88 SWINE IN AMERICA 



definitely stated in the letter as the attitude of one who 

 expects the best possible for his outlay. All men who 

 ha\e had much to do with the selling of pure-bred boars 

 are familiar with the buyer who insists that "you must 

 get him down as low as you can — he must be cheap, as I 

 have written to a number of other breeders.'' A man of 

 this stamp is likely to want a boar of almost impossible 

 attainments for a very small sum of money. He is less 

 likely to do well in his purchase than the man who will 

 frankly state the type of boar he needs and the amount of 

 money he can afford or intends to invest. The chances 

 are, too, that the latter procedure will bring much the 

 better treatment. 



It is undeniable that many who pay a liljeral price for a 

 boar that suits them afterward treat him in such a way 

 that they derive but small benefit from the investment. 

 One of the two most common modes of mistreatment is 

 to confine him in a close pen, where he is deprived of ex- 

 ercise and fed upon the richest and most fattening food 

 the establishment affords, and lack of activity and virility 

 are the results. The other mode is to turn him in with 

 an unlimited number of sows, gilts and stock hogs to fight 

 and fret and tease until he becomes the shabbiest, the 

 most ungainly, unthrifty, discreditable hog on the place. 

 Uoth of these extremes are to be avoided and a more 

 rational method followed or the best results cannot be 

 secured. While too close confinement is bad, it is not so 

 bad as to allow a boar to roam at will among the otlier 

 hogs of the farm, where he is as much out of place as a 

 stallion would be turned loose with a herd of horses. 



