FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART III. 195 



It seems to me that every breeder should ask himself why he is breeding 

 the animals of his choice. Is it to humor the whims of the few, or to meet 

 the demands of the many ? If our work as breeders is to be a success, if it 

 is to be a benefit to our country and a monument to ourselves, we must 

 never lose sight of the requirements of the men who produce the market 

 animal for the money that is in it. No matter how pure the blood, or how 

 perfect the type from our own standpoint, if the animal does not meet all 

 the requirements of the packer, if it is not suited to paying the rent and 

 lifting the mortgage when placed in the hands of the average farmer, of 

 what avail has been all our efforts. In short, the watchword of the truly 

 successful breeder must be utility. Utility is the touchstone upon which 

 each breeder's work will be tested. If our work stands the test, it will 

 surely meet with recognition ; if it fails in the test, it will ultimately disap- 

 pear and be forgotten. 



In setting up our ideal, therefore, utility is the first great requisite. In 

 establishing our type we must admit nothing that will detract from utility. 

 In selecting our breeding stock it must ever be uppermost in our minds. 

 When we study pedigree, we must ask ourselves how much the blood lines 

 represented in the pedigree are likely to enhance the utility of the stock we 

 are breeding. Every step we take in our operations must be dominated by 

 this one great consideration, and if we ever lose sight of the importance of 

 utility we need never hope to have our names inscribed upon the roll of 

 fame, which bears the names of the great breeders of live stock. 



Utility must be viewed from two standpoints. The butcher requires an 

 animal that will give him the largest proportion of valuable meat, and the 

 farmer requires an animal that will reproduce its kind in profitable numbers, 

 and make rapid and economical gains. There would be little use in aiming 

 to please the butcher if the animal did not meet the requirements of the 

 farmer ; neither must we leave the butcher out of consideration if we would 

 produce a really useful animal. In our breeding operations, therefore, we 

 must keep both these men in view, and the breeding, feeding and killing 

 qualities must each receive a due share of attention. I might illustrate this 

 point by a reference to swine breeding in Canada. As you are no doubt 

 aware, our conditions are such as to render it more profitable for us to pro- 

 duce what is known as the bacon hog. Now, one important feature of a 

 bacon hog is the length of side, but it is only one thing out of a number of 

 requirements. Some of our men, however, have allowed this one point to 

 run away with their judgment, and in their effort to secure length they have 

 sacrificed constitution, feeding qualities, muscular development and general 

 quality. lam sorry to say, also, that there are judges that will hang the 

 first-prize ribbons on these slab sided, narrow-chested, long-legged, coarse- 

 boned quality-lacking brutes simply because they possess length. Then we 

 have men who run to the other extreme and think that in order to have an 

 easy feeder they must have a fine-boned, short-bodied, fat-backed, heavy- 

 shouldered, thick-necked tubby little pig, utterly useless for bacon purposes. 

 It is not my intention to enter upon a description of the ideal bacon hog, 

 but I should like to point out that both of these men have, lost sight of 

 utility. The first has sacrificed nearly all that a feeder requires, and a 

 good deal of what the packer requires ; whereas- the other has sacrificed 

 nearly all that the packer requires and a good deal of what the feeder re- 

 quires, because a really desirable bacon hog is also a good feeder's hog. 



