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Photo by Gene Middleton 



CHAMPION SOW AND LITTER 

 Charles Finley's pet Hampshire sow, 

 Lois Ray Key, and her 13 children are 

 entered in the 1939 4-H sow and litter 

 club in Vermilion county. On Moy 13 the 

 litter, farrowed Mar. 17, weighed 561 lbs. 

 at 57 days of age. Heaviest pig 471/2 lbs., 

 lightest 30. The pigs have national cham- 

 pionship ancestry on both sides. 



but Mrs. Finley or Jessie Louise will tell 

 you that the hogs are a Berkshire and 

 Hampshire cross, which, they will add, 

 makes a very good market hog. But, 

 then, hogs are a specialty at the Finley 

 farm. Charles' winning grand champion 

 litter was of regal parentage, the off- 

 spring of High Score, a grand champion 

 at the International. One litter of these 

 hogs, Mr. Finley insists will make more 

 money than all the chickens Mrs. Finley 

 could raise as a side line. Therefor they 

 have chickens only for their own use, 

 caponize the cockerels and sell a few 

 eggs. 



Money from eggs, butter and cream 

 sold to a few regular customers is used 

 to provide little extras for the home and 

 family. Music lessons for Jessie Louise, 

 a small electric butter churn, an electric 

 water heater are examples. 



"Boys and girls want to live active, 

 busy, happy, lives. I want to be busy and 

 active with them. I want to enjoy them 

 and enjoy living with them. If being 

 good fathers and mothers is an art, let's 

 learn more about it. Let it not be said 

 that the parent problem is a greater one 

 than the youth problem, " says Mrs. 

 Finley. 



Home Bureau Editor: 



1 have read with pleasure your interesting 

 articles in the RECORD. 



Grace Stewart, Champaign county. 111. 



When a New Yorker wants to know 

 what the weather will be he phones 

 Weather 6-1212. A machine answers 

 the call, plays a transcription of the 

 latest weather report. The device is 

 expected to net the telephone company 

 several thousand extra nickels a day. 



Bouquets In The 



Barnyard 



The hardest work is dodging work. 

 Do those odd repair jobs now. 



JULY. 1939 



^/^^ HE resourcefulness and in- 

 ^*~Y^ genuity of the early pioneers 



\J probably was no greater than 

 that of the farm woman of today. 



"If there is no other place for the 

 zinnias and asters, let's put them in the 

 barnyard," said Mrs. C. E. Scott, Piatt 

 county Home Bureau member. 



And, like the little red hen, she did. 



Not only did she bring bright blos- 

 soms, gay colors, and fragrant odors to 

 this usually drab spot of the farm 

 homestead, but she made of it a family 

 recreation spot as well. 



Climbing roses cover part of the low 

 whitewashed fence that incloses the 

 pinks, petunias, gladiola, hollyhocks 

 and all the others growing around the 

 edge of the grassy spot located not 

 quite half way between the barns and 

 the road. The Black Prince petunias 

 grew so tall last summer they reached 

 as high as the fence and peered out 

 at passersby. A wooden tub sunken 

 in their midst, no longer goes by that 

 name but now is the pool in the rock 

 garden. Several large yard chairs, 

 painted green, and a roomy swing in- 

 vite the garden worker to rest and 

 visit with a neighbor on how to keep 

 the bugs off the delphinium. 



This barnyard garden, for so it real- 

 ly is, like the watermelon vine, grew 

 under and over and through the fence 

 of the vegetable garden. Too many 

 plants were left over from the rows 

 allotted to Mrs. Scott where she might 

 have marigolds instead of turnips. After 

 she had tucked verbenas in the spot be- 

 tween the walks, filled a border 

 along the fence with cockscomb, and 

 brightened up the corner along the 

 house with cannas, even then pansies 

 and larkspur were left over. As she 

 says, she reached out for the barnyard. 



When Mr. and Mrs. Scott moved to 

 the 240 acre farm which they have 

 rented for 22 years, the muddy lot bor- 

 dering the houseyard was used for feed- 

 ing stock. Several years of consistent 

 sowing of timothy were necessary be- 

 fore a stand of grass was substantial 

 enough to warrant the lawn mower. 

 Last year when they laid out the diag- 

 onal shaped plot for the garden, the 

 plan was to use annual flowers for a 

 while. 



"We had to spade deep in the begin- 

 ning and we must spade deep this year 

 to keep down the weeds. Perennials 



might be disturbed. Some things will 

 come again this year, however, and 

 gradually we will work into more of 

 that. In order to start the garden with 

 particularly strong and pretty ones, last 

 year I bought the petunia and snap- 

 dragon plants. Gladiola bulbs too, run 

 back to one color after a few years, so 

 I try to add at least two dozen new 

 ones each year. I always keep these 

 separate and mark them carefully from 

 the others. Three bushels of bulbs, in- 

 cluding the dahlias, now are in the 

 basement for planting. We use all 

 varieties of the old-fashioned flowers. 

 They make lovely bouquets." 



When the milking of 10 to 15 cows 

 is finished, the Scotts find time to spade 

 and plan in the garden. In the early 

 morning Mrs. Scott likes to do the 

 weeding. She says working with the 



A SMALL POOL ADDS TO 

 THE BEAUTY 



flowers rests her before starting the 

 days routine. The garden must be 

 completely gone over at least every two 

 weeks for the good of the flowers and 

 to get the weeds. 



Neighbors and friends, coming to- 

 gether as many as three times a week 

 last summer to share experiences of the 

 day, to picnic on the homemade table 

 just outside the fenced-in flowers, and 

 to roast weiners on the improvised fire- 

 place in front of the scales, failed to 

 remember that the place in which they 

 (Continued on page 2i) 



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