A pig with a comparatively long body and with good depth and width should be selected. It should stand squarely on short legs of good bone. There should be no wrinkles on the body.
A good heart girth indicates plenty of room for the lungs and denotes a strong constitution. Quality is shown in fineness of bone and hair. Too fine a bone should be avoided. To judge type one must be familiar with the requirements of the various breeds. Above all, the pig selected should be a good feeder.
=Care and management.= After the pig or pigs are secured, the next problem is one of care and management. Every pig club member should keep in mind that pigs require a variety of clean food, clean water, exercise and, a clean bed if they are to thrive and be profitable. Being a large feeder the pig will eat dirty food from a dirty trough if no other is offered. On this account it is often thought that he will get along under any sort of circumstances. Such is not the case. No animal will respond more quickly to careful, intelligent treatment than the pig.
=Houses.= Hogs must be housed in dry, warm, clean, and well-ventilated houses. Sunshine is a very important agent in disinfecting and warming the hog house. The well-established breeder may have a colony house, but for the beginner the individual house of the A or square type is to be recommended.
During the summer a good pasture will provide cheap, clean feed, exercise and a clean bed. It may be necessary, however, to provide a shelter from the direct rays of the sun. This may be furnished by a frame of poles covered with straw or corn stalks.
=Sanitation.= It is much easier to keep a pig healthy than it is to cure him after he becomes sick. Cleanliness, proper feed, disinfection of houses and animals, together with plenty of sunlight, ventilation and dryness of quarters, will help to keep a pig in good health.
If care is taken that there are no unnecessary cracks or corners in which filth may accumulate, it will be easy to keep houses, troughs and feeding floors sanitary. A good disinfectant should be used regularly in the pens. Five parts of crude carbolic acid in one hundred parts of water is recommended. All filth should be removed before the disinfectant is applied. Once a year all buildings should be whitewashed. A pint of crude carbolic acid should be added to each three gallons of whitewash.