vast improvement in the Irish pig which
has followed the importation of these Large White boars, the Irish bacon
curers must receive the credit, as they joined together in the purchase
of these boars which were distributed in those districts from which the
various factories drew their supplies of fat pigs.

A similar plan was adopted by Messrs. Harris of Calne who purchased some
hundreds of boars of the Large White breed, and at first lent them on
certain conditions to pig breeders, but later on resold the young boars
by auction for whatever they would fetch, their object being to secure
the use of these boars in order to render the farm pigs more suitable
for the purposes of their trade as bacon curers.

There may or may not be any grounds for the belief that the sire has a
greater influence in the external form of the joint produce than does
the dam, but this belief has also had its influence in determining
breeders of cross breds to use the pure bred sire on the ordinary stock
of the country, rather than the reverse way. There is no doubt that
apart from the improvement in the general quality of the produce of the
pure bred sire there results a general uniformity of the young stock,
which is a great recommendation when they are placed on the market
either as stores, or when fattened for the butcher or bacon curer. This
uniformity of type and character in the young stock would be more
noticeable still if the buyers of the pure bred sires were to continue
their purchases from the same herds, providing that the owners of them
were sufficiently careful in avoiding incestuous breeding.

So many people appear to be content with the knowledge that the sire
which they are purchasing has a recorded pedigree and is a pure bred
sire eligible for entry in the herd book of its breed, but they forget
that it is possible in the crossing of two pedigree animals of a similar
breed to obtain as great a mixture of blood and points as in the mating
of two cross-breds or two come-by-chances. Uniformity in a herd, stud,
or flock can only be rendered comparatively certain by the continued use
of sires of similar breeding. In making a compound, its character is
determined by the proportion of the various ingredients used in its
manufacture. So it is in the breeding of stock, those points which are
most predominant in proportion in the blood of the sire and dam will, on
the average, be represented in an equal degree in the joint produce.