4-H Club Work in Illinois 



By E. I. Pilchard, 



Specialist in Junior Club Work. University of Illinois 



KS. PirCHASO 



FOUR-H Club work in Illinois with 

 its 26,000 young people enrolled and 

 its $850,000.00 business enterprise 

 is wielding an influence upon Illinois ag- 

 riculture of which little is known by 

 many people and much less appreciated 

 by many more. 

 The development of 4-H Club work 

 from the standpoint 

 ef numbers alone is 

 an interesting story. 

 It began officially, 

 with the passage of 

 the Smith - Lever 

 Federal Agricultural 

 Extension Act in 

 1914. It was not 

 until the spring of 

 1915 that the first 

 clubs were organized 

 by the Agricultural 

 Extension Service in 

 Madoupin and Sangamon Counties. The 

 "idea" of clubs for farm boys and girls, 

 however, was bom in the mind of a Ma- 

 coupin County Illinois farmer many years 

 before when in 1899 Will B. Otwell dis- 

 tributed seed com to boys in his county 

 for a Farmers Institute Boys Corn Show 

 in 1900. Many have been the develop- 

 ments in the clubs for farm boys and 

 girls since that time. There have also 

 been developments in thousands of young 

 people as well as improvement in farm- 

 ing methods on thousands of Illinois 

 farms through the influence of 4-H Club 

 work. 



$1,100 Net Profit 



' Many of the boys in 4-H Club work 

 are setting themselves up in the farm 

 business through their 4-H projeflts. In 

 this connection we might consider the 

 ca.se of Ralph McKenzie, twenty year old 

 boy near Malta in DeKalb County, who 

 through his eight years of 4-H Club work 

 has stimulated a gross total of more 

 than $5,000.00 with a net profit of over 

 $1,100.00 through his 4-H Club endeavors. 

 Sheep raisipg has been one of Ralph's 

 principal projects since 1929. This year 

 he has finished up with 48 purebred 

 Hampshire sheep that he values at 

 $846.90. He records a profit of $275.49 

 from the sale of purebred and market 

 lambs and yearlings for the current year. 

 In addition to his sheep work Ralph has 

 been enrolled in 4-H pig and com proj- 

 ects and this year fed two beef calves 

 as his club activity. 



It has been found that 4-H Club work 

 not only gives boys a business start but 

 also an experience in management which 



gives their parents confidence that they 

 are able to handle various farm enter- 

 prises. As an example, the farm ad- 

 viser of Woodford County is authority 

 for the statement that a 4-H Club mem- 

 ber, Paul Engel, has turned the swine 

 project from a liability on the home 

 farm to a definite profitable basis by ap- 

 plying sanitation and standard feeding 

 methods. Paul's father has been so well 

 pleased with his success that he has 

 turned over to him the swine business of 

 the farm which this year amounted to 

 125 head of hogs. 



A par)\llel case to this is that of Frank 

 Krell, one of the National 4-H Club 

 Camp trip winners to Washington, D. C. 

 in 1934. At the time of completing his 

 eleven years of 4-H Club work Frank 

 owned a half interest in a herd of Duroc 

 Jersey hogs. For several years he has 

 been in full charge of the herd. This 

 was the development from the beginning 

 with a purebred Duroc gilt. 



Improves Farm Methods 



The adoption of more modern methods 

 of handling livestock and raising crops 

 has often been said to be a worthwhile 

 objective of 4-H Club work. While it is 

 not the intent of the program to bring 

 about the adoption of improved methods 

 by fathers and neighbors of club mem- 

 bers, nevertheless, this has frequently 

 resulted. It is the feeling that the greatest 

 good in changing practices or the adop- 

 tion of approved practices is through 

 teaching club members themselves. How- 

 ever, we are told by the Edgar County 

 Farm Adviser, H. D. Van Matre, that 

 the question is often asked, "Is the beef 

 project worthwhile." He states that in 

 the case 'of Elbert and Charles Dick, two 

 4-H Club members in Edgar County, 

 that the answer is emphatically "Yes." 

 Their father lives on a farm well adapted 

 to livestock. It was not until the boys 

 became interested in livestock and 4-H 

 Club projects, however, that a reasonable 

 amount of livestock was kept on the 

 farm. Many of these boys through the 

 beef project are learning to use better 

 rations in fattening their calves through 

 the literature and suggestions sent out 

 from the Agricultural Extension Service 

 under whose direction the 4-H Club work 

 is organized. 



Each member is, of course, furnished 

 with a manual as are all members in 

 other projects guiding them on the best 

 methods pf handling their project and in 

 ease of livestock the best feeding meth- 

 ods and rations. A father of one of the 



boys in Adams County said in conversa- 

 tion recently that not until his son Henry 

 had enrolled in the beef club and carried 

 out the project had he become so suc- 

 cessful in his own feeding operations. He 

 had studied the methods recommended 

 ' for the boy, observed his results, and had 

 adopted the same practices in feeding 

 his cattle. It would seem that testimo- 

 nials like this indicate that t^e boys are 

 helping their dads to learn better ^d- 

 ing methods and better crop culture. 



A case similar to this which has had 

 time to mature and prove this carry- 

 over value of lessons learned in handling 

 crops and livestock even after the mem- 

 bers start farming for themselves, is 

 brought out in the case of Alvin and 

 Edwin Rentschler of Logan County. 

 These two boys enrolled in club work a 

 good many years ago and became too old 

 for the work. Later they started farm- 

 ing for themselves. Even before the 

 younger one was out of club work these 

 boys had become well known throughout 

 their entire county as good corn growers 

 and really authorities on the diseases of 

 com as discovered through the Agronomy 

 Department, University of Illinois. It 

 was through 4-H Club work that pure- 

 bred livestock was introduced on the 

 home farm and later purebred seed corn. 

 These young men are now well known 

 corn judges and breeders of good seed 

 corn. They are not only known through- 

 out their county but throughout a good 

 portion of central Illinois for their good 

 farming methods and their ability as seed 

 com men. 



Saves Com Field 



Club members demonstrate some of 

 the practices they learn in 4-H Club work 

 by means of formal public presentation, 

 of various methods learned. One of these 

 methods is the team demonstration. The 

 state champion team at the Illinois State 

 Fair last summer demonstrated the con- 

 trol of chinch bugs, a very timely sub- 

 ject. Many club members followed the 

 methods outlined in the demonstration 

 this year on their own farms. One <vf 

 the state champions in the corn project 

 for 1934, William Hamilton of Good 

 Hope, McDonough County, succeeded in 

 saving a yield of 29 bushels per acre on 

 his 20 acre plot when the average for his 

 community and county was barely 10 

 bushels. 



Through their 4-H Club meetings which 

 are usually held once each month, mem- 

 bers also learn to work together. Those 

 with leadership ability have a chance to 

 develop that ability. This is carried over 

 into their community activities while yet 

 club members and we have many cases 

 where members having graduated from- 

 4-H Club work have served as officers 

 in the County Farm Bureau and Home 

 Bureau organizations. As an example of 

 this there is Oscar Krumm of Sadorus, 



' I I 



\ 



.1 . 





12 



I. A. A. RECORD 



