POINTS IN PIG-BREEDING.

New Zealand Mail, 27 August 1902, Page 53 (Supplement)

POINTS IN PIG-BREEDING.

Breeding and feeding must necessarily go together. Feeding is, of course, of immense importance, for there are certain things tlnft cau be had only through feeding, and without proper feeding no breeding is of much avail. But'there are certain things that just as surely come from breeding and from no other source. The raisers of swine want largo litters. These cannot be obtained .by feeding. In fact, tho tendency of high feeding is to produce smaller Jitters. Large litters can come only from correct breeding. How important then is it to know something about the ancestors of tho animals that are being bred, whether they were tlie producer” of large litters or not. Then we want to get large, strong frames on tlie animals that are to produce meat. This can he obtained only by breeding from animals that have tlie frames desired. It is folly to breed from any other kind of an animal and depend on feeding to bring about the desired result. Then also wo should have animals of great vitality and with great digestive ability. The breeder Only can get this. A hog that has a poor digestive apparatus generally reproduces his like, and that prod’iict cannot assimilate food in largequantities. Here especially the “corncrib argument” utterly fails. If such an animal ho fed too much his system simply breaks down. It does not improve. Good health is largely bred into an animal; it is seldom or never fed in. What we call good health depends on_a good constitution. The good constitution is only another way of saying that the animal has come into life with all of his organs healthy and properly formed for the, performance of their function. Probably what wo call vitality comes from this perfect formation of each organ. The lungs are then so constructed that they can go on burning up the carbon rapidly and creating energy, which energy in turn keeps every other organ, including the lungs,

in action. This peculiar combination we get through breeding. If an animal comes into life with some of its organs inferior in construction we cannot cure that defect. If the lungs are weak they will not assist in the creation of energy! It is thus seen that it is exceedingly important that the animals used for breeding purposes he picked stock.—“Farmers’ Review."”' ■