36 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



mum cost comes into consideration in the judging, as well as 

 maximum yield. 



Even greater interest has, however, come to be evoked by com- 

 petitive as well as instructive breeding of live stock by boys, and 

 subsequently also — in respect of stock of certain kinds, more particu- 

 larly poultry, but also calves and even pigs— by girls. A colt is, of 

 course, among all animals in general, the beau ideal to the average 

 boy. However, calves have grown very popular, but the crown of 

 popularity has not improperly fallen to " the gentleman who," in 

 Ireland, " pays the rint." Pig clubs appear to be the most numerous 

 and also the most thoroughly appreciated by the authorities for the 

 sake of their direct benefit. There are in these clubs pigs to be 

 fattened, and also sows kept to litter. The clubs are commended 

 for having produced a wonderful amount of good. The features 

 kept in view in the competitions are purity of breed, the best practi- 

 cal results — say, the best litter, or the fattest animal— furthermore 

 rapidity of results, more particularly in rearing, and cost of produc- 

 tion. For a carefully compiled account has to be rendered on the 

 financial aspect of the performance. Of course, there is tuition. 

 There are " leaders " of clubs, and also " State leaders " for the move- 

 ment in its wider extension. And the " county agent " or " county 

 representative," according to the country, gives his exegetic services. 

 Under such tuition, as already intimated, remarkable results are 

 achieved. It is not only that boys and girls — there are a good number 

 of girls' pig clubs now — learn to a T how to deal with their pigs, what 

 pigs to select, and how to study feeding them. Under their influence, 

 to state one fact, the feeding of hogs with rape, as an economical and 

 effective method previously not known, has become very common, 

 and large breadths of land are now sown with rape for this purpose. 

 However, the teaching has a national aspect as well. Pigs used to 

 be, if not actually razor-backs, at any rate generally of poor " scrub " 

 origin. Now boys and girls have been taught to employ only pure- 

 bred animals of good breeds. And thus, not only has their eclecti- 

 cism in their custom compelled breeders to breed only pure-bred 

 animals, in order that they may retain the sale, but the entire pig 

 industry in the United States has been affected to its improvement. 

 Also the number of pigs bred and fed has enormously increased. 

 The public benefit of this was particularly marked during the war. 

 For whereas, to state one instance, in the year 1916 the entire number 

 of pigs in the United States decreased by about 5,000,000, the two 

 States of Mississippi and Georgia, in which pig clubs are strong, 

 showed an increase of 90,000. Would not a similar institution under 



