In 1913 an investigation was started at the Iowa experiment station in ' the laboratories of the animal husbandry section, which aimed toward aiding in a genetic analysis of the belt pattern in Hampshire swine. The crosses, which have already involved many hundreds of pigs, have dealt entirely with the Duroc-Jersey and the Hampshire breeds. The breed standard describes the Hampshires as "black with the exception of a white belt encircling the body, including the fore legs," while the Duroc-Jersey is described as being "cherry red without other admixtures." The white belt of the Hampshire is far from being a fixed character, however, and many pigs continue to come with only partial or imperfect belts, or even with no white whatever. This is true in spite of rigid selection for belts by the breeders. Our work with this belt pattern has shown it to be complex in genetic make-up and no report can be made on its hereditary behavior at this time.

The purpose of this paper is to touch briefly upon certain phases of color inheritance in swine as already recorded in various published accounts, and to report in greater detail some new data on the relationship between black and red swine.