This term has a varying meaning to different persons. There are those who term a pig a cross-bred unless it be bred from parents of recorded pedigree, or those which possess pedigrees capable of registration. Others claim that a cross-bred is any pig which is bred indiscriminately from boar and sow of no particular type or breeding--in fact common pigs of the country; whilst still others declare that the title of cross-bred can be legitimately applied only to a pig whose parents were of two different pure breeds in contradistinction to a pig sired by a pure bred boar, and from a common sow, or the diverse way. It is not for us to determine the knotty point, but we may venture the opinion that the two first definitions of a cross-bred are not convincing to us, since in order to produce a cross-bred it is necessary to have a sire, or a dam, or both of defined breeds. Probably the most correct definition of a cross-bred animal is one bred from the mating of sire and dam of two distinct breeds, but the term is now loosely applied to an animal begotten by a sire or from a dam of pedigree breeding, the other parent being of no particular breed. This system of breeding has become somewhat common owing to the comparatively small outlay required in the purchase of a boar as compared with the purchase of both boar and sows, and also to the belief which is general that a greater improvement in the produce is noticeable when the boar is pure bred and the sows of ordinary or no particular breed, than if the sows are pure bred and the boar a common bred one. In addition to this there is the important point that the pure bred boar should be able to beget at least fifty litters in a year whereas the pure bred sow will not produce more than two litters annually, so that the advantage obtainable from the outlay on one pure bred boar is twenty-five times as great as is possible from the purchase of a pure bred sow. There is also another advantage to the owner of a boar who has only a limited number of sows, he can allow his neighbours to make use of his boar on payment of a liberal service fee, which combined will partially pay for the prime cost of the boar.