300 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



With this system comes many follies that must eventually be remedied 

 if the best interests of the breeding fraternity is subserved, I will attempt 

 to touch upon some of these follies as I see them, with the hope that 

 it will be for the best interests of all who are engaged in this great work. 



One of the follies of the public sale system, is tae stimulation of prices, 

 above their real value. Not that any breeder would intentionally do an 

 injustice to his brother breeder, but with the desire to help in his 

 brothers sale, he has been lead to bid upon animals beyond their real 

 value, and in such cases the purchaser is often the loser, and through 

 this practice young men who seek to be breeders are led to purchase 

 animals, whose quality does not justify the price paid. When these 

 young men find that they have been mislead by this method, they be- 

 come discouraged and those who might otherwise have been good breed- 

 ers, in time, drop by the wayside. I am glad to say that this practice 

 is not endorsed by the better class of breeders, but is sometimes done in 

 public sales. 



I believe that this method should be discouraged by every breeder 

 that has the interest of his breed at heart. I am an admirer of a high 

 class individual of any breed of swine, and am always glad to see the 

 same appreciated by other breeders while that individual is in the sale 

 ring. 



But the method that is sometimes followed by some prominent breed- 

 ers, of making a lengthy statement, dwelling upon the qualities of an 

 individual in the sale ring, when in fact that individual is very ordinary, 

 should be discouraged. This is frequently done in order to stimulate 

 new beginners to purchase individuals that they themselves would not 

 want. This practice is detrimental to the breeding business in general 

 and must react to the detriment of the party making the sale. 



Another folly that has come very prominently to the front in recent 

 years is the desire to make a high average regardless of the merits of 

 the stock being sold. High averages is all right when the quality of the 

 stock justifies the price, but when a hog sells for $1,000 or $2,000 when 

 in fact they would have been well sold at that many hundred, must in- 

 evitably react on every branch of the breeding business. 



Almost all breeds of pure bred stock have at one time or another 

 gone through these extreme conditions, and I believe that every true 

 breeder should use his influence to discourage these practices, 1 believe 

 that the time has come when every true breeder should seek to produce 

 a high class offering, making this his prime object rather than making 

 a high average. When these conditions exists, high averages will be the 

 result of real merit and will come of their own accord, and will be a 

 stimulus rather than a detriment. 



Another folly that has come with the public sale system in recent 

 years is, that if I pui'chase of you, you are under obligations to come 

 and purchase of me, regardless of whether said breeder is in need of 

 said stock, this I consider is a mistaken idea, no breeder should be ex- 

 pected to buy simply because some other breeder bought of him. Should 

 this system be followed to its logical conclusion it would be better for 

 all of us to put our surplus stock upon the market, but I do not feel that 



