302 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



breeding business will be on a better and more substantial foundation. 

 I am yours for better methods. 



In the general talk which followed there was a healthy airing 

 of the nndesirahle practices that have grown into the ]nanner of 

 conduct of public sales. 



MY IDEA OF A PORK HOG. 



CHARLES J. FAWCETT, SPKIXGDALE, IOWA. 



It M^ould appear after all these years of intelligent care and breeding, 

 even yet there is some difference in opinion as to the proper type of a 

 pork hog. He has been raised from the plane of the veriest savage, un- 

 sought except when hunted like any other wild beast, to that of a bene- 

 factor contributing a wide varieJty of meats, among them the most tooth- 

 some known to the epicure, and other products essential to the best 

 tables, to commerce and the trades. The hog's disposition has also 

 yielded to the influence of good breeding and changed from that of an 

 outlaw ready for conflict with man or beast, to the peaceable tempera- 

 ment belonging with propriety to the barnyard resident. His confirma- 

 tion has been moulded by skillful methods from bony, angular, uncouth- 

 ness into a structure of massive width, depth and thickness, affording a 

 marvelous yield of pork and lard. This improvement in type and confor- 

 mation of the "porker" has been in progress all these ages until a few 

 years ago the breeders were halted in their progress by the cry from the 

 pork producer, "Stop! you have gone far enough; you are producing a hog 

 too small in bone, too short in body, and which does not impart size and pro- 

 lificacy to the offspring. He is a beautiful creature to look at, will knock 

 the 'persimmons' at fairs, and will attain size enough under a force sys- 

 tem of feeding; but the question arises: Are these methods of feeding 

 practical for the pork producer at large to follow for the most profit? No 

 sooner had this complaint become prevalent until we faced about in 

 this road of scientific improvement and progress, and went to the other 

 extreme — went back to the type we were improving on a decade or two 

 ago. 



And now we see in swine papers headlines something like these: "The 

 Big Type;" "Big as a Norman Horse;" "Four Inches Higher Than a 

 Kerosene Barrel" some "Six Inches Higher Than a Kerosene Barrel;" 

 "More Size, More Bone, Our Motto," etc. It seems that the American 

 people are extremists. They have an uncontrollable desire for abnormal 

 things, be it great or small. 



It is not only so with the porcine tribe. We see this craze for certain 

 fads in other lines of breeding. Take for instance the short-horn people 

 who emphasized the one great point of color, discriminating against a 

 roan until they had brought great damage to the breed. But the tide has 

 changed and now the roans are sought for. 



And just now there is danger in the Shropshire sheep business, lest 

 too much stress be placed upon the well covered heads at the expense 

 of the mutton form. If this line of breeding be indulged in too long it 



