294 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. H. Woods Robinson, of Clay, Robinson and Co., Chica- 

 go read an interesting paper on "The Top Price Market Ho'g" 

 which contained some information on the kind of hog the 

 market demands which is of value to every pork producer. 

 We give the paper in full. 



THK TOP PRICE MARKET HOG. 



H. WOOI>S ROBINSON, CHICAGO. 



In a toast on "The Sow and Her Son" printed in the Breeder's 

 Gazette, Col. F. M. Woods, the prince of Auctioneers, made the follow- 

 ing statement: "There has been more improvement made in hog- 

 breeding during the past twenty years than in any of our other domes- 

 tic animals, it would seem that in quantity and shape perfection had 

 been reached. The problem now is the scientific blending of the fat 

 and the lean. A hog is a comical animal and like a man, stubborn. 

 Josh Billings once said that the more he saw of men ■ the better he 

 liked hogs." To all of which facts every hog man will bear witness. 

 The amount of improvement made possible in the hog by intelligent 

 breeding and feeding is an object of wonder even to a close student 

 of evolution. Even within the memory of the older men in this 

 audience the hog was considered as the scavenger of the farm. He 

 was born in filth, lived without any particular attention and died 

 ignominiously when the pork barrel needed replenishing or the family 

 purse became slender. "That nothing is too dirty for the hog" is an 

 axiom still too frequently quoted and believed in by sadly misinformed 

 persons. Let us not be misunderstood that this is the general con- 

 dition of the modern hog, however, for it is probably safe to say 

 that the majority of the seven million lusty porkers that every year 

 see the light for the first time in Iowa know the benefits of good sani- 

 tation and proper feeding. It is only by such methods that the much 

 despised porker of former generations can be made into the sleek- 

 backed carcass which finds a demand in nearly every market of the 

 world. 



In the early days when cheap land and the seemingly inexhaustible 

 fertility of the soil caused all farmers to become somewhat slack in 

 their business methods, it looked like easy money to drive out into 

 the timber lot and pick up a load of hogs. These hogs knew no pedi- 

 greed ancestry and were nondescripts in form and color, but at that 

 time uniformity of type and color had little to do with the market 

 demands. The uneducated appetites of that time did not demand a 

 score of different cuts from each carcass, but simply divided the hog 

 into side meat, ham and shoulders, using the odd pieces for sausage. 

 I remember distinctly in 1853 or '54 my father buying from a Mr. 

 Ffiefer for ?100 the mast grown on one of his large Ohio pastures. 

 My father turned in 300 hogs, and there was still so much mast going 



