EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X. 715 



CONCLUSIOiSrS. 



By the persistent use of traps, occasional resort to poison, and the 

 exercise of forethought in the construction of farm buildings so as to 

 minimize the opportunities for harborage, farmers and others may prevent 

 the greater part of the loss and annoyance they now experience from rat 

 depredations. The same statement applies in great measure to city and 

 village conditions. Hence co-operation in the warfare on rats is particu- 

 larly Important and cannot be too strongly urged. 



THE VALUE OF THE AGRICULTURAL NEWSPAPER TO THE SWINE 



BREEDER. 



Henry Wallace, Before the Iowa Duroc Breeders' Meeting. 



This topic is not of my own choosing, and I am not sure that I know 

 what was in the minds of the gentlemen who selected it. A paper on 

 this topic could have been more properly prepared by one of the swine 

 breeders, who naturally would be the best judge of the value to him 

 of the agricultural paper. To ask the editor of an agricultural paper 

 to talk of the vaule of his or any other publication to the swine breeders 

 puts him in the position of sounding his own praises, blowing his own 

 horn, which the natural modesty of the average agricultural editor 

 forbids. He is not accustomed to taking one of the pages of his paper 

 to tell its readers how good it is; but permits his light to shine, satisfied 

 that those who see the rays will not need any advertisement of the 

 fact. 



Not knowing exactly what was in the mind of the person who sug- 

 gested the topic, I avail myself of the opportunity to state the position 

 of the up-to-date agricultural paper in relation not merely to the swine 

 breeding industry but to the live stock industry in general. 



You are probably well aware that if the agricultural newspaper 

 were to consider its own profit and loss account for the current year 

 it would change the entire conduct of the paper. It would aim to secure 

 as large a circulation as possible, publish such reading matter as would 

 interest the greatest possible number of farmers, and then sell adver- 

 tising space only to general advertisers, who are willing to give consider- 

 able more for the space than the live stock breeders can afford to give or 

 should be asked to give. This advertising can be secured at about on- 

 third of the expense of live stock advertising. For live stock ad- 

 vertising necessitates the employment of experts, who can become ex- 

 perts only after a thorough training and years of experience. When 

 expert they command among the highest salaries connected with the busi- 

 ness, and a higher salary than most other traveling salesmen. The live 

 stock advertising solicitor is much more than a seller of advertising 

 space. He must not only understand the different breeds of live stock, 

 but he must be well posted on pedigrees. He must be a judge of the 

 individual and the breeding. He must have a thorough knowledge of human 

 nature; must be a pleasant fellow in the home. He must be able to 

 talk offhand of the lovliness of the daughter, the promise of the son, and 



