SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART VI. 243 



doubt be intermittent revivals and much useless effort expended. Accord- 

 ing to present classifications the contests are largely within breeds, though 

 of course for championship, individual or pen, the breeds come together. 

 In this respect it is patterned after the steer classification. The object of 

 the barrow show is not, as some believe, to demonstrate the superiority 

 of one breed over another and thus annihilate all but one. There is no 

 "superior" breed, nor there never can be one. It takes them all to gratify 

 the tastes of all our people. At the same time the results of the Inter- 

 national contests from year to year will prove a lamp to the feet of those 

 who are starting up in business. 



I doubt if any feature of the International would be more popular with 

 visitors than an extensive barrow show, this for the reason that prac- 

 tically every visitor to the Fair is interested in one way or another in 

 pure-bred hogs, inasmuch as nearly all stockmen use pure-bred males. 

 This cannot be said of any other class of stock. The hog plays such an 

 important part in paying the bills on practically every farm in the corn 

 belt that few will fail not only to visit this department but to spend 

 considerable time in making comparisons. A good barrow show in my 

 opinion would have an educational value that would be second to no 

 other feature of the great International. 



Following the reading of ]\Ir. Atkinson's paper, the discussion 

 was participated in by Robt. Evans, W. B. Turner, R. J. Harding, 

 and H. M. Yoder. 



Mr. Yoder said: "Do you think that the ideal type of the 

 barrow is the type for the breeder to breed from?" 



Mr. Atkinson said: "Well, I think if the judge knows his 

 business he can shed a good deal of light on the breeder's prob- 

 lem. I got a number of letters from exhibitors and one or two 

 of them expressed the idea that you could take a second class 

 hog and cover him with fat and cover up the defects. A thor- 

 oughly practical judge could throw a good deal of light upon 

 the subject. It might go in the direction of the early maturing 

 tj'-pe and I am not sure but what that is possibly the right di- 

 rection. ' ' 



Mr. Evans said: "In regard to the classification, they have 

 already sent out notices to the secretary of the association that 

 unless their breed assists in the matter their association will be 

 cut out." 



Mr. Harding said: "I don't believe that any man would judge 

 a breeding type of hog by a barrow because I have seen hogs that 

 were really not first class hogs that when they were finished for 

 market you could not tell it at all." 



At the close of the discussion of this paper Mr. Benson read 

 the following interesting paper: 



