CHAPTER XIII
THE EXHIBITION OF PIGS
When the exhibition of live stock at our numerous shows became common, a belief sprang up amongst non-exhibitors that the preparation for show was most deleterious to the animals shown. It was also contended that exhibitors were prone to pay attention, to a far greater extent, to the fancy or show points of the animals which they bred than to those utility points which are of infinitely more importance to the ordinary stock breeder and the consumer. It was also believed that the feeding or training which the show stock underwent seriously affected their procreative powers, and especially so with the animals of the feminine gender.
It may at once be frankly 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 guiltless of any attempt to procreate their species, but having been kept solely for the purpose of winning prizes and adding to the renown of their owners, if not directly adding much to their balances at the bank. The only way in which the continued exhibition of these old stagers was made profitable was the securing of customers for breeding stock from the exhibitors, who in far too many cases were not the breeders of the winning animals. To so great an extent had this purchase, frequently from middlemen or dealers of exhibition pigs, become in the seventies of the last century, that some of the live stock papers in the United States took up the cudgels on behalf of the American breeders of pigs, who had been in the habit of importing show winners from this country and plainly asked for the English definition of a pure bred pig. It was pointed out at a recent show of the Royal Agricultural Society several winners shown by one exhibitor were entered as of certain defined breeds, yet neither age, pedigree, nor name of breeder was given, the only particulars given in the show catalogue being the name and address of the exhibitor, the name of the pig, and the further statement age and breeder unknown. As our American cousins asked, how could it be possible to ensure that a pig was of a certain pure breed when it was admitted that no knowledge existed of the breeding of the animal nor actually of the person who bred it. This scandal, as it was termed, was one of the contributing causes of the establishment of societies for the registration of the pedigrees of the various types or breeds of pigs.