4-H Club Work in Illinois 



By E. I. Pilchard, 



Specialist in Junior Club Work. Utiirersity oj Illinois 



MK. PILCHARD 



FOUR-H Ctub work iu 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 i§ known by. 

 many people and much loss appreciated 

 by many more. 



The development) of 4-11 Club work 

 ^^ from the standpoint 



^m& ' "f numbers alone is 



ZglKff ' nn interesting story. 



f *, ^t began officially, 



witli the passage of 

 the Smith - Lever 

 Federal Agricultural 

 Extension Act in 

 |14. It was not 

 btil the spring of 

 )ir. that the first 

 lubs were organized 

 by the Agricultural 

 Extension Service in 

 Macoupin and Sangamon Counties. The 

 "idea" of clubs for farm boys and girls, 

 however, was born in the mind of a Ma- 

 coupin County Illinois farmer many years 

 bcfort when in 189D Will B.- Otwell dis- 

 tributed seed corn to boys in his county 

 for a Farmers Institute Boys Corn Show 

 ill li>Of*. Many have been the develop- 

 ments in the clubs for farm boys and 

 y:irls since that time. There have also 

 been di velopmcnts in thousands of young 

 people as well as improvement in farm- 

 ing methods on thousands of Illinois 

 farms through the influence of 1-H Club 

 «ork. 



$1,100 Net Profit 



.Many of the boys in 4-H Club work 

 arc setting them.«elves up in the farm 

 business through their 4-11 projects. In 

 this connection we might consider the 

 case of Ralph McKenzie, twenty year old 

 boy near Malta in DeKalb County, who 

 thi;ouph his eight years of 4-11 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-n Club endeavors, 

 .'^heep raising has been one of Ralph's 

 principal projects since 1029. This year 

 lie has finished up with 48 purebred 

 Hampshire sheep that lie values at 

 $816.90. He records a jirofitof §275.49 

 from the sale of purebred and market 

 lambs and yearlings fiir the current year. 

 In addition to his sheep work Ralph has 

 been enrolled in 4-II pig and corn proj- 

 ects and this year fed two beef calves 

 as his club activity. 



It has been found that 4-11 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, I'aul Engel, hijs turned the swine 

 project from a liability on the home 

 farm to a <U'finite profitable basrs 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 

 12r> head of hogs. 



A |)ari\llel case to this is that of Frank 

 Krell, one of the National 4-H Club 

 Cam)) trip winners to Washington, D. C. 

 in 19:!4. At the time of completing his 

 eleven years of 4-H Club work Frank 

 owned a half interest in a herd of Duroc 

 Jer.sey 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 han<iling 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, iicverthekss, 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 mendiers themselves. How- 

 ever, we are to!d by the Edgar County 

 Farm Adviser, II. D. Van Matre, that 

 thai question is often asked, "Is the beef 

 project worthwhile." lie states that in 

 tlie case of Elbert and Charles Dick, two 

 4-II 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-II 

 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 who.sc 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 of handling their project and in 

 ca^e of livestock the best feeding meth- 

 ods and rations. .\ father of one of the 



boys in .\dams 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 feeiling 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 the boys are 

 helping their dads to learn better "feed- 

 ing methods and better crop culture. 



A case similar to thi.s which has had 

 time to mature and prove thrs 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 .vears 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 

 corn as discovered through the Agronomy 

 Department, University of Illinois. It 

 was through 4-H Club work that pure- 

 bred li\Testock 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 

 corn men. 



Saves Corn Field 



Club members demonstrate some of 

 the practices they learn in 4-II Club work 

 by means of formal public presentation 

 of various methods learned. One of these 

 methods is the team demonstration. The 

 state chami)ion team at the Illinofs .'state 

 Fair last summer demonstrated the con- 

 trol of chinch bugs, a very timely- sub- 

 ject. Many club members fidlowed the 

 methods outlined in' the demonstration 

 this year on their own farms. One of 

 the state champions in the corn project 

 for \mx, William Hamilton of Good 

 Hope, McDonoUgh County, succeeded in 

 saving a yield of 20 bushels per acre on 

 his 20 acre plot when the average for his 

 community and county was barely 10 

 bushels. 



Through their 4-II 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. .\s an example of 

 this there is Oscar Krumm of Sadorus. 



12 



I. A. A. RECORD 



