Manchester Democrat., 1920-12-15
MY COUNTY CLUB WORK.
(By Gerald Darrow9

(By Gerald Darrow.)
Last winter in the month Of Febru-
ary, joined a junior SOW and litter
club, which was managed by e. w.
Williams, Secretary OF the Delaware
county fair which is held at Man
chester, Iowa, every year. In order
to get the SOW one had to Judge
certain number OF hogs, and after
that write an examination on hogs.
Ii this examination one had to tell
ali he knew about raising hogs, and all
he knew about hogs, the kind Of breed
he prefers and his reason for selecting
this breed.
This contest was free for all boys
OF Delaware county from the ages Of
10 to 10, there were thirteen boys
in my township, Richland, who wrote
n this examination and 1 was the
winner. There were IA townships that
went into this club, and after each
boy received, his sow he had to take
her home and take care Of her. and
after the litter arrived It was "up to
him. to do the best he could with mis-
SOW and litter as the winner over all
was to get 4 days trip to Des Moines
to visit the national swine show, also
various other prizes. So tried for it.
4 These sows were. all registered and
were selected from the best Of herds.
MY SOW having come from the herd
OF I. e. Supple and Sons, Of Coggon,
iowa. selected the Large Type Pole
and China's as II always took interest
in this breed, and 1t Is one Of my de-
sire to become a good breeder and
manager OF pure bred live stock. Every
fair have ever Attendtd the Poland
China.s always showed up. we'll and
so took liking to them.
Ny SOW farrowed April 1st OF which
nine were raised. In raising this litter
Of pigs I found 1t very interesting
and had to use lot OF pains to raise
all nine Of them and not let any OF
them get runted, but by much extra
work succeeded In doing 1t. MY pigs
were weaned at sixty days Of age Or
two months, and at weaving time the
nine averaged forty seven pounds
apiece. I started them on little skim
med milk, put In feeder Of tankage
and oil meal and ground oats Of which
I sifted out all OF the hulls 80 as to
make the osts easier digested and as
the pigs grew increased the rations,
and when the were large enough to
stand full ration, this is what ! fed
them:
SKINNED milk twice day, q little
soaked shelled corn, ground oats and
barley in feeder, oil meal In feeder,
whole oats in feeder, all the water
they wanted to drink, and they had
salt at all times. For a worm exter-
I used corncob charcoal Of
which made myself, Columbia Stock
Powders, and air Stacked lime. had
q few troubles In the line Of In
juries, one would come up lame one
day and another the next. but all ]
lost OF the litter was q part Of the
ones tail. was pretty lucky In that
line. Though as the summer days went
by I kept looking for the Delaware
County Fair bills to come out and the
more thought Of winning first prize
over all the boys in Delaware County
with this litter Of pigs the more pains
I took in trying to develop them into
good, classy pigs.
When the day came for us to take
our sow and litter to the fair 1t sure
was exciting, being my first exhibi-
ton OF stock to county fair and the
first thing did after my pigs were
was to look at the other boys
hogs. When judging day came 1t was
still more exciting. So that day ran
out my litter to be judged, and won
first on them. 80 ! got the trip to
Des Moines which shall never forget
I also showed my four best pigs
against the farm bureau club which
was under the managemnt Of J. A.
Krall, County Agent and won first
prize there.
Next came time to 90 home with
my hogs. I picked my two pigs for 1t
was understood the day took possess
sion of my sow. that / and all the
other boys belonging to this club were
to get his pick Of any two pigs In
the litter and the old sow. ! picked
two gifts and on sale day bought three
more of them back again, SO now in
all have six sows for next year.
So 1 feel that have my start In
Poland's and that this club work was
one Of the best things that ever was
thought of and Mr.. Williams ran things
on the square, ne did just as he said he
would do. To my idea Delaware Coun-
ty has one OF the best fairs in Iowa.
When 1t came the day for my trip
to Des Moines to visit the National