Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press., 1924-05-01
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MY HOME PROJECT =
) By Earl Redfern, Pavo, Georgia =
High School =
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DClOlC dlu was uiSSOui dSCdj iOt Win
yield but with the price of corn, which
was only forty and occasionally lit
tie selling for fifty cents a bushel.
This caused me to amost decide to
give up the study of agriculture. Many
would-be advisors told me was
crazy for studying it and the best
thing I could do was quit now.
But after talking it over with my
instructor, Mr.. R. E. Miller, he told
me to keep my corn and not get dis
couraged and we would find way of
getting more than fifty cents, l de-
cided to try it another year
This second year we took up the
subject of animal husbandry. Hog raj
sing was the one phase which most
appealed to me. After having several
lessons on the care and feeding of hogs
our teacher asked how many would
like to feed out hogs in hog feeding
contest. He explained that it took
about five pounds of corn to grow one
pound of live weight on a young hog,
and at this rate one bushe1 or fifty
cents worth of corn would produce
about eleven pounds, which at seven
cents per pound would be seventy-sev-
en- pounds.
This looked good when it had been
rather difficult to sell corn at fifty
cents. My father had twenty good feed
er shoats. Mr.. Miller asked me to see
if I could make trade with my faith
er for him to furnish the hogs and me
the corn and go fifty fifty, and if I
could not make the trade he would go
out with me and talk to my father
about the proposition.
When I mentioned the feeding con-
test that night my father said man
had offered fifty cents for the corn
and he thought we had better take it,
but agreed to go to the school with
me the next morning and see Mr.. Mil
Ter about it. Mr.. Miller told my faith
er he felt sure that he would get
more out of his hogs and I would
realize more from my corn in this
manner than in any other way, it
would be very expensive to run them
over for another year and that I need
ed the experience of feeding and keep
ing record on the hogs. He also in
sisted that if I entered the feeding
contest we would be able to ship a
car load of hogs together, cutting
down the cost of getting them to the
market.
The trade was made I was to feed
the hogs and look after them and have
& half interest. Mr.. Miller suggested
that we buy some tankage to supply
the necessary protein for a corn ra-
ton, but he agreed when my father
told him it would cost more than he
cared to put into hogs, that if we
would put them on good oats and rye
pasture which we had; get them free
of worms that we could still make it
pay.
I purchased record book in which
to keep an accurate record which was
our view in Vocational Agriculture,
and went home and built two good
troughs to water them in, water being
as necessary as feed.
Mr., Miller came out Saturday and
helped me select the best thirteen
feeders. We caught and weighed them
They averaged seventy four pounds
each. Invent back to town with my
teacher and bought a supply of san
tonin and calomel which 7 mixed with
slops and gave them to free them of
worms. I then mixed crude oil and
kerosene, half and half, drove the hogs
in a small pen and with a broom mop
ped every one thoroughly with this
solution to rid them of lice
We had been making self feeders in
the vocational shop so I had two ready
One I filled with mineral mixture of
wood ashed charcoal, SALT. lime and
sulphur we had learned to make in
class. began feeding lightly at first
and gradually increased my corn un-
til there was no longer any danger of
over feeding at which time I filled
my other self feeder with corn and
kept before them all the time. Later
on, used barrel in which I would
soak the corn in water for twelve
| hours.
Before many days had passed the
hair began to look sleek and I could
tell that they were coming out. I
watched them closely every day and
between the 9th of January when we
began an dApril 9th when the contest
ended, I associated with them many
pleasant hours I studied each indi-
vidual and enjoyed watching them
grow and develop.
WeV, just to make a long story
short; our teacher set April 9th as the
date of the local contest. The day be-
fore the whole class went down near
the depot and built open pens under
the shade trees for the fat hog show
and sale. The next morning, my faith
er and l loaded up our hogs early and
hauled them to town before it was
hot.
All the hogs were weighed and grad