216 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



gotten into the habit of calling a man a breeder who goes out and buys the 

 culls of his neighbor breeder and peddles the pigs out at $10 and $15 

 each? What is his aim? To make the most money from the least expendi- 

 ture. He has no regard to blood lines, and pedigree is only valuable 

 because it enables him to sell to better advantage. I think there are none 

 of this class of breeders present, as they do not attend swine meetings. 



What is a breeder, in the true sense? He is the man who throws all 

 his energies, his life as it were, into his work. Nothing is too good. He 

 is constantly on the alert to learn better methods and to pick up the best 

 specimens of the breed he has selected. 



And why does he breed? It is because he loves the work. He loves 

 his hogs; he watches them grow; he corrects the evils as they occur; and 

 in the fall he makes the crack sale of the season because he has the 

 goods. 



And now comes his duty to his patrons. I did not say obligations, for 

 the duties of this man are obligations to nim. The duties and obligations 

 of a breeder are so nearly a part of each individual breeder that it is hard 

 to say what would be applicable to all. What I might call a duty to you, 

 brother breeder, you may not think an obligation en ycu; and what you 

 feel an obligation I may not feel it a duty to do. The larger and 

 more common duties are all known. It is the small ones that we are apt 

 to overlook. And it is the small things in the hog business which tend 

 to success. 



I have sometimes in mind placed myself in my patron's place and asked 

 myself this question, what would you have him do? And if you will 

 follow out what your mind dictates you will be doing nearly right. Treat 

 your patron as you would have him treat you. Treat him so that when 

 he leaves you he will feel it was a pleasure to buy of you. You can not 

 treat all alike. Study human nature as well as hogs. You can not go into 

 your yards and handle your brood sows just alike. It takes more diplo- 

 macy for some than for others; and it is just so with men. 



If any dissatisfaction occurs, I would be willing to meet them more 

 than half way. We can not afford to have dissatisfied customers. When 

 a man writes me for a description of a pig, it is my duty to give it as I see 

 it. It is my duty to tell the defects as well as the good qualities. We 

 are in the habit of telling the good qualities and letting them guess at the 

 defects; or else making them so small that they are overlooked, and yet 

 large enough so that when there is a question on some point we refer to 

 our letter of description and say, there it is. Remember, he is trusting 

 to your honesty as a breeder to give him a correct description. 



And it is your duty as a breeder to give the correct breeding of the 

 animal and not guess at it; and when you have sold the pig, then, and go 

 to make out the pedigree, find that you were mistaken in the breeding and 

 have to send breeding different than in your letter of description. Then 

 you are very liable to have a dissatisfied customer, and I do not blame the 

 customer, for I have been treated that way and I did not like it very well. 



I once bought a pig on a mail order from one of our most noted 

 breeders (he does not live in Iowa), and he stated in his letter of descrip- 

 tion that the only objection in the world to him was that he had a black 



