SWINE breeders' ASSOCIATION. 405 



Mr, 3lttchell. You can't tell anything about a hog until eix months old. Then 

 they begin to show pretty much what they are going to do. 



Mr. Barker. We don't want to exclude any one. If a person has only one hog, 

 let him show. Last year we were much crowded. 



Mr, Williams. The breeder comes to the fair to buy. It won't do to turn a hog 

 bought at the fair out with the other hogs. If he buys a pig at the fair he should 

 take him home and feed as he has been fed, to be successful. 



Mr. T. M. Reveal read the following paper: 



THE RELATION OF FAT STOCK SHOWS TO SWINE 

 BREEDING. 



BY T^ M. REVEAL, OF CLERMONT, IND. 



Swine are the only kind of our domestic animals raised for meat alone, and sta- 

 tistics show that the amount of pork raised in our great corn belt is greater than 

 the meat product of all the other domestic animals combined. In the develop- 

 ment of this, as of all other branches of agriculture, the fairs and other shows have 

 played a most important part. In the last score years the far-seeing farmers have 

 made rapid strides indeed in the improvement of their live stock from poultry to 

 horses ; indeed, so apparent has this progress been that capitalists are being in- 

 duced to make large investments in blooded stock. Now, for my part, I know of 

 no other means so potent in awakening so general an interest and so much earnest- 

 ness in the work as the county, district and State fairs. From year to year the 

 progressive farmer, the stock feeder, the breeder has attended these fairs as a school 

 wherein he may learn many valuable lessons in regard to his own business. Can 

 we believe that the present high grade of swine would be found among the farmers, 

 that the large herds of recorded swine now in our State would be in existence, were 

 it not for these annual competitions which bring together under the scrutinizing 

 glances of farmers and breeders, feeders and packers, the best specimens from their 

 respective herds? At these exhibitions each notes the improvement made by others, 

 and soon applies the lesson to his own herds. Indeed, I would say here that the 

 prize money, compared to the other benefits derived from these shows, is a very in- 

 significant item. 



The cheapest meat is produced from swine. No other animal will, from so 

 small a beginning, attain such growth in from five to nine months, and this from 

 the direct products of every farm where mixed farming is practiced. According 

 to the latest methods of preparing and curing pork, the most popular weights for 

 pigs seem to run from 180 to 225 lbs.; these command the best prices for the great- 

 est part of the season. With the most improved breeds of swine such weights are 

 readily attained at four months, an average gain of between one and one and a 

 half pounds per day, and it is generally conceded that the first 100 lbs. is the 

 cheapest 



