Part 6 (1/2)

The buyers of pure bred animals for crossing purposes have also become more careful in their selection. They have ceased to imagine that because the owner of certain animals most of which he has purchased is successful in winning prizes at the chief agricultural shows, the whole of the animals in his stud, herd, or flock must be of equal excellence or at all events sufficiently good for the production of profitable commercial stock. Action on this mistaken belief has led to much disappointment in the past, since the home bred animals may have been of totally different blood from those which have won prizes, and further they may not be inbred for a sufficiently long time on distinct lines to render them prepotent enough to impress their good qualities on their produce.

Amongst the objections made to cross-breeding is the heavy cost of replacing the breeding stock, as to obtain a first cross, a succession of sires and dams must be purchased. Many persons meet this difficulty by merely buying sires of a breed similar to the first used, but then the produce ceases to be cross-breds and become grades until such time as by the use of a certain number of sires of a similar breed the produce become eligible for entry in the herd book of the sires which have been continuously used. This system of breeding insures a greater uniformity in the produce providing that the sires selected are of similar breeding, type, and character, than even by the system of crossing sire and dam of two pure breeds.

The risk attending too close breeding as in the breeding of pure breds is also avoided provided that the herd from which the sires are bought is sufficiently large to furnish a change of blood, yet of similar breeding.

No one possessing a knowledge of the ordinary farm stock of the country will for one moment deny that there is still vast room for improvement in our live stock, and particularly in our pigs, and it is equally the fact that our Government has not shown a readiness equal to that of some foreign Governments, and even of the authorities in some of our colonies to a.s.sist farmers in obtaining the use of improved sires. Take Canada as an instance. For years the Dominion Live Stock Branch has been purchasing and delivering free into districts needing them, male animals for the use of farmers and stock owners free, save stallions, for which a covering fee has to be paid sufficient to cover the insurance of the stallion. The other important condition which relates to all the sires provided by the authorities is that the cost of maintenance shall be paid by the Local a.s.sociation which has the management of the sire and the arrangement of its services.

Another noticeable point is that all the sires allocated to the various districts are Canadian bred, and so far as is possible are purchased in the province in which they are to be located. The object is undoubtedly to encourage in Canada the breeding of pure bred animals and may thus far be considered satisfactory, but it is acting on an a.s.sumption which may not be justified that there exists in the Dominion a sufficiency of stock equal in quality and breeding to those which it may be possible to import.

Within the past three or four years our Board of Agriculture have taken some steps to a.s.sist our farmers to improve their stock. The a.s.sistance has taken the form of offering premiums of fixed amounts to private persons or a.s.sociations who hired or purchased approved stallions, bulls, and boars which were placed at fixed fees at the service of the stock of the public. Already great benefit has been derived from the use of the stallions and bulls, and this to a far greater extent than in the pigs, as owing to an unfortunate condition which was attempted to be enforced as to the formation of pig clubs and impracticable conditions the number of boars located in the country has been much smaller than would have been had the conditions at present in force been adopted at the initiation of the scheme.

The boar conditions are now of a similar character to those in force from the first with regard to stallions and bulls. In addition to the supply of male animals at comparatively low fees an attempt has been made to a.s.sist in the recording of the milk yield of cows, a matter of the highest importance. If only this could be extended to sows there would soon cease to be cause for the far too common complaint of the owners of sows of certain breeds of pedigree pigs, as to the limited quant.i.ty of milk which is provided by the sows for their litters of pigs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo, Francis Davis, Needingworth._

THREE MIDDLE WHITE BREEDING SOWS.

The Property of the Author. Also portion of 17 Sties at Holywell Manor, near St. Ives.

To face page 48.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo, Sport and General._

A MIDDLE WHITE BOAR.

From the Author's Pig Farm.

To face page 49.]

CHAPTER IV

DENt.i.tION AND AGE OF PIGS

Although the majority of pig sellers may claim to be, and may be able to substantiate the claim to be, equally as honest as the majority of others in trade, yet there may be a small minority who are apt to attempt to palm off pigs as being older than they really are. It is most annoying when you are anxious to purchase pigs of say six or seven months old which are quite ready to be quickly fattened, to have pigs of four or five months old which continue to make growth instead of flesh, so that they are not ready for killing until two or three months after they are required for conversion into bacon.

Although the object of the Council of the Smithfield Club is to prevent fraud of a different character, i.e. the exhibition in cla.s.ses limited to certain ages of pigs of an age greater than that given on the entry form, yet the following table showing the normal state of the dent.i.tion of pigs at certain fixed ages will enable purchasers to discover whether or not the seller has attempted to deceive him. It may at once be admitted that there will be a limited number of cases in which the state of dent.i.tion of pigs is abnormal, but after examining the teeth of some thousands of pigs during the past sixty years, we have no hesitation in a.s.serting that more than half, at least, of the variations from the normal are allayed dent.i.tion. It is claimed that a man of experience is quite able to arrive at the approximate age of a pig by its development and appearance; some few persons may have that instinctive knowledge more or less fully developed, but this examination of the state of dent.i.tion is of the greatest possible a.s.sistance in arriving at the actual age of the pig, particularly desirable as it is in case of a difference of opinion between buyer and seller.

The following are the conditions of the state of dent.i.tion to which all pigs have to conform ere they are allowed to compete for the prizes offered by the Smithfield Club at their annual shows:--

”Pigs having their corner permanent incisors cut will be considered as exceeding six months.

”Pigs having their permanent tusks more than half up will be considered as exceeding nine months.

”Pigs having their central permanent incisors up, and any of the first three permanent molars cut, will be considered as exceeding twelve months.