358 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



many times for the judges to do that. There is another feature to 

 the uniformity of type. You can never keep a uniformity of type in 

 any breed of hogs if you have a man one year who picks a little 

 type and the next man picks the big type because many people will 

 want to breed from the winner and buy from that strain and how 

 are you going to keep uniformity of type when one year you go 

 one way and the next year the other? Every breeder I believe has 

 his idea of what the best kind of hog is and he breeds for that type. 

 I have been always an admirer of a medium sized hog but the 

 trouble is to know what the medium type really is. You can't get 

 a hog too big for me if he has the quality. A big hard feeder will 

 show it in his make-up. But if the hog has other qualities with 

 his size, if he has fineness of build and all those other good qualities 

 with his size, I don't care how large he is. My experience in deal- 

 ing with the public in general is that about nine out of ten men will 

 say they want a great big hog. The farmer's ideas are not ours. But 

 if he picked the hog himself he would not pick the great big coarse 

 hog. Among the breeders I think there is only one way to get uni- 

 formity of type and that is to breed your boars and sows as near the 

 same type as you can. 



Mr. Howard : "When the farmer who is breeding for pork writes 

 for a big coarse animal he had the sows that are like that and 

 when he gets the big coarse animal he gets what he wants and just 

 what he wants and just what he ought to have. I know farmers 

 who have them. Their method of breeding and feeding don't de- 

 velop the other kind. The hog that is well built and fits your ideas 

 might not suit his herd. There is a place for these big coarse fel- 

 lows, with the pork raisers. I never raised them myself. 



Mr. Harding: In doing my mail order business I invariably 

 ask a man what class of stock he has. Sometimes they say I know 

 better than they do themselves what they want. But I don't and 

 I always ask a man in regard to his sow stuff and after he gives 

 me all the information that he can I can tell what he needs. 



Mr. Hoffman: Do you think it is a good idea to buy a male 

 from the simple fact that he is a winner?" 



Mr. Harding: No, I do not. Select an animal bred along the 

 right line regardless of whether he has a premium or not. 



"W. H. Cooper, Hedrick, Iowa: It seems to me there has been 

 more agitation in type among Poland China breeders than other 

 breed and nearly every man has his fancy as to type. I notice that 

 many breeders of the smaller type in getting up their advertising 



