212 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



had a great deal to do with clearing up the atmosphere in the hog rings 

 at the Iowa State Fair. That judge was plainly talked to and he has 

 never judged again. Mostly we had good men to judge, but once in 

 awhile they were not up to the times in judging with the standard of the 

 hog at the present time. I don't know one Poland China breeder outside 

 of Mr. Blackford that came to the Fair in the early days that comes out 

 now with Poland Chinas. B. R. Vale attended most of the time with 

 his Chester Whites. They pretty nearly all dropped out. Got rich and 

 quit, all but me. I would like to see the three-judge system working — two 

 judges and a referee. I have seen it worked where it was hard to tell 

 which was the best one, and it worked satisfactorily. 



There being no discussion following Mr. Swallow's paper, Mr. 

 Hakes read his paper on the "Outlook for Hog Raising from a 

 Breeder's Standpoint." 



HOG RAISING FROM A BREEDER'S STANDPOINT. 



W. R. HAKES, WILLIAMSBUI^G, lA. 



Our Secretary has assigned me to the work of a prophet, but all I can 

 do is to judge the future by the past, which most of us know has many 

 ups and downs, such as cholera, sore mouth, bad March weather, such as 

 we had last March, and losses in many ways to try our hearts and 

 pocketbooks. Yet with all of these we, as hog breeders, have done as 

 well as the breeders of any other stock. But to me the future looks 

 bright to the breeder of pure bred stock, and especially the hog breeder 

 of the present and future who uses good judgment and good food, as a 

 successful breeder must always have a supply of both. 



This is a large world and the American hog finds its way to the most 

 remote parts of civilization, and it is to us of the Central West, and will 

 be for all time to come, to furnish fat back or lard hogs for the world. 

 The breeder of the corn belt will always have an advantage, for the corn 

 belt is very small compared with the vast country now being opened up 

 in the United States by irrigation, and the vast and fertile plains of Can- 

 ada, the extreme North, South and West, that will produce an abundance 

 of grass for horses, cattle and sheep. But as we all know, the final end 

 of the hog is the pork barrel. He must have a fat producing food, and 

 there is nothing so cheap as corn, with a little mill feed to balance the 

 ration. The commercial corn of the world comes from eight States, and 

 the outer rim of many of these eight States produce but little more than 

 enough for home consumption, so we must count on those eight States 

 furnishing the commercial world with pork and lard. Then with the won- 

 derful increase of population by natural increase and immigration of mil- 

 lions from the old world to the United States, it surely means dollars to 

 the hog raiser and breeder. In the first place, the demand for the hog 

 produce on the market is the best that has prevailed for several years. 

 The demand is a broad one and reaches across the water. There seems to 



