Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-08-17
Farm and Garden Notes

where both trucks and tractors are
owned is only slightly less than the
number kept on farms OF correspond
Ing size where only trucks are owned.
How Ritter Feeds His Poland Chinas.
II you go out to the ]. A. Ritter
farm In Keolsuk county, Iowa, and
volunteer to feed his big type Poland
Chinas you are going to have some
job on your hands. About the
second shout you make there will be
22o spring pigs surrounding you, at
| tempting to snout each other out of
the way in an effort to get in close
and secure squatter's rights on the
basket of corn you have to offer.
If your voice doesn't fail you, with
this horde of squealing porkers
/ about, and you make another call.
you will surely be cut off from all
means Of escape by the arrival of 125
big, fat fellows who have been
hurrying as fast as they can from the
concrete paved feed lot near by.
These big hogs are on full feed and
can not answer a call as fast as the
thriving spring pigs.
or course, in reality it will not
happen just this way, for the fat hogs
and the spring pigs aren't running
| together. The pigs are on clover
pasture and the heavy hogs are get
ting all the corn they can eat in the
feeding lot. During the hot weather
they are running In the steer feeding
| ShG1S 6
cooler in there.
| Watering the hogs on this place
doesn't involve much labor. In fact,
the water system on the Ritter farm
has been perfected to such an ex-
tent that machinery does it all. An
engine fills the big supply tank. From
the supply tank the water runs to
the float chamber, which is on a
| direct level with the three big water
ing tanks in the lots. AS the stock
drinks the water runs in from the
| float chamber The hogs are watered
| from patented water troughs.
Ritter started raising hogs thirty
years ago. For the last four years
he has been breeding the big type
| Polands almost exclusively. He
bought his original start from Col.
w. II. Cooper, well known auctioneer
and stockman in Keokuk county,
whose farm is not far from Ritter's.
II have raised several breeds of
hogs and switched to the big type
Polands because they mature quicker
and make It possible for me to get
them on the market earlier" COM
mented Ritter. 1.-THE sows are good
mothers and the pigs are big boned
fellows and take on fat in q hurry.
They are the best breed Of hogs
ever raised"
! Ritter had excellent success with
his spring pig crop. From forty
purebred sows he got 225 pigs. They
started out early In the spring getting
the white clover, which is a native
and comes on in advance of the red
and mammoth kinds. He keeps two
pure!bred bears.
There is no life SO alluring to Rit-
ter as the life on the farm, and there
is no farm animal which he likes to
talk about as well as the hog. No
farm is complete without a drove of
good porkers, he believes. He has
| DScu 1ScoluS IL SOou AlSlAJ CdIlAS III
the thirty years of uninterrupted
hog raising, but credits the most Of
his success on the farm to the So
called mortgage filters.
| Ritter Is a member OF his county
board. He also assists in managing
q threshing club in his district. He
ran machine Of his own for a good
1mahy years and takes great interest
in seeing that the company's ma
chine gets along and does the work.
Eleven farmers own the outfit. They
! bought big steam rig. hire 1t run,
pay their threshing bills just the
same as they did under the old plan
of threshing and at the end of the
season deduct the expenses and pro
rate the profits. Ritter says it's the
only way to thresh.