TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 335 



regard to feeding and management, although the practical part of feeding 

 and management must be learned on the farm. No one can tell anyone 

 else how to care for a herd unless he has had some experience, but if a 

 young breeder has been having trouble in any way he can get advice 

 from older breeders. Another thing is in regard to sales. That is one 

 thing that is of great benefit to the young breeder. He can compare 

 his stuff with what other breeders have there, compare his prices, and 

 if his stock is up to the standard and his prices are right, his customers 

 ought to be satisfied. If it is not up to the standard, he is the one who 

 gets the most benefit from being at the fair, for he can see for himself 

 that he must do better or he will not stay very long. And having had 

 that experience, he will come back in a year or two with a herd that 

 he is not ashamed of. 



PURE-BRED SWINE AND THE TENANT FARMER. 



Mr. S. D. Mills, of Ames, Iowa, gave an interesting address on pure- 

 bred swine and the tenant farmer. He called attention to the fact that 

 Iowa has over 30' per cent rented farms. Illinois has a large per cent. 

 Illinois and Iowa have the largest per cent of any states in the Union. 

 A large per cent of these farmers are yearly tenants. A man rents a 

 farm for one year and then moves away and some one else takes his 

 place. One reason for this is the rapid advance in the price of farm lands 

 which has caused the speculative holdings of lands and men who buy 

 farms for speculative purposes will not lease for more than a year so 

 as to be able to sell and get more for the land. There is not much 

 encouragement offered to this tenant farmer on the average farm to keep 

 any kind of live stock. He cannot afford to pay the rent and graze the 

 land and with the conditions under which we have to fai'm now he can 

 hardly go into the dairy business. It is not in the province of any tenant 

 to go into the pure-bred business. He doesn't know where he is going 

 to be and can't go ahead, but it is best for him to keep good stock. He 

 should not go out and pay the highest price for his breeding stuff, but 

 he ought to buy them of one breed, buy them pure and as near uniform 

 in type as he can and keep them so. When it comes to the males that 

 he gets to mate with the sows, that is where breeders have their oppor- 

 tunity to obtain a permanent customer by furnishing the right kind at 

 the beginning. This male that he buys should be^ a good individual of 

 as pure, strong blood lines as it is possible to get. He need not pay 

 attention to the fancy points, but to the points that mark the breed and 

 the type that he wants. He should pay particular attention to having a 

 good, vigorous, strong pig and one that will be a good economical con- 

 sumer of his feed. 



We are quite apt to quote all the good males that we can find in the 

 pedigree, but how about the other side? Are we giving it the attention 

 we should? The chances are that if the pig comes from a large litter 

 that he will be a good feeder. Our dairy friends pay as much attention 

 to the males and finding out the blood lines and producing lines of the 

 females back of them as they do in selecting the cows they put in the 



