444 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



can not make a success as a breeder. The class of breeders above referred 

 to are those who are outside the premium awards of our good fairs and are 

 pretty liable to be in that class who are obliged to explain "how it hap- 

 pened" when the premiums are passed around. A wonderful amount of 

 misdirected energy results from the failure on the part of a large propor- 

 tion of hog breeders to properly recognize the right standard of excellence. 

 While it is not possible for us to attain our ideal, yet it is only the breeders 

 with the proper ideal of a hog in their minds who can make a success 

 in breeding them, so I would set down as the most important essential 

 to success a thorough knowledge of the ideal standard of the breed, and 

 while I am not an advocate of the score card, I believe that in no way can 

 this knowledge be secured as readily and as correctly as by a thorough 

 study of the score card. Some years ago we had a number of breeders 

 who carried the score card with them constantly and set it up as a sort of 

 god to worship. The failures they made by this course prejudiced a great 

 many against the use of the card in any way. It is a self-evident fact that 

 unless we have a clear idea of what we are trying to do that we can not 

 obtain success in the hog business any more than in any other line of 

 endeavor. 



Next in importance would come the proper appreciation of the value 

 and knowledge of pedigrees. I would suggest that the man who wishes to 

 fill a long-felt want might write a volume on the subject: "The Pedigree, 

 Its Uses and Abuses." Only by the diligent use of the knowledge of pedi- 

 gree have the best results in breeding been obtained, and yet nothing has 

 been attended with such disastrous results as the pedigree craze. It seems 

 quite impossible for the average breeder to know just how far to go with 

 the use of the pedigree. He learns to study pedigree so as to derive the 

 information he wants in regard to what it means and to note the effect 

 of the blood lines in crossing and to determine what might reasonably be 

 expected from an animal after the proper study of its ancestors. Having 

 attained some little success along this line, a breeder is almost sure to 

 become intoxicated with the pedigree craze, and then comes the disaster, 

 both in a financial way and in the breeding results. No man ever yet made 

 a s ecess who bred for pedigree alone, and, on the other hand, no man has 

 ev.i made a permanent success who disregarded pedigree. A pedigree should 

 be valuable for the purpose of showing commingly of blood which pro- 

 duces certain results. A well posted breeder soon learns that certain 

 families have peculiar characteristics and he may want just 

 those certain characteristics or he may wish equally as much to 

 avoid them. It is unfortunate, however, that the study of pedigree fre- 

 quently leads to the use of an animal simply because it is well bred. In 

 no way is it more possible to perpetuate a certain undesirable quality than 

 by the use of a well bred, or so-called well bred scrub. A thorough knowl- 

 edge of families will enable a breeder to foresee certain results of develop- 

 ment in an animal that is of great advantage in determining its value. 



The study of form, or standard of excellence, and that of pedigree con- 

 stitutes the theoretical part of swine breeding as a profession. Their im- 

 portance is becoming recognized more and more, and every opportunity 

 is being taken by the up-to-date breeder to improve himself in knowldege 



