410 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



There are many beginners and inexperienced breeders who really 

 believe they have good hogs until they have an opportunity to compare 

 them with other hogs, when they find that they have entirely the wror.g 

 type, and there is no place that the prevailing and popular type of the 

 hog can be learned so well as at a good show with a good judge. Show- 

 ing also gives opportunity for breeders from the different parts of the 

 country to meet and become better acquainted and undoubtedly furnishes 

 advertising to the successful that cannot be obtained in any other way 

 at any price. 



The show yard is the test and those who are successful at a good 

 show will surely have a good demand for their surplus stock and do well 

 in the business of breeding registered hogs. The expense of fitting and 

 showing is a large item, but in our judgment it is more than offset by 

 the benefits derived. 



Geo. Wylie: My answer based both on experience and observation 

 is, yes, it pays to show. If the beginner looks at the mere money won 

 at almost any of our fairs he may not be able to figure out an immediate 

 profit. The new beginner needs first good stock, next to let the public 

 know he has it. The public prints are good, but at the fair he gets adver- 

 tising which may be expensive, but as a rule is worth more than it costs. 

 He gets an acquaintance with men in the business, which is valuable. 

 His stock is put in comparison with that of others and this should be 

 valuable. 



There may come a time when the breeder becomes so well known 

 that he can sell all the good stock he can raise at good prices. Then it 

 may not pay him to attend the fairs, but this is not the new beginner's 

 case. I have observed in my experience with exhibitors that some of 

 them would have better reputations if they had never attended any fairs, 

 but these I am happy to state are a very small minority. Let the new 

 beginner make up his mind in advance to take defeat gracefully It n 

 comes. Do not "kick"' on the judges; as a rule they are nowadays 

 selected for their ability and know their business. Take your medicine 

 and come up smiling next time and eventually you will be a winner. 



Geo. W. Trone: It pays to exhibit swine at the fairs provided you 

 have a first class lot. Success will depend largely as to how good a 

 judge the beginner is of stock to start with. The next important thing 

 is as to how good a feeder he is — not as to how much he can feed, but 

 in knowing what kinds of feed to allow and how much of each kind to 

 develop an animal to be of tbe first class. I do not mean to say that he 

 can take any kind of a mongrel and develop it into a first class individ- 

 ual, but he must have the best blood that can be obtained. 



Going to the fall fairs he will get acquainted with a great many men 

 who want good stock and if he has a first class herd that will get the 

 ribbons he will find that the people who want good stock will all get 

 acquainted with him and then his returns will come in for years if he 



