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Show Hybrid Hogs Produce Super Meat I i Development of a super meat I yielding hybrid hog by the application appli-cation of the same inbreeding methods meth-ods that produced hybrid corn is the goal of farm authorities. Thirteen state experiment stations are cooperating in what is known as the Regional Swine Breeding laboratory, George A. Montgomery writes in Capper's Farmer. They are inbreeding some of the more popular breeds with the hope of establishing superior types. In this they are following the methods of those who developed inbred parent stock for modern hybrid corn. "The hog men are little further advanced in their program than corn men were 15 or 20 years ago," Mr. Montgomery points out. "They have their inbrcris, but the work of main in his herd: 1. Sows must be able to produce large litters of live pigs. 2. A high percentage of pigs born alive must survive to market age. 3. Pigs must gain rapidly from birth to market weight. 4. Feed requirements re-quirements for each unit of gain must be low. 5. Body form must be such as to produce high yields of the most desirable cuts of pork. "He has succeeded in fixing the last three characteristics so some of his lines and crosses of these lines excel purebred Polands that have been propagated by ordinary breeding methods. However, inbreeding in-breeding lowers vitality and, to a lesser extent, fertility, and crossing two unrelated inbred lines of the same breed does not produce the hybrid vigor that comes when two breeds are crossed. Winters cx- I:. L -.; ' ...S .', , , i New type Minnesota liyhrltl hog. combining them to see which ones nick has hardly started. Minnesota and Iowa, for example, have I crossed Inbred lines of Poland I Chinas, with certain elements In tho results highly encouraging; others distinctly disappointing. I "At the Minnesota station, Dr. M. L. Winters, working with Poland 1 Chinas, has saved only individuals that beat combine live economically economical-ly desirable characteristics. To re- |