On the other hand, there are many practical pig keepers who make it a rule to delay the mating of their young sows beyond the eight months' age. They contend that a sow pig at eight months is not sufficiently matured to bear the strain of producing a litter of pigs when she is about one year old, and then to furnish the pigs with a sufficiency of milk to give them a good start in life. The plan which they adopt is to mate the sow when she is about a year old so that she is some sixteen months old before her family troubles commence. Another very curious reason has been recently made public by an enthusiastic novice for delaying the mating of the yelt until she is at least a year old. It is the following, that it is quite possible to ensure that the produce of young sows which have reached the age of sixteen or seventeen months ere they farrow their first litter shall possess the desired characteristics of the breed, whereas this is by no means certain if the young pigs arrive before the sow has reached that age or is about a year old. Unfortunately, we have see no attempt made to account for this alleged curious variation in the qualities inherited from a parent of about one year old and the parent which had arrived at the more matured age of about sixteen months, so that it is impossible to discover a solution of the strange problem. Therefore, we should be unable to admit the correctness of the assertion even though it was not directly in opposition to our belief which is founded on experience of a most extensive character extending over some sixty years. To aver that the power of a young sow to impress its hereditary characteristics on its young are only fully developed by deferring the arrival of the young pigs for four or five months, or until the sow is sixteen instead of twelve months old when she farrows must surely cause surprise, if not, disbelief. Perhaps the object of the propounder of the theory was to create a discussion--it could not have been to bring his name prominently before the public. Another advantage in mating the young sow so that her first litter appears when she is about a year old, her daughters will in turn farrow during the most suitable months of the year, providing of course that she herself had been farrowed in early spring or about the month of July.