TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 715 



THE NATIONAL SWINE MAGAZINE. 



FBEEPORT, ILL. 



It may be that there have been better shows of good hogs than that 

 held at Des Moines this year, but to try to compare this one with the 

 other would only result in dispute, for those who attended this year's 

 Iowa State Fair are firm in their belief that it was the best they ever 

 .paw and they have seen a good many, so they say. Going from one class 

 to another, the close student of swine shows was impressed with the fact 

 that the western breeder is paying more attention every year to the fit- 

 ting of his hogs. There were animals on parade there that gave every 

 evidence of having had close attention every day from the time they were 

 farrowed, and come to look into the record of the best showmen, they 

 have made their records on fitting; for often there was nothing between 

 two animals save the beauty with which they were put into the ring. 

 If it were possible to feed two hogs exactly alike, both being the same in 

 conformation and type and one as good as the other in all sections, one 

 being fitted to the pink of condition and the other set down in the ring 

 with poor grooming showing all over him, then the task of pointing out 

 what good grooming and bad grooming was, would be easy. 



Beginning with the Poland China department and continuing down 

 through the Durocs and Berkshires, Hampshires, Tamworths, Yorkshires 

 and other breeds, there was a remarkable advancement show^n in the man- 

 ner of fitting and grooming. The way the hogs were put before the judges 

 was greatly improved as well. Last year the swine judging pavilion was 

 not completed, and when the hogs were set down before the judges, they 

 were each hurdled into a location by their owners or attendants; but 

 when the porcine element showed up this year they were agreeably sur- 

 prised by seeing that the pavilion had been finished, that in it there were 

 pens for each hog that w-as driven into the ring in each class. These pens 

 were arranged about the sides of the arena and, between them and the 

 seats which slope upward to the back of the pavilion, there is an alley 

 or broad walk, in which the onlookers may inspect the classes for them- 

 selves from the outside of the arena. This makes the Iowa swine pavil- 

 ion about the leader among this sort of structures. It has always been 

 hard for the judge to get to his work among a lot of spectators in the 

 show ring and with the hogs placed about the ring so irregularly. This 

 year the work was much easier than before. 



As regards the number of hogs shown compared to last year we might 

 say there were hardly as many. Several causes could bring this about. 

 Firstly, and the reason that seems to us to be of the most importance is 

 the fact that stares one in the face that there are not as many hogs in the 

 country as there were last year. This condition is as true of the breeders 

 who are working for the betterment of their herds for show purposes as 

 it is of the men who have been growing solely for the scales. The rather 



