SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART IX. 423 



DUROC JERSEYS. 



The red hog at the Iowa State Fair becomes more formidable each 

 j'ear. At the ratio that the reds have been increasing on the Polands 

 they will soon outnumber the latter breed. This year the show was 

 characteristic for some exceptionall'y strong and large classes. The 

 pig classes are always large, numbering from fifty to one hundred 

 head in a class, but this year some of the older classes were also very 

 large, and the judges had the hardest kind of a task to do justice to 

 all and not overlook some of equal merit with the winners. Mr. L. H. 

 Roberts, who has given good satisfaction on former occasions as judge 

 at Des Moines, did the judging this year, assisted by W. Z. Swallow, 

 who for over forty years has been a continuous Poland China exhibitor 

 at the Iowa State Fair. They worked hard and conscientiously, and 

 while there were some disappointed exhibitors, there was very little 

 criticism. The champion boar this year is a son of last year's champion 

 and is from the junioi; yearling class, which was about the strongest 

 class in the show. Several in this class did not get a place that ordi- 

 narily would have been winners. One of these was the Johnson Bros. 

 & Newkirk entry, which was one of the best hammed and best typed 

 Durocs in the show. The first prize aged boar was also a first prize 

 winner for the same exhibitors last year, but individual mention 

 cannot be made of all the winners, much less of worthy ones who did 

 not get a place. The show is not without lessons for the breeder and 

 future exhibitor. Although the classes were large and strong the his- 

 tory of the prize winners will show that the small breeder and the 

 one who breeds his own stock stands just as good a chance to win as 

 any. The result shows, too, that the small breeder need not be de- 

 terred from showing because some nave paid sensational or "boom" 

 prices for stock, for the paying of such prices is no assurance that the 

 owners will have a monopoly of the ribbons to the exclusion of the 

 small breeder. The most successful Iowa exhibitors are men who 

 started as poor boys and have bred their prize winners. 



CHESTER WHITES. 



The Chester White show was somewhat larger than last year and 

 made one of the best showings this breed has ever made, although 

 there were not so many exhibitors from outside the State as on some 

 former occasions. For the first time in a quarter of a century Sena- 

 tor B. R. Vale, of Bonaparte, Iowa, was not an exhibitor. He was 

 present, however, and just as active as ever in the interest of Iowa 

 swine breeders. 



BERKSHIRES. 



The Berkshire showing was not so large this year as usual, al- 

 though it is never large at Des Moines. Several prominent exhibitors 

 of last year and before were absent, while there were several new 

 ones to take their places. The showing for the most part was very 

 good, while in some classes the competition was not strong. It was 

 principally an Iowa exhibit, there being only one or two herds from 

 outside the State. 



