THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 415 



among the exhibitors is not doing good work. Merit should win even 

 though the bulk of the prizes go to one firm. The other fellows wiil 

 learn in that way. On one accasion I called the attention of a judge to 

 an award he had made and told him a certain prize should have gone 

 elsewhere. His answer was: "That is not the way to make fairs." That 

 kind of work in my mind is the way to ruin fairs. 



If the young man is going to follow breeding let him go out and 

 show. He will learn a great deal. Sometimes there will seem to be lit- 

 tle compensation, but he will meet many breeders and find many custom- 

 ers he cannot otherwise touch. There are men who will buy only at the 

 fairs and usually they are willing to pay good prices and any animal that 

 has made a winning is usually in demand. He need not be in the ring 

 every year, but let him see that he gets out when convenient and let him 

 go prepared. 



There is another sort of man you will meet at the fairs. That is the 

 breeder who never shows but attends the fairs and then calls the atten- 

 tion of his friends he meets to how much better stock he has at home. 

 Or if he ever owns an animal that has been a winner or bred one that 

 in hands of others has been developed into a show animal he never ceases 

 to boast of it at every opportunity. 1 remember on one occasion a friend 

 said to me at a fair where I was showing: "I have better stock at home 

 in the pasture than you are showing." I replied very shortly, saying: 

 "I do not believe it." He was much older than I was and he seemed 

 much surprised at my short answer and asked why I did not believe it. 

 I told him that if he had better stock than mine he would show it. 

 "Well," said he, "next year I will show you." And he did, but the color 

 of the ribbons he won was red not blue. Now this man was honest, no 

 doubt, but his stock looked to him much better at home in the pasture 

 than when compared with others in the show ring. Afterwards when 

 this man showed he brought out fewer and better animals and he finally 

 boasted of beating me with an animal purchased of me. 



The first show I ever made at a state fair I never won a ribbon, but it 

 was the cheapest advertisement I ever made for it brought me in touch 

 with a class of customers I could not otherwise reach and some of them 

 have remained customers ever since. 



If you do not win yourself you will get an idea of what it takes to 

 win and will get nearer the front in that way. 



