ed to a
loss of vitality amongst the so-called pedigree stock, and this
weakening of the constitution showed itself in a reduction in the number
of the offspring and in the power of the dam to furnish its young with a
full supply of well-balanced milk.

There is little doubt that in the third quarter of the past century a
considerable proportion of the pedigree sows were not so prolific as
they ought to have been, nor did they produce and rear thoroughly well
so many pigs at each litter as the common sow of the country was capable
of doing. A more general study of stock breeding has tended to compel
attention to the practical apart from the show points of pedigree pigs,
but probably the strongest influence has been the formation of the
various breed societies, and the registration of the produce including
the number, sex, and sire of the pigs. These entries most clearly showed
those breeders of pigs who had paid most attention to the utility points
of their pigs, especially those particular points in which pedigree pigs
were generally believed to be deficient. The succeeding records of sows
of the same families afforded the best possible confirmation of the
belief which was becoming general that prolificacy like many other
qualities was most certainly hereditary. This recorded proof that pure
bred animals and especially pigs were not necessarily slow breeders,
helped vastly to increase the demand for pedigree animals for crossing
purposes in the breeding of commercial stock.

The enormous benefit which has resulted from the use of pedigree sires
is most clearly proved in the Irish live stock. The so-called premium
bulls and boars are pedigree animals purchased by or with the sanction
of the Live Stock Commissioners and placed at the service of the general
public at a somewhat reduced fee, the Government paying to the owner an
annual premium of some [L]15 for each bull, and a certain sum for each
boar.

It is alleged that the original improvement in the ordinary pig stock of
those parts of Ireland where pig-keeping on a considerable scale is
followed, was due to the purchase in England of numbers of Large White
boars, as after experiments carried out in Denmark, these boars were
found to effect the greatest improvement in the common country pigs and
to render them far more suitable for conversion into the kind of bacon
which was in most general demand, and of course realised the highest
price. For the beginning of the