Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1917 — Paid Visit to Ranch Of Mrs. Jennie Conrad. [ARTICLE]

Paid Visit to Ranch Of Mrs. Jennie Conrad.

A reporter for The Republican paid a Vifiit Sunday afternoon to the 5,000 toe re ranch (belonging to and managed by Mrs. Jennie JVT Conrad, at Conrad Station, ten miles north of Morocco. The ranch headquarters have a beautiful setting in a picturesque surrounding, including an elevation of ground, some fine trees, a winding stone road, a pretty creek and a substantial and rather artistic (bridge. Mrs. Conrad’s home has all the charm of comfort and splendid appointment and the hostess very graciously received the reporter and his party and naturally it was not long until the subject turned to pigs, big type Spotted Poland China pigs, or if you choose, hogs. It was half after lour and Mrs. Conrad suggested that before it was any later that the hogs be paid a visit and immediately that wa§ done. ‘Adam, the herdsman, was on hand and assisted in the guidance of the party through the many hog lots. Mrs. Conrad, however, was the chief guide and knowing everyone of the pure bred sows and boars by name,

she would mention them, tell the lineage, the registration number, thg prizes won at big fairs, and in the case of sows, the number of pigs in this year’s litter. Pigs is pigs every place this year and with the top of the market at $16.50 per hundred, it don’t take a very big hog to bring SSO, 'but Mrs. Conrad has so developed the hog business and has secured a reputation extending beyond the boundaries of the Ignited States, that she now receives something like a thousand letters dealing with the hog business every month, and pigs are literally fifty dollar bills the minute they are bom according to the Conrad standard. It isnt’s necessary to wait until they weigh over 300 pounds. Recently she received an order from Brazil and they would have been shipped but for the possible' danger of encountering a German raider along the coast. Other orders are received daily from states all over the country and Mrs. Conrad keeps a secretary to answer correspondence and the herdsman and a farm foreman,, as well as a number of other employees to assist in her very profitable business. Before she entered into, the pure bred hog business she made a study of breeds and decided on the big type Spotted Poland China because of its rapid growth and the early stage at which it could the marketed at a big profit. It is aimed to make every hog weigh 200 pounds when it is six months of age. Mrs. Conrad did another thing before she began developing the pure 'bred hogs with a view to entering the world’s arena as a producer of this type. She thought out and catalogued 1,000 names to give the hogs that were to be registered. The names are so systematized that the progeny of each hog bears a name that suggests the maternal name, and whenaM is to be named a &=fH is necessary is to turn to the list of mmflg and check off a name that

properly establishes the lineage. This year Mrs. Conrad kept fifty of the best sows and by the purchase of some new stock of the best known breeders has taken steps to make this year the (best so far in the business. Hogs that do not prove up to the standard are removed from the headquarters farm to one of the other farms and cared for by tenants, but the best of the 'breed are kept at the hog headquarters and constantly watched by the herdsman. A night man is also employed during the tittfer season to prevent the sows from laying on the pigs. A careless watchman recently slipped into the house bo have a smoke one night while watching a mother and a dozen pigs that were especially prized. During his absence Id mother shifted herposition and three of the pigs were killed. Mrs. Conrad figures that it is paying too much homage to tobacco when an employer must stand a loss of $l5O for a watchman’s smoke and the result was the discharge of the man. " 2 Although Mrs. Conrad has lived less than thirty miles from Rensselaer for many years she has not visited this city frequently and is little known here. She has only one son, who is engaged in the brokerage business in Chicago and her visits are generally made with him. For many years she made annual trips to Euorpe and she is well acquainted with conditions in the countries at war ami her sympathies are firmly with the entente allies and she says if she was a man and young enough she would enlist in a minute in the service of the United States. J. W. Childers and Emerson Coen and their families, qf Rensselaer, live on farms owned by Mrs. Conrad, and are both highly satisfactory to her and she would lake to have tnother married man or two, saying that hdr experience has generally been that she gets the best hands from Rensselaer.