CHAPTER IV
DENTITION AND AGE OF PIGS
Although the majority of pig sellers may claim to be, and may be able to substantiate the claim to be, equally as honest as the majority of others in trade, yet there may be a small minority who are apt to attempt to palm off pigs as being older than they really are. It is most annoying when you are anxious to purchase pigs of say six or seven months old which are quite ready to be quickly fattened, to have pigs of four or five months old which continue to make growth instead of flesh, so that they are not ready for killing until two or three months after they are required for conversion into bacon.
Although the object of the Council of the Smithfield Club is to prevent fraud of a different character, i.e. the exhibition in classes limited to certain ages of pigs of an age greater than that given on the entry form, yet the following table showing the normal state of the dentition of pigs at certain fixed ages will enable purchasers to discover whether or not the seller has attempted to deceive him. It may at once be admitted that there will be a limited number of cases in which the state of dentition of pigs is abnormal, but after examining the teeth of some thousands of pigs during the past sixty years, we have no hesitation in asserting that more than half, at least, of the variations from the normal are allayed dentition. It is claimed that a man of experience is quite able to arrive at the approximate age of a pig by its development and appearance; some few persons may have that instinctive knowledge more or less fully developed, but this examination of the state of dentition is of the greatest possible assistance in arriving at the actual age of the pig, particularly desirable as it is in case of a difference of opinion between buyer and seller.
The following are the conditions of the state of dentition to which all pigs have to conform ere they are allowed to compete for the prizes offered by the Smithfield Club at their annual shows:—
"Pigs having their corner permanent incisors cut will be considered as exceeding six months.
"Pigs having their permanent tusks more than half up will be considered as exceeding nine months.
"Pigs having their central permanent incisors up, and any of the first three permanent molars cut, will be considered as exceeding twelve months.
"Pigs having their lateral temporary incisors shed, and the permanents appearing will be considered as exceeding fifteen months.
"Pigs having their lateral permanent incisors fully up will be considered as exceeding eighteen months."