TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART VII " 295 



portunity to play and work on the duplicity of the average swine breeder. 

 This trotting horse jockey had his residence in an eastern state; he 

 named his Poland China boar after a well known stallion, a king of the 

 turf. This trotting horse man raised a fine crop of pigs by this great 

 boar and conceived the idea of selling them at public auction. This was 

 the first public auction of pure bred swine ever held in America of 

 which we have any knowledge. "Plugging" as horse men term the word, 

 was inaugurated at the birth of this system of selling. This eastern 

 breeder communicated with a then prominent Iowa breeder with whom 

 I was well acquainted, and offered to sell him prior to his first public 

 sale the best boar pig in the offering for $.50; but with the further un- 

 fK>rstanding that the Iowa breeder was to attend this initial sale in 

 the cast and bid off this same $50 boar at whatever price he was com- 

 pelled to. The letter further stated that the seller would pay all ex- 

 penses of the Iowa breeder in attending the sale. The eastern breeder 

 further stated by letter that the idea was to "catch suckers." The Iowa 

 breeder became a party to this scheme and did attend the sale and did 

 bid off the $50 boar at $270. Another Iowa breeder attending the same 

 sale bid $265 on this same boar, but as I did not see his letter do not 

 know but what he may have been the sucker. Another Iowa breeder pur- 

 chased five head at this sale, privately, prior to the sale, at an average 

 price of $40 each; but the reported price in the sale of these same five 

 range from $95 to $150 each. 



Now, behold what a groat flame a little fire kindleth. The $150 and 

 $270 prices were entirely too modest. The heat was on. The experi- 

 ment had been made and fully demonstrated that the swine breeder was 

 an easy mark. Soon the auction sale became the popular method of 

 selling swine. Prices went skyward. New records for high prices were 

 made at each succeeding sale until as much as one, two, three and five 

 thousand dollars became common prices. When individuals could not be 

 found green enough to buy at these prices, companies were formed to 

 take stock in $5,000 boar and $2,000 sows. This condition existed until 

 the bubble burst, and oh, what a fall! Many of the small breeders who 

 had purchased or taken stock in some of these high priced hogs of noble 

 birth were forced to sell their farms in order to pay their notes. In fact, 

 before the bubble finally burst the kings and queens of the breed could 

 not be produced fast enough, notwithstanding the great rapidity with 

 which swine multiply. It became alleged that because of the scarcity of 

 these $5,000 kings that one of them that was sold for some $5,000 had 

 been dead for weeks prior to the selling at auction, and a substitute boar 

 had been imposed instead. Lengthy litigation followed this transaction, 

 the said to be dead hog was resurrected from the grave, and his bones 

 and head introduced in court as evidence. The seller of the dead hog 

 was rejected from the record, but has been healed and is now a promi- 

 nent breeder of Berkshires. 



Farmers read of these crooked and nefarious deals through the agri- 

 cultural and live stock press, and very naturally concluded that all men 

 engaged in breeding this breed were scoundrels. Hence they very natur- 

 ally turned toward the red hog — the Chester White — for, as yet, these 



