598 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc 



tation and trade, not only slii|)i)ing pigs and hogs to every state in 

 the Union, but annually shipping to foreign countries. 



The route has not always been strewn with roses by any means, 

 but has been rugged and quite rough at times, and when I glance 

 back over the 30 years I almost Avonder that I never gave up. 1 

 was looked upon as one who was "batty" for paying what I did 

 for my lirst pair of pigs, and was the cause of nmny slurring remark's 

 in my early days for trying to raise better pigs than the scrubs of 

 our neighborhood, yet this had no effect on me or my purpose, and 

 I simply grew in the business as I grew in knowledge regarding it. 

 I well remember how I first made my appearance in the show ring. 

 It was at the Illinois State Fair where I lirst went to conquer, but, 

 like many others, I met the enemy and was his. It was there that 

 I first met your worthy president, Mr. W. C. Norton, and will never 

 forget how my heart sank as the judges passed my pens only to 

 glance and then go on and place all the blue ribbons on the Norton 

 herd. While I then saw all my hopes go a glimmering I did not giv:^ 

 up nor did I abuse the judges or the fair association, but made up 

 my mind to come again another year, and to come a little stronger, 

 and in this way as the years came and went, I began to see that there 

 was something in the future, and as I began to generally get inside 

 the money in the i^rize list I was encouraged to still further efforts, 

 till after a few years we began to get at least our share of the blue 

 ribbons at the leading shows, and thus for some 15 years we followed 

 the great shows, and finally at the World's Fair at Chicago in 

 1893 we met and defeated both England and Canada, as well as 

 America, b}^ winning the championship herd prize for the best herd 

 of Berkshires over one year old. This gave us such a boom that we 

 have never been able to fill our orders since, and have never made 

 a general show since, and have made but two single entries at any 

 shows since. We sell many show hogs and pigs each season wliicli 

 go into the hands of prominent breeders throughout the country, 

 and we like this better than to follow the show ring ourselves. 



You may say that all this hard work and time is too much to give 

 to the breeding of hogs, but how can any business be built up with- 

 out hard work and lots of it? Anyone that is really interested in 

 the work can do fully as w'ell if he will enter the business with a 

 determination to stick to it. 



HOW WE HANDLE OUR HOGS. 



Many breeders use a building called a hog house, where the whole 

 herd is kept. Our method is very ditferent and we prefer the indi- 

 vidual house with plenty of yard room, so we took a field of clover 

 of 20 acres and fenced a narrow lane through the center, and then 

 divided the ten acres on either side into lots of an acre each and 

 put a little house 8x8 square in each lot. All fences are of woven 

 wire 30 inches high and each lot is an acre, and each lot contains 

 a sow and her litter, thus giving her plenty of room for the much- 

 needed exercise, and all the grass she and her litter can use, and more, 

 too. These houses are all neatly made and set in rows and ai'e all 

 painted alike and the field looks like a little city. Houses are all 

 numbered. Houses are built double-boarded with four-inch air space 



