Round Barn, a Biography of an American Farm, Volume Three

This third volume of The Round Barn continues the story of the Dougan farm and its denizens, expanded now to include a nearby farm, with its landscaping and remodeling under the direction of the University of Wisconsin. The growing hybrid seed corn business is housed there. Rock County Breeders, the second artificial breeding co-op in the nation, hires Amos as their first inseminator, and Jackie learns the “facts of (cow) life” when she watches him in the barn. She travels Rock County with the vet, witnessing milk fever, garget, and scours. At a barn dance she receives her first kiss.

Grampa’s second son boards a sailing schooner to Alaska, then returns to enroll in Ag School. Tragedy strikes one of the children attending the one-room schoolhouse that adjoins the farm. Grampa starts 4-H clubs in the county. Ronald, a member, enjoys raising his piglet, but loudly moans the intense labor of his corn plot. Overall, an older Ron recounts in letters to his family and friends “the infinite variety of Turtle Township.”

Distributed for Jacqueline Dougan Jackson.