The Biggle Swine Book by Jacob Biggle

Author:Jacob Biggle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2013-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SMALL YORKSHIRE.

CHAPTER XIV.

WESTERN PRACTICES— Continued.

WILL YOU TAKE?

There are two methods of disposing of thoroughbred hogs in the West—private and public sales. Ten or fifteen years prior to this date, by far the largest part of the hogs were sold at private sale, which had some features to recommend and some to condemn. On the whole, I believe the buyer could make a more profitable investment at private sale, for the reason that he was more deliberate and was not influenced by the excitement common at public sales. He had more time to carefully examine and had the advantage of seeing the stock in its every-day clothes, so to speak.

There was this disadvantage, however, to the buyer. The stock were often culled over quite early in the season, so that to get first choice he was compelled to make his selections before the pigs were fully developed, and it often happened that the pig which seemed to be best at the time of making the selection did not develop into the best animal later on. Then the seller was often put to the necessity of entertaining many intending purchasers and sold his pigs one or two at a time, and in this way got his money in small sums, which to some is objectionable. Thus it was that the public sale was finally inaugurated and of late years has become the most popular way of disposing of thoroughbred hogs.

The manner of holding a public sale consists in holding the entire crop of pigs, then to advertise and sell them in a single day. This has many things in its favor, with some objections. Its advantages are that all the crop of pigs are held till they are more fully developed and the buyers all have an equal chance to see and buy the best, if they are willing to pay the price. The seller has the advantage of selling all his pigs in one day and gets his money in a lump. Then he is relieved of the necessity of keeping a boarding house, as it were, for three or four months.

Prices at some of these sales have been almost fabulous. In some instances a whole herd of from fifty to sixty animals have been sold at an average of $250 each. However, it was generally believed that there was more or less deception about many of these extreme sales, but many sales that I have known were perfectly straight and honest and have averaged over $200 each. In such cases, the animals were fashionably bred and exceptionally fine individually, and were descended from popular sires. These high prices, in my opinion, have been detrimental to the business. When any strain of animals advance in price to an abnormal figure, the temptation to substitute and counterfeit is entirely too great.

While the great majority of sales have been perfectly honest, others have been just as dishonest as could be. Of late years a few men have been seeking to boom a certain

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.