The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1894-03-08
A VERY TRUE Pig TALE.
How q Lad Of Fourteen Summers Made
a Stake.
An INTERESTING LOCAL INCIDENT.
A Batch OF Miscellany OF More or
Less Lecat Moment, In which are
Little Poetry and |. Good Deaf
OF Prose.

Inc following story taken from this
weeks issue Of The Ranch is told con-
corning THE HERALD's devil, and con.
tains so many valuable suggestions to the
boys, old and young, that We reproduce
1t in full: Master John d. Sandmeyer
is lad OF IA who lives with his parents
on tive-acre ranch In the outskirts Of the
sagebrush, not far from the great Hub"
OF which The RANCH is the principal
spoke" The boy has a good farmer g
head on his young shoulders aud regret
to learn that he is getting notion that
he wants to live In town and gain his
living In an easier way than by digging
IT out OF the soil. don't know who put
this notion into his head, but it's mis-.
taken one. In my humble opinion the
boy who has good brain for farming
stands right at the top OF the ladder. He's
to be the man Of the future in this part OF
the country, II he just tends to his BUSH
ness, educates himself and keeps posted
on the affairs OF the world. Take my
word for it Master Sandmeyer, II you
stick to the ranch and the pigs you'll
gain more wealth, and absorb more real
comfort and happiness than you would IL
you were twins and held two Of the best
positions in the best town in the state of
Washington.
well ,on this small ranch the occupants
keep a COW, a horse, about 90 chickens,
grow garden vegetables and fruits, alfalfa.
etc. 10 the winter Of 1923 Johnny
thought he would like to enter upon a
speculation OF his own, 90 he induced his
folks to let him purchase a few pigs call
his own" to see what he could make in
the way OF pork and money. He bought
six sows, two to four months old; four
OF them we're scrubs, costing him 81 so
each. The other two were well bred Po-
laud-China, but being very young he got
them for 500 apiece. Perhaps the man
he bought them OF thought he would en-
courage the boy in his undertaking so
put down the price for him. There are
such people in the world and the Lord
knows there should be more of them.
To these he brought nice little Poland
China mate at reasonable price. Being
near town Johnny made it part OF his
daily work TO gather from the hotel and
restaurant Kitchens the slops, scraps, etc.,
that proprietors are glad to have taken
out OF the way, which he hauled home
for his future money market. During
the winter he fed in addition to this about
Is bushels OF corn grown upon the place !;
they were short on alfalfa or he would
have used that instead. Some of the
sows being late and small did not prove
good mothers, but Johnny succeeded in
raising % pigs the following spring.
Through the season until little before
killing time in December the pigs had
luxuriated upon green alfalfa cut and
thrown to them in quantities to suit their
growing appetites. For three weeks be.
fore their useless lives closed by very
useful death ration OF corn meal was
added to the daily allowance OF the four
scrub sows. They dressed an average of
$50 pounds each; the hams and should
ers were smoked for family use and
some Of the bacon was sold In town.
Johnny also sold his stock down to the
two PCS and six Young sows. Not
wishing to inbrsed he let the daddy pig
20 at $500. In all, he realized little
over 500 clean money, besides setting up
the ham and bacon for the family.
"Now boys of the ranch, I'll leave 1t to
you II that was not a very pretty little
venture that Johnny Sandmeyer made.
And you parents of farm boys, there's
something in this pig tale for you. Don't
you think 1t pays to give the boys show
to do and to have something for them.
selves7 This Old Rooster does, anyway,
and when his little episode grows up
he shall have the chance can afford,
and I'll teach him to make the most OF it. I"
| Living Great Men.