244 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



DOES THE FARMER OR FEEDER DEMAND A STRONGER BONE 

 AND BACK THAN IS PRODUCED BY THE BREEDER OF TODAY? 



J. A. BENSON, PRIMGHAR, lA. 



That no business men are more alive to the demands of their custom- 

 ers, or more skillful in supplying them, than the breeders of registered 

 swine of today, is attested by the magnitude of the industry, its rapid 

 increase and the appreciative prices he receives from the progressive 

 farmer and feeder. 



A few years ago the common or modest breeder feared to offer his 

 product at auction to farmers and feeders only, and many high-class pigs 

 were sold to head good herds at $20 to $25, even when pork was as high 

 in the open market as now. 



When he paid $50 for a brood sow, farmers thought he needed a 

 guardian. Now farmers and breeders who do not record any hogs carry 

 sales along at averages of $40 each for good offerings, and pay up to $80 

 and $90 for brood sows, and the breeder who thinks to get the good ones 

 at low prices because only farmers are likely to be at the sale "reckons 

 without his host." 



Why is it often we hear no more of the prize winners? Farmers who 

 do not advertise or record their stock often buy them and consign them 

 to less conspicuous but not less useful lives. What do farmers and feeders 

 demand? 



Consult the advertisements of representative live stock journals and 

 let us see what the breeder of today offers, and you will know. 



Of twenty-one advertisements of swine in a leading weekly, only 

 three mention bone or backs specifically. 



Of forty-three in another weekly, well known among you, only five say 

 anything of back or bone specifically. 



In a leading monthly swine journal, one hundred twenty-five ad- 

 vertisements in one issue have only twenty-five calling attention to these 

 very necessary and common points. 



Is this because the breeder is afraid or unwilling to draw attention 

 on account of weakness of bone or back? By no means. These points 

 are today the strongest points in many herds, and I speak advisedly from 

 actual observation of herds in their homes in eight States, besides exhibits 

 at the greatest swine shows of the world and the Iowa State Fair every 

 year since 1892, when I say to you that few breeders bring out mature 

 animals weak in bone or back, and few such are retained in the herds. 



Breeders have for years given to back and loin fourteen points out of 

 one hundred, and to feet and legs ten points. Probably the back and loin 



