The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1904-06-01

fixed in his mind. He begins to make
this a standard of excellence. How to
get possession of such foundation stock
is the problem with the beginner. So
long as fashion gives value to pedigrees
and families one needs to make study
of fashionable pedigrees. Here the be-
ginner is likely to fall into the COM
mon error of placing pedigree above
individuality. Fashion is tickle and
pedigree that is fashionable today may
have no attraction to buyers next year,
but the individual of high excellence is
always sought and gives character to
a herd.
Instead of following the crowd at
sales, where the inexperienced is easily
stampeded by the arts of the auction
eer and boomers, he would better spend
some time visiting some of the sub
stantial breeders and note their meth
DDS of handling and feeding, and COM
pare their animals and their pedigrees
and prices. A few weeks spent in
this way before the fairs and sales will
be a wonderful help. He can see
noted sires and dams and their off
spring and learn how they breed. A
single animal fitted for sale or show
cannot give so fair an impression Of
the value of the family as the whole
litter from which the show pig was Sc
lected.
It is a safe rule to buy a breeder
only from a prolific SOW, and select the
breeding hog from large litter of uni
form size, marking the type, and pass
the produce of no marked excellence
or from litter not uniform or showing
good, bad and Indifferent individuals,
IL -xI, 1fc Of
fashionable breeding and some notor1-
ETY. in the show ring. If with notorl-
ETY. as a show animal a dam or sire
can show uniformly large filters OF
striking high quality then beginner
can afford to make a purchase, even at
a high figure, and even If the pigs are
not fat enough to show.
In selecting breeding stock it is
we'll to learn whether they have been
fed properly to insure vigor and de-
velopment and not fat and finish. Fat
covers many defects and the wise buy
err discounts the pig that has been over
fed
A young man can learn so much
from visiting older breeders that he
really needs to spend some time visit
ing before he buys anything. Ii he
ison he can learn more visiting for
few weeks than he ever knew before,
not only about the animals themselves
but how to breed, to feed, to handle old
and young, male and female. Success
depends as much on knowing how to
feed and handle the herd as on know
ing how to buy. The man with long
purse may be able to buy noted herd,
but he needs more than money to keep
up the standard from year to year and
make his high-priced show stock pro-
ducers and winners.
Any young man who has fondness
for good stock can by prudence, indus
try and study found herd and go
on improving it year by year as his
knowledge increases and his Judgment
ripens. No young man should be will
ling to breed anything but the best in
his power. His ideals may be low
and in that event his animals will be
of a low order and he miss the profits
and pleasures that come to him with
higher ideals and ambitions. With
the advantages offered at our agri-
cultural colleges for correcting and ele-
waiting ones ideal there is no longer.
any excuse for laundering along, blind
ly cropping for some indefinable thing,