226 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
good sound basis and let her stay where she is? Wliere you ship 
her back and forth the express company is making a big thing and 
you are getting nothing. If he buys her under that guarantee he 
certainly agrees to it. In regard to how you are going to deal with 
the proposition, the thing to do when a sow does not show that she 
is in pig is for the seller to hold her until she does. I am going 
to do that hereafter in my sales, unless the man wants her shipped. ' ' 
Mr. Roberts said: ''I believe this is one of the greatest subjects 
we have to handle today, the public sale, and your success and mine 
depends on how our public sales are handled. I believe we ought to 
fully understand what we expect to get from the breeder and from 
the buyer at our public sales. I believe with Mr. Harding that 
every sow that does not absolutely show her guarantee should be 
held on the farm until she does. I had quite a little experience this 
year, more this year than in twenty-five years before in the hog 
business. One man reported that the sow he bought was not in 
pig and I sent him another. She was crippled and lost her litter and 
I took it up with the express company and sent him another. He 
reported that she had several nice pigs and I was the right kind of 
a fellow. I wrote him the other day about her and he wrote back 
that the first sow had eight nice pigs. Another man wrote that 
his sow was not in pig and I wrote back that after the date if she 
did not farrow I would refund the money and the next thing I got 
a letter that she had six nice pigs. Then I had another sow that 
three weeks before time to farrow you could not have told that she 
was in pig and yet she had six nice pigs. We run against these 
things every once in a while. I have had several cases where sows 
were reported not safe that have proven to be so." 
Jas. Atkinson of Des Moines spoke as follows: ''I would like to 
speak a word about the matter of furnishing pedigrees. There is 
quite a misunderstanding on the part of the public as to what is 
expected when they buy pure bred hogs. Many people don't know 
the difference between the pedigree and a certificate of registration. 
I think every man that has a pure bred sow even if he is a beginner 
ought to have her recorded. You can understand that a news- 
paper man is the one that receives really the kick. A reader writes 
to an advertiser and buys a sow. He don't get the pedigree. He 
lets it go for a month or two months and then he begins to sweat 
and he writes to the man from whom he bought the sow, who is 
probably at the same time writing for it to another state. And then 
he begins to write to us. My idea is that when a man has a sow 
