298 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The first class is perhaps the more difficult to manage, as making a sale 

 involves not only some judgment of human character, -but the exercise 

 of diplomacy and business tact. A man who comes to inspect stock should 

 be treated cordially and shown the ordinary business courtesy that is 

 extended toward a customer of any commercial establishment. He has 

 a right to receive all information concerning pedigree or individual char- 

 acteristics that will enable him to make a good selection. It is well, too, 

 to be able to advise him on the points of feeding, care and handling of 

 the stock, as well as what matings are advisable and what are not. The 

 breeder who understands the feeding qualities and habits of growth of his 

 own stock may be of great service to the buyer in all these matters. 



After quality the most important element in making a sale is price, and 

 this should be based on actual merit. We are presuming that the 

 breeder has, before the commencement of the selling season, culled out 

 all inferior animals and separated them from those which are to be offered 

 for sale for breeding purposes. Even when this has been done there 

 will remain wide differences of merit, and an equitable scale of prices 

 should be fixed on these. Of course those on which the highest figure 

 will be placed will be the ones that have most promise of winning honors 

 in the show ring. As a fact, any of us will be lucky if he has even one 

 of this description. The lowest price will be that set on the animal to be 

 used in the ordinary farm pork raising herd. And it is well not to let 

 even these be of a too ordinary character. The better the animals we 

 send out for any purpose the greater our chances of building up a patron- 

 age that will come back from year to year. No man should be per- 

 mitted to buy an animal that has any fault or flaw without being fully 

 advised of it. Once having set a range of prices it is not a good plan 

 to deviate from them. In order to be able to do this we must ourselves 

 have a perfect understanding of the values and be able to point out the 

 differences without fail. Doing this gives the buyer confidence and also 

 helps to spread a knowledge that is all too scarce. 



While I believe in treating a prospective buyer well at all times, I 

 also believe that I am in turn entitled to the same courtesy. There is no 

 satisfaction in dealing with the man who, after taking up half a day of 

 my time in looking over everything on the farm and talking of every 

 conceivable thing on earth except what he came for, haggles over price, 

 finds fault, cites herds where he can buy cheaper, and so on with the 

 entire list that most of you could fill out yourselves. I want to give a 

 man value received, and I want him to go away feeling that he has 

 made a deal that is as good for him as for me. Under these circum- 

 stances I am justified in expecting him to return when he is again 

 in need of stock. It is a good plan to keep an accurate record of sales 

 so that the patron who comes year after year may be assured of new 

 blood if he insists on that point. 



The mail order buyer is not always easy to sell to because he is 

 pretty sure to describe, in the list of requirements, a hog that would be a 

 sweepstakes winner anywhere. So it is not a bad idea to give him a 

 careful as well as truthful description of whatever you have that you 

 think would answer his purposes. Any extravagant descriptions are apt 



