SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART VI. 217 



face, and when I received him he had white a third of the way up the 

 nose. I called his attention to this, and he said that he did not think 

 that I would object to the white on his face, and that I was the only man 

 who had questioned his integrity. Now, if he had been careful in his 

 description there would have been no question. As I said before, it is the 

 little things which must be looked after. That spot of white was a small 

 thing, but it was large enough to me to make me think I did not get the 

 pig described to me. 



It is my duty to my patrons, as a breeder, to attend to the breeding 

 of my sows, so that I may know to a certainty what they are bred to and 

 when due to farrow. It is my duty to oversee the feeding operation and 

 not trust them to a hired man, who has no interest outside his mcnthly 

 salary. 



The guaranteeing of animals is so closely related to the duties and 

 obligations of a breeder that I would make it a part of them. The ques- 

 tion arises, shall we sell our hogs with or without guarantee? Taking the 

 latter up first, I will treat it about this way. For instance, I have a cus- 

 tomer for a pig, and I say: "Here is this pig; I will take so much for 

 him, but will place no guarantee on him; while I believe he is all right in 

 every way, you must take your own chances." While they were not worded 

 exactly that way, I have seen guarantees in public sale catalogues that 

 amounted to about that. 



There is only one thing that I can see in favor of this method, and that 

 is, when the sale is over the breeder knows where he is at. He knows 

 that he is not obliged to take any of the animals back if they do prove 

 to be non-breeders. But he must be content to sell at lower values. 



Taking up the other side, and I think the most popular side, I believe 

 that the guarantee should be absolute — no breeder, no sale. But in selling 

 males or open sows I believe a breeder should have one recourse. And 

 that is, he should have a chance to try them himself, and if they then fail 

 to breed he should pay back the purchase price. And if shipped away 

 from home he should pay the transportation charges. And if he proved 

 a breeder in his hands, to return him to the purchaser and let the pur- 

 chaser pay transportation charges. If the animal was of only ordinary 

 merit, I would let purchaser return pedigree to me and sell the animal on 

 the market, and I would remit the balance of purchase price. 



In selling bred sows is where I think the guarantee should be the 

 strongest. In buying a bred sow I am paying one-half to two-thirds the 

 purchase price for the litter. That is what I am buying the sow for. 

 And I think it the seller's duty to make good if the sow prove not to be 

 in pig. I believe we would save ourselves lots of trouble and expense if 

 we would adopt the plan of selling nothing but what had passed over and 

 was safe. If we sell anything that is not safe, we had better keep it until 

 it has passed over, with the understanding that if it proved not safe to 

 that service that there is to be no sale. 



I believe the buyer has some duties and obligations resting on him in 

 his manner of care and feeding, especially when he is buying untried pigs 

 early in the fall. I once sold a pig in September, and about two months 

 later get a letter from the party stating that the pig was bleeding and 



