
Indian Territory. They look strange
and uncouth among the pure bred
swine Of the station, but they are
there for a purpose and they have not
disappointed Professors Henry and
Carlyle. They were obtained to prove
| the correctness of the suggestions out
lined here regarding the results of line
breeding and corn feeding 1t was
Of their blood with that of the indo-
| lent, corn loving, fat forming Poland
| China would increase the number of
| pigs in the filters and at the same
time infuse new vitality and vfgor.
This it has done in every case The
writer recently examined number of
fine filters of half bred pigs from pure
bred Po1and-China sows mated with
these bears and was pleased and in
terested to note their excellence in ev-
cry respect One SOW that had never
brought more than three or four pigs
at a time had nine to the first service
of a razor back All of the pigs
were of fine type and all of remarka-
bic robustness and vitality. All OF
them showed good feeding qualities
and all that could be detected as in
dicauve OF alien blood was a length
ening of the snout and slight reduc-
ton in blOckiness of type In carry
ing out the experiment with this in
fusion of fresh blood from original
| types possessedA OF natural vigor and
| constitution it has already been dem
fonstrated that filters are invariably
increased as to numbers of pigs and
, | the pigs are apparently little if at all
| deprecated in type, while all are char
acterized by added vitality and vim
and a capacity for good consumption
and assimilation not seen in the pure
| bred Poland-China- It has further
| been noted that the razor back boars
/ are immediate cure for shy breed
| ing and that non-breeding sows usI1-
| ally prove in pig to them at the first
| service