“There is a great deal to learn regarding the reproduction of characteristics among animals. However, one thing is pretty well established, and that is, that what we know as well-bred animals transmit their qualities with more certainty than do those of inferior breeding. It is unfortunate that the results of the most successful experience in breeding are not studied more carefully and made greater use of by the rank and file of breeders. The average man, a breeder so-called, is not in fact a student of breeding at all. Far too many men are interested in simply getting their females in pig, without regard to the fitness of the sire. That methodless way has actually been the undoing of many an American herd. This illustration has been made use of by one author. Let two men start to breeding at the same time. One selects a sire with great care and mates him to a lot of females with the view of remedying their defects in the offspring and of systematically producing 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 development. 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 particular 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 best breeders, not promoters and speculators. A good many men have paid very high prices and, as we say, “been stung,” but this has no application 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, discriminating 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.”