IMPORTANCE OP GOOD SIRE 25 



of remedying their defects in the offspring and of systematically pro- 

 ducing a type. The other buys a sire with no special plan in mind. 

 He merely wishes a male and has no ideals to work toward. What is 

 the result? After a term of years one man has a herd that approaches 

 uniformity and that gives results in a measure approaching his ideals. 

 The other has bred a nondescript herd and produced nothing of serious 

 value. The stock produced by one is in constant demand. The other 

 wonders why he cannot find buyers. 



"We have some breeders in America of a constructive sort, men who 

 have done much for the breed. These men have had ideals and have 

 sought to mate with the view of making something better than they 

 found. The number of men who desire to purchase $12.00 to $15.00 

 boars is far in excess of what some might think. They want something 

 pretty good at that What they really need is a scorching education, by 

 which they are made to comprehend the meaning of the breeding business 

 and what it leads to. It is most unfortunate that so many men measure 

 their needs by a definite price rather than a specific sort of animal. 



' ' Here is a man who has a lot of sows that are inferior in ham develop- 

 ment. They may be very good otherwise. With him it should not be 

 cost as a first consideration. Rather it should be the securing of a sire 

 to improve their weakness. No man today holds the trade of the par- 

 ticular buyer who does not recognize this fact and governs himself 

 accordingly. Thus it becomes apparent, and successful breeders readily 

 agree to it, that the man who expects to succeed must mate his hogs to 

 secure the most desirable form through the use of the right sort of sires. 



"In my conversation with the best breeders of my acqaintance they 

 have very generally agreed that the most profitable animals they have 

 owned were the highest priced ones. Remember, I have specified \ lest 

 breeders, not promoters and speculators. A good many men have paid 

 very high prices and, as we say, "been stung," but this has no applica- 

 tion in this discussion. In the purchase of breeding stock, and especially 

 the herd headers, it is a big mistake for one to buy animals without 

 previous inspection. If one will sit down and figure out how far-reaching 

 the influence of a boar may be felt in the generations, he may conclude 

 that it will pay to look into the subject pretty carefully before buying. 

 Think what Longfellow meant in the Gentry herd! In more recent years 

 what a wonderful benefit has come to the breed through the use of 

 Masterpiece, one of the. real high-priced boars, in the herd of both Love- 

 joy and Corsa. Longfellow and Masterpiece are names to conjure with 

 today, and they were the products of men who measured the real value 

 of both pedigree and individual merit. 



"The young man starting out in the development of a herd will do 

 well to secure high-class animals, bred well. Better try one good female, 

 a real topper, of both individual merit and with a popular pedigree, than 

 half a dozen common ones. She will pay much the best in the end. 

 That fact has been demonstrated time and again. And the cheap sire is 

 to be avoided. Young men should be ambitious and get sires that bid fair 

 promise to reproduce offspring of the sort in demand. If one aspires 

 to sell breeding stock, a cheap pedigree will be the heaviest handicap 

 imaginable. The average man inquires about pedigree, and if he knows 

 what it stands for he will not want the animal represented by a poor 

 pedigree, excepting at little above pork price. The intelligent, discrimi- 

 nating buyer will not want the stock, however, at any price. If one is 

 not seeking the trade of the select sort, then he might as well step down 

 and out as a producer of pure-bred stock. One should pattern after the 

 successes, not the failures. If one breeder is to have inspiration, it must 

 come to him through a knowledge of the results secured by the men 

 who know how and who have succeeded." 



