Marion File 



(Continued from page 7> 



shelled corn and tankage or soybean oil 

 meal (depending on the price). From 

 then on they balance their own rations 

 until they go through the "sorting ma- 

 chine" and are sold. 



Co-op Market Best 



Marion's sorting machine is simply a 

 series of three pens connected on one 

 side by an alley. Hogs to be sorted are 

 run from the first pen, which holds 400 

 head, through the alley one by one. Those 

 that may tip the scales at 220 pounds or 

 better are allowed to pass through into 

 the third or loading pen. Those that 

 need more finish are shunted into the 

 middle pen by means of a two-way 

 gate. Each hog is weighed on his way 

 to the truck. If, by chance, a hog fails 

 to weigh the required 220, he is switched , 

 back to the middle pen. 



Marion's hogs are marketed by the 

 Producers at East St. Louis. Says he: 

 "Any good hog man should send his hogs 

 to market through his cooperative at the 

 central market but we should pray for the 

 time when we can own our product 

 straight through to the man who eats it." 



Watering 400 head of fattening hogs 

 at little cost is no small problem but 

 Marion solved it by erecting earth dams 

 across several gullies. The larger dams 

 are protected by concrete spill ways. 



"The old timers used that system but 

 they allowed their stock to run in the 

 ponds. That not only contaminated the 

 water but also destroyed the dams. We 

 fence the ponds and pipe the water where 

 we want it by gravity. Stock in every 

 field can be watered from a pond. 



"In 1936, the year of the drouth, we 

 watered 400 head from one pond. By 

 the end of the summer we still had 

 seven feet of water in the deepest part 

 of the pond. While our ponds are small 

 in area, they are deep. Some have 1 5 

 feet of water in the channel when they 

 are full." 



Ideal Location 



Climate, tofKJgraphy and nearness of 

 the corn belt all favor hog production in 

 southern Illinois. Winter quarters for 

 fattening hogs and brood sows on File's 

 farm are simple sheds 8 by 16 feet. Roofs 

 three feet above the ground prevent 

 excessive piling during cold spells. The 

 temperature is seldom severe and De- 

 cember pigs do as well as August pigs 

 And when Marion's 137 allotted corn 

 acres in the Shoal Creek bottoms fail 

 to produce all the corn he needs he can 

 buy enough to finish his hogs within 30 

 miles of his farm. 



In recent year^ more than 90 per cent 

 of Marion's income is derived from hogs. 

 But there may be a change. Marion and 

 his eldest son, Warren, are cooperating 

 with the Bond County Farm Bureau 



RATION 

 BALANCER 



When File's 

 pigs are six 

 weeks old they 

 are fed com, 

 get protein 

 concentr a t e s 

 from feeders 

 like this and 

 balance their 

 own rations. 

 Hogs can eat 

 bom one side 

 only. The roof 

 and floor pro- 

 tect the feed, 

 prevent waste. 



and the Soil Conservation Service in 

 a pasture improvement project. Results 

 indicate that terracing, liming and reseed- 

 ing old pastures will produce more forage 

 than hogs can use. That means sheep 

 and beef cows may some day have a 

 major place in the Files' business. War- 

 ren already has five purebred Angus cows 

 and a flock of purebred Shropshire sheep. 

 Time to Live 



Regardless of the changes that soil 

 treatment may bring to his farming op- 

 erations, rugged, clean-living, straight- 

 thinking Marion File will never hanker 

 for a level, silt loam farm in the corn 

 belt. Says he: 



"Most com belt farmers seem to pity 

 us because of our light, clay soils and 

 hills. Let them. I think we could teach 

 them something about living. We go 

 to bed late in southern Illinois because 

 we spend our evenings calling on friends 

 or reading good books. We take time 

 to live." 



Time to live means taking time to help 

 others — • through the church, the Farm 

 Bureau or the Belleville Production Credit 

 Association of which Marion is a director. 

 It means keeping leisure time for con- 

 structive work and right thinking. 



Mrs. File likes the view from her 

 windows. "It may not be as grand as 

 the scenery in Oregon where we lived in 

 1908 and '09 right after we were married 

 but it's a lot prettier." 



With running water, furnace heat and 

 electric lights in her home, Mrs. File 

 has more time to enjoy her sunsets, her 

 friends and her books. Several times a 

 year the File family makes up an order 

 for books from wholesale houses in St. 

 Louis and Chicago. While these orders 

 may include works on philosophy, history, 

 economics, biography, an occasional novel 

 or some of the classics, all the books 

 are thoughtfully read. 



One of Marion's favorites is Plato's 

 "Republic." A favored author is Hen- 

 drik Willem van Loon. Plato's work, 

 he says, might be printed in any daily 

 newspaper and most of its readers would 

 believe it was written by one of our con- 

 temporary columnists. He quotes often in 

 conversation from the books he has read. 



and draws from them in his thinking. 



"Machines have abolished drudgery but 

 we haven't learned what to do with our 

 leisure. It will take 50 years or more 

 before we do," File said. "At a farmers' 

 picnic last summer, folks were grumbling 

 about hard times. Yet most of them came 

 in cars finer than Theodore Roosevelt, 

 with all of the nation's resources behind 

 him, could have had during his presi- 

 dency. 



"Most of them, it seemed to me, were 

 not grumbling because of habit but be- 

 cause they felt insecure. The change in 

 thinking, which has only just begun, 

 makes us feel out of step with the times. 

 I wonder if the people who lived during 

 the French Revolution or the Renaissance 

 didn't feel the same way." 



A Student of Life 



This is the thinking of a farmer — a 

 practical hog man ^ who was born on 

 the farm across the road from his present 

 home and who grew up with the idea 

 that it would be necessary to leave home 

 to make a place for himself in the world. 

 Following his youthful conception, he 

 entered the U. S. civil service as a court 

 reporter and was sent to the Philhppines. 

 After six years of working under a boss, 

 he quit, returned home, married a neigh- 

 bor's daughter and set out to pioneer in 

 the wilds of Oregon. Back in Bond 

 county after two hard years of grubbing 

 sage brush, the Files settled to build a 

 farm business. 



While Marion File's reputation as a 

 hog producer was becoming state-wide, 

 his three sons, Warren, Fred and Dan, 

 were growing up. Warren, 26, teaches 

 in the Greenville high school and man- 

 ages the File homestead of 80 acres. 

 Fred is in law school at the University of 

 Illinois and Dan, a member of both 4-H 

 Club and Future Farmers, attends high 

 school in Greenville. 



A pork producer of reknown and a 

 student of the world, Marion File uses 

 every aid science offers to so run his 

 business that he and his family can have 

 leisure and time to live as they go along. 

 A new doctrine? Perhaps. But in it lies 

 rich food for thought. 



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L A. A. RECORD 



