TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 291 



Fixed typt' is the first essential in the production of any and every 

 breed of swine. The breeder who has not the fixed type in mind will 

 never accomplish any great work in the production of his favorite breed. 

 In other words, the breeder who favors the larger and coarser strains 

 should not deviate from his ideal. He should not use a breeding animal 

 of another type and follow that with still another type of animal, only 

 to find out later that he has no fixed type in his herd. Uniformity is 

 one of the first essentials in breeding up a herd. One man may favor 

 the larger strains, another the big medium, and another the smaller and 

 more showy type, but whatever his idea is he should bend his every 

 energy in that direction. The breeder who goes from one extreme to 

 another can never hope to have that fixed type in his herd, and it is a 

 question in my mind whether he will ever make any great success as a 

 breeder. 



Mr. Allen was freely called upon to defend the expressions of his 



paper, and did so so successfully as to show the strength of the posi- 

 tions taken. 



^Ir. B. R. Vale, of Bonaparte, Iowa, who had been assigned a 

 place on the program, was unable to attend, but forwarded to the 

 secretary, who read it, his paper on the subject. 



THE KICKER IX THE HOG BUSINESS. 



BY B. R. VALE. 



Primarily speaking the kicker is born such rather than made. This 

 element is ore of heredity and may be cultivated or modified by environ- 

 ment. 



We notice some of the things that enhance this condition in the ranks 

 of breeders generally and in the swine business in particular. The field 

 of stock-broker breeders, bankers and professional men, following their 

 vocations in person and having a country seat managed by proxy and 

 u?ed as headquarters for raising a few swine and for congregating as 

 many more frcm other breeders as a number of well displayed ads in 

 agricultural papers will justify, is one of the fertile sources for cultivat- 

 ing the pessimistic germ of kicker in the hog business." 



Lack of personal attention to, and expert knowledge of every detail on 

 the part of the attendant is the secret of the disadvantages of this method. 

 The novice in swine husbandry is another source of discouragement and 

 distrust to the innocent mail-order purchaser of breeding stock. All must 

 have a beginning, must obtain a schooling and become expert in chosen 

 vocations, but this should not be at the expense of souring our early 

 patrons and engendering the microbe, "the kicker." 



l2ck cf experience and knowledge of the business rather than any in- 

 tentional wrong-doing is the source of compla'nt in this case. The other 

 extreme is perhaps equally pernicious. A breeder having enjoyed a merit- 

 torious reputation for years endeavors to retire on his laurels or to trans- 

 mit. his trade to "C D. & Co." — "successor to the noted breeder A. B." 



