nkly admitted that there existed some ground for
the belief that a majority of the exhibitors did appear to give too
great attention to the claims of the judges who were, in too many cases,
chosen for reasons other than their knowledge of practical agriculture
or the requirements of the consumers of meat. For so acting, the
exhibitors were not beyond blame, as in the earlier days of showing,
their main object was to win prizes in order to advertise their stock
and so secure customers for their spare breeding animals. The actual
improvement of the various breeds of stock did not in those far-off days
appear to be of such vital importance as the world upheaval, of which
the present generation has been the witness, has proved it to be.

It may also be fairly claimed that there has been some slight
improvement in the system of feeding and training followed by the pig
exhibitors of to-day. This is in part due to the fact that the cramming
on rich food and giving little exercise may result in rendering the show
pig in such a state of obesity as to secure the approval of the
non-practical judge, who is unable to appraise the points of a pig when
in its natural breeding condition, but that to be able to follow the
present system of exhibiting at several successive shows and even when
the bloated pig is intended to be returned to the breeding pen, this
excessive feeding proved to be a grievous mistake. It may not be
possible to claim that the over feeding of show animals is a thing of
the past, but there is little doubt that exhibitors of pigs have become
alive to the fact that it is not profitable. Not only is the expense
excessive, but the damage done to the breeding animals is so great as to
render it inadvisable for any ordinary farmer to follow. Again, there
has of late years been a very considerable improvement in the pig
classification at both the breeding and the fat stock shows. When the
writer began pig showing, on his own account, fifty years since, the
common classification at most of the shows was, boar any age, sows any
age, and pens of three breeding pigs, not exceeding nine or in some
cases even twelve months. There were no restrictions as to the age of
the boar or of the sow, no condition as to utility, of the sow having at
any time reared a litter of pigs or of being in pig, so that it was by
no means uncommon at even some of the chief shows to find both boars and
sows appear year after year, having been guiltle