SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VI. 221 



to what goes on between the average hog breeder and the buyer. 

 I am not at all in a complimentary frame of mind, but, in my 

 opinion, ninety-nine per cent of the kicks that come in are due 

 to the shortcomings not of the seller but of the buyer. I don't 

 say that to flatter the swine breeders, but of course there are vari- 

 ous ways in which a man can give a breeder trouble. Here is one. 

 A man writes to three or four different breeders. He gets in due 

 time their prices. Possibly on the arrival of the first letter the 

 description of the hog and the price suit him. He sends for that 

 hog. The next day or so he receives other letters with descrip- 

 tions that are ecjually as good and the price less. What does he do? 

 On the arrival of the first hog he sets up a howl that it is not 

 up to description. I inform him in the first place that after look- 

 ing into a good many cases of this kind nearly every time the fault 

 is with him. The man who sends the hog knows a good hog better 

 than he does. So in carrying out the golden rule, the fellow at 

 the other end of the line is not always playing your game. Never- 

 theless, I strongly endorse the principle of carrying out the golden 

 rule. My experience is that swine breeders as a rule are always 

 square. Now there is another source of trouble, and I call it to your 

 attention. It is due to the fact that in some instances hogs are 

 not up to weight. You describe your hogs and possibly guess at 

 the weight and all he has to do in that case is to put the animal 

 on the scales. There may be many different opinions as to feet, 

 or head, or back, but there are no two opinions as to weight. I 

 never overstate the weight, but generally if a hog is in good shape, 

 twenty-five pounds under, and the man will be pleased if he gets 

 twenty-five pounds extra weight. The next thing is his foot. I 

 think I am a stickler on that subject because I find that there is a 

 good deal of complaint about it. To my mind there is no excuse 

 for sending to any man a hog with a poor foot. I know 3'ou are 

 not doing it, but a man does not need to be a judge of a hog to know 

 a poor foot. He sets up a howl when he gets a poor foot. Then 

 he writes the paper in which he saw the advertisement and we get 

 the abuse. I want to say again that I am not backAvard in telling 

 the buyer who wants a male hog to use on a grade herd that the 

 buyer in a great majority of eases is wrong. The seller knows a 

 good hog better than the buyer." 



Mr. Hakes said: "I would like to refer to a few cases that 

 came under my observation. I am strongly in favor of a strong 

 guarantee. We held a sale on the 18th of January guaranteeing 

 everything or money refunded, for six weeks. About ten o'clock 



