SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART VI. 245 



approximate 14 per cent of the market value of the hog. The feet and 

 legs if broken down mean much more than 10 per cent when the animal 

 is thrown out as a cripple, but it is not the production of the breeder of 

 today that supplies the cripples, chubs, fatties, rough packing or "skips 

 and culls." It is the product cf immature parents, dry yards and im- 

 proper feeding. The result of parsimony in using good blood and good 

 care. 



I grant you the man who has swine weak in backs or bone decries the 

 breeder's herd for lack, principally because he is too parsimonious to buy 

 the better ones, too shiftless to take care of his own and too poor to enjoy 

 another's success. 



We will probably never all agree as to the best kind of hog to raise to 

 suit our eye until all of us shall have the same preference in colors, 

 shapes and size. 



Among roses some of us prefer red, some white, some pink, and others 

 yellow. Some will always wish for black or blue roses. 



Convinced against his will, man is of the same opinion still. Markets 

 have changed in the three-quarters of a century of the American swine 

 industry. 



We no longer need to drive our hogs to Cincinnati to market and 

 slaughter them only in cold weather. 



From demanding a strong, mature hog to get to market with a two 

 years' crop of the wood lot and corn field, we now profit most by furnish- 

 ing the quick growing, juicy pig, whose flesh has not been hardened by 

 successive fasts, not increased in cost by a long maintenance ration, the 

 risk of disease, the use of house room and capital invested. 



The top lots of the market vary some in size, according to the good 

 feeder and his preference, for the most successful feeders are not plently 

 enough to be on the market every day, and one man's culls if well fed 

 out and offered fat when most others are too thin, may top the market 

 cne day when much better ones sell lower on another day, but this sam- 

 ple day's market is fairly representative of what the market now demands. 



The highest priced class is "Shipping and Select" — reaching the top 

 price of $6.42 per hundred weight — was a lot of seventy-two head aver- 

 aging 255 pounds, while the lowest in this class were a 200-pound 

 lot and sold at $6.20 per hundred weight. 



The average weight of this highest class of hogs being 225 pounds 

 each, with an average price of $6.30 per hundred weight. 



In the "heavy packing" class, determined not so much by their weight 

 as by the age and quality, the top lot averaged 349 pounds and brought 

 $6.10, which was 32 cents per hundred weight, or about 80 cents per head 

 less than the top in shipping and select class. 



A lot of sixty-five head that averaged 525 pounds in this heavy packing 

 class sold at $5.80 per hundred weight, and a lot averaging 453 pounds 

 brought only $5.50 per hundred weight, 92 cents per hundred weight, or 

 $4.07 per head below top shipping and select. 



In the light grade class $6.15 per hundred weight was the highest 

 for a lot weighing 195 pounds. 



Pigs and roughs, which are the lowest class, because of the imma- 

 turity and leanness of the one and the overmaturity and overproportion 



