THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VIII 477 

 THE PROFITABLE TYPE OF HOG FOR FARMER AND BREEDER. 



T. F. LUTHER, GRAND JUNCTION, IOWA. 



"A great many of you have heard me talk before on this subject of the 

 profitable hog for the breeder and for the farmer to raise and the older I 

 grow in the business the more I am convinced that the profitable hog for 

 the farmer is the profitable hog for the breeder. I am sorry to say that a 

 great many of the farmers and breeders of Iowa and sister states would 

 have been a whole lot better off for the last few years if they had raised 

 pork instead of breeding for the fancy hog. I like style and class among 

 hogs but it seems that we have been going backward instead of forward. 

 The Poland China men discovered it some time back and they have gone 

 to breeding size and they have won. The Chester White men have been 

 breeding more for size and weight than for the fancy ear and fancy eye 

 and the Duroc men have talked the large type for the last four or five 

 years but many have gone backward in the matter of size. 



"I have attended every state fair for the last twenty-nine years and 

 you all know that there has been a great deal of change in the style and 

 size of hogs in that time. 



"The time is past for the smaller hogs. I feel that with the high price 

 of land and everything that goes on the farm that we ought to have a 

 hog and try to raise a hog that will weigh 300 to 350 pounds at a year old, 

 that will finish nicely. We have been breeding for a nicer ear and head, 

 better feet and loin and ham and back and we have been after the better 

 hog and we have it but we have to keep the size as well. The end of 

 every hog is the pork barrel and the farmer wants the sow and male that 

 will produce a hog that will go onto the scale and weigh three hundred 

 or three hundred and fifty or even four hundred pounds at a year old. If 

 a farmer is feeding the same amount of feed to a hog weighing 250 

 pounds as to one weighing 350 the balance don't compare with the right 

 side of the ledger. 



"With regard to breeding stock for the man selling at public auction. 

 There have been too many immature sows sold at public auction. I be- 

 lieve no gilt should go into the sale ring that don't weigh three hundred 

 pounds. It can be done. There is no farmer but can with proper care 

 and handling and proper feeding — and not over-feeding either — make his 

 gilts weigh three hundred pounds at a year old if he has the right kind 

 of breeding stock. As I have said, the ultimate end of every pig is the 

 pork barrel and what it will weigh. If you go to a public sale you want 

 a nice large gilt, one with scale and style, and with a good ear and eye." 



Mr. H. S. Allen of Russell, Iowa, was on the program for a paper 

 on the subject "Fitting for the Show." Mr. Allen was unable to 

 be present but he forwarded an article which treated the question 

 with the utmost brevity. His principal points were the selection 

 of animals with merit and a course of treatment that would lead 

 to their development. Evidently he looked upon the matter as 



