The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-01-29
OFINTEREST TO FARMERS.
rhe News and Coueier Offers Prizes Pnr
the Largest Hog.

The News and Couriers offer Of
pr;z-s TO the most successful hog grow
ers in the State in 1895 was productive
of 50 good results by arousing and
promoting interest in an important
but neglected agricultural industry
and inducing many farmers to engage
in it again to their own profit and with
large benefit to the State, that our con-
temporary has determined to organize
aaother competition for the year 1856,
and to extend it so as to include va
riety OF products and to enlist a still
larger number of farmers in it. In
announcing lis purpose The News and
Courier says:
The details of the contest have not
yetIbeen:: arranged, but will be annouuc.
ed at an early day and in good time
for the due information Of all who
may desire to engage in it. We can
not do more today than give a very
general idea of its scope, its limitations
in part, and its objects, with the IN
derstanding that the scheme as here
outlined is subject to whatever modi.
fications may be found to be necessary
before the final announcement of con.
ditions is made. The competition will
be limited. to subscribers 10 The Week
ly News and Courier.
The prizes will consist Of five hun.
dred dollars in cash, and one gold
medal and one silver medal. The FIVE
hundred dollars will be divided into
prizes of one hundred dollars and fifty
dollars, to be paid to the winners in
the several contests. The medals will
be independent of The cash prizes, and
subject to separate competition, so
that no contestant can receive both a
medal and a cash prize for the same
thing.
One of the contests, will be for hogs
again, but under somewhat different
conditions from the contest of 1895.
We learned last year, when too late to
change the published conditions mate
rally without affecting: some of the
contestants unfairly, that the restric-
ton of the contest to pigs born in 1895
excluded some that might properly
have been entered, and that would
have been entered but for that limita-
ton. We make the timely and def
mite announcement now, there
fore, that the hog contest for 1896 will
begin on March /; will close 80 days
later; and will be open to all pigs Eot
over months old on March 1. These
terms of course, will permit the entry
OF pigs born in November and Decem-
Der, 1895, as well as those born in
1896 and we think are both proper
and liberal for the purposes of the
competition.
Another contest will be organized
for the best exhibit of hay-using the
word in the widest sense, to include
all kinds of long feed" or forage as
clover, timothy, alfalfa, Bermuda and
other grasses, separate or mixed, corn
fodder, pea vines, pindar vines, etc,
etc. The conditions Of this contest
will probably relate to the yield per
acre, for a stated number nf acres, and
to the quality of the product as deter
mined by its selling price in the Char
lesion market.
The News and Courier has special
regard, of course, for the tobacco crop,
which Capt. Dawson was so largely
instrumentalin in reestablishingi in South
Carolina, andi is desirous of promoting
and extending the cultivation of the
plant as far as practicable. A prize
will be given to the farmer who makes
the most profitable crop on one acre,
so as to allow both large and small
farmere to compete for it on an equal
footing. The quality of the tobacco
will count heavily in such contest,
of course, but quality alone Or yield
alone, or qualiey and yield together
will rot insure the capture of the
prize. AS now proposed the farmer
will will win it who clears" the most
money from an acre, and tells his fell
low farmers how he managed to do so,
and these conditions evidently will
give every tobacco grower a fair chance
and make the contest both interesting g
and instructive.
Another and very general, but
highly intensely and profitable, con-
test will be organized for progressive
"alI round farmers, by the offer of a
prize for the best results obtained from
diversified crops grown by single far
mer. The general plan of this contest
is that the competitors may produce
what they please-Cotton, corn, small
grain, tobacco, hay, fruit, pindars,
truck, hogs, COWS, horses, sheep, poul-
try, butter, eggs honey, ETC., etc.
the prize to be awarded to the one who
shows the largest relative profit on the
years operations. Provided only that
he produces not less than four differ
ent kinds of field or orchard crops
as corn, cotton, tobacco and hay; or
corn, peas. pindars and potatoes; Or
cotton, hay, turnlps and oats; or peach
ches, cotton, whatermelons and corn
or grapes, corn, wheat and cabbage,
and so on through hundred possible
combinations Of the large plough
crops with whatever additions may
be made in the way OF raising cattle,
sheep and hogs and poultry, bee keep
ing, butter-making, gardening for
market, ETC., etc. 1ne purpose OF tne
contest is to prove that "diversifed"
and 'a!l round farming pays in
South Carolina, and to exhibit the
proofs and give public recognition 10
the farmer that nlaks the best showing.
Small and large farmers can compete
for this prize on equal terms. The
highest profit" made per acre for the
whole number of acres employed on
the farm, and including everything
made on the farm, will determine the
winner, whether he farms ten acres Or
a thousand. The prize cannot be won
by spending time and labor and money
on one Or two crops.
1t is most desirable that more atten-
ton should be paid in this State 10 the
industry of sheep-raising, which could
be developed toilnportant proportions,
if the farmers would take hold Of it in
earnest. Another prize will be offered
in the interest of this industry.
Another will ba offered to he rom