ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 371 



ers why they did this and they said it was to get a good mail bid. 

 That is not a legitimate way. 



Mr. Allen: In a public sale the man is there to see the hog him- 

 self and if he has a field man buy it for him you can dump the 

 blame off on him if the hog doesn't suit. There are other things 

 I like about, it. You get rid of your hogs all at once. I would 

 rather get out a catalogue than answer five or six letters every night 

 for two months. In private sale you have to make a trip to town 

 every day or two and your money comes along a little at a time, 

 but when you sell at public sale it is all over at once and when 

 you get your money you pay your auctioneers and field men and 

 you are all through with it — you don't have it any more. 



In a discussion on the subject, "Buying Brood Sows by Proxy," 

 Mr. White said : I think that buying brood sows by proxy is like 

 doing anything else by proxy. If you get the right man to do your 

 buying it is all right, Unless you do it is all wrong. 



Mr. Harding: I can say that I have tried it both ways, both 

 when I was there to see the sow and by proxy and I have had some 

 very fair results both ways, but if a man is wanting to buy some- 

 thing to build up his herd my advice to him would be to use his 

 own judgment because I have found that when a sow comes out 

 in a sale ring it will probably suit me and some other man would 

 see her and not like her at all and we would both be perfectly honest 

 about it. It is all right if you get the right man that you are sure 

 will buy what you want, but I have seen some pretty good judges 

 make some pretty serious mistakes along that line. Often a hog 

 in a sale ring it will probably suit me and some other man would 

 may overlook something. Buying by proxy is not as good a plan 

 as to be there yourself. One reason especially is that if you make a 

 mistake yourself you have no one else to blame. In the public sale 

 system along the same line, while as Mr. Hoffman said, there is 

 some excitement sometimes and a man may wish afterwards that 

 he had not bought, I feel this way that if a man comes and buys 

 the individual himself he certainly ought to be satisfied. I like 

 both ways, but I become very tired and worried answering letters 

 in the private sale business because sometimes you will write eight 

 or ten letters and then not make a sale. It is lots of work and if 

 you describe your hog and try to pick out all the defects (I always 

 made that practice myself) sometimes you will lose a sale by doing 

 it for the reason that the other man will think your hog is really 

 worse than he is. He may be a first class hog and yet have a few 



