The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-22
MRS. WILDER Is UNIQUE CHARACTER Establishes First Demon
 stration Farm
  SUCCESSFUL FARMER United States Department of Agri- culture Is Cooperating With
 Woman Who Does 70 Things
 
By WILL W. NELSON


 Decatur February 21.-(SpeciaL)-A new departure on the part of the United States department of agriculture is the establish lnent of a demonstration hog farm which has just been located on the magnificent plantation of Mrs Leila Seton Wilder, just outside of the corpoate limits of New Decatur. This Is entirely new feature or the department and Is said to be the first demonstration hog farm that has been established by the government
 The purpose of the farm is to teach North Alabama farmes and stock rais- CTS, both by demonstration and by scien- tIic lectures. that pork can be raised right here at home for from to 3 cents pound. The high prices of pork which have prevailed in the south and through out the country for the past many months no doubt has had much to do with this new departue on the part of the gov ernment. The farm will be under the di- rection of an expert from the govern ment department, whoe will come here orce each month and deliver lectures free tc all who care to hear them on the breeding and the raising of hogs The first of these lectures will be given some time in March.
 Willie the farm will be conducted un- der the direction of the government agert 1t will be under the personal direction constantly of Mrs. Leila Seton Wilder, who long ago demonstrated the fact that she knew thing or two about farming by making a success at cotton raising xll nn cn1l f1,, pound. Mrs. Wilder has just returned from Nashville, where she purchased some of the finest Berkshire hogs that money could buy. These purchases were made with the assistance of government agents. The hogs have just arrived and they are beauties, the finest stock ever seen in this part of the state. Mrs. Will der will divide her time and attention i'll the future between cotton growing and hog raising. She proposes to establish a breeding farm on her plantation, along with the government demonstration, for the purpose of raising blooded Berkshire hogs which she will sell to hog raisers for breeding purposes.
 IL was largely through the influence of Mrs. Wilder herself assisted by United States Senator William H. Bankhead of Alabama, that the government depart ment has an experimental farm on Mrs. Wilders plantation and this year the dem- nstration and experimental farm will be continued alSo About ten acres will be planted in corn and about 12 acres will be planted in cotton on the demonstra- ton farm this season and as last year, lectures will also be given each month on cotton and corn raising by govern nlent experts.
 Mrs. Wilder is one of the few women not only of the south alone, but of the entire country, who has proven that g we man can make successful farmer Having been left widow some years ago with large cotton plantation on her hands and no one to superintend it for her she grasped the situation and with negro la Dor alone she managed the plantation and made a success even then at cotton rais- ing.
 Regardless of her many ties of business about the plantation Mrs. Wilder is a woman who reads extensively and who has travelled the world almost over. Re gently she made world tour and studied the people and the form of governments and the methods of farming in all the countries visited. In her magnificent plantation home she has in her music chimney built inside the room. The chimney is of stucco work and the ma terial used for the stucco is hundreds of small rock of all colors and kinds col lected by Mrs. Wilder in the many coun- t.ies of the world which she has visited
 That she will make a marked success out of her new venture, that of breeding fine hogs, goes without saying. She 6oesn't know the meaning of the word fail. She is a woman who keeps up with the times