TRAINING FOR COUNTRY LIFE 37 



the same circumstances have proved a boon to ourselves ? Mr. 

 J. D. McVean, of the Animal Husbandry Division of the Federal 

 Department of Agriculture, records the statement of a local 

 authority, that in his State " pig club work has created the greatest 

 demand for breeding stock that the State has ever experienced. 

 Also the market value of herds has greatly improved. Before this 

 year (1917) it was hard to get a farmer to pay 10 dollars for a good 

 hog ; now they pay 50 and 100 dollars. Pigs have become of 

 greater intrinsic value." In the South, where, in Caddo Parish, 

 Louisiana, the pig club practice had its origin, in 1914, pig breeding 

 and pig fattening have been, through the action of the pig clubs, 

 quite newly created. Before 1910 there was scarcely a pig to be seen 

 there. Now pig herds are numerous, well bred and strong, and yield 

 after their usual good manner. Members of pig clubs are also taught 

 pig curing. For a large number of pigs are reared and fed up for 

 domestic use, to feed the family on the farm. Mr. McVean, in the 

 article already referred to (which appeared in the Year Book of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture of four years ago) ascribes 

 a most stimulating effect exercised on the pig industry in the United 

 States to the pig clubs, and he goes on to say : " People familiar 

 with the pig club work realise that it means more than the mere 

 feeding of a pig to make a few dollars profit. They are realising 

 that where the club work is followed to the fruition, it is a means of 

 creating and broadening the vision, of awakening spirit, and of char- 

 acter-building. The improvement in the quality of the breeding 

 stock, the increased interest in live stock production, the improved 

 methods and the resulting greater profits are important factors in 

 the economic and social development of the sections in which pig 

 club work is carried on. The competitive idea grips the youngsters' 

 interest and holds their minds open in a way that has not been 

 approached by any other system ; incidentally, the opened mind is 

 indelibly impressed with the points that indicate strength or weak- 

 ness, merit, type, breediness, quality, vigour, prepotency, etc., in the 

 pigs or other classes of live stock that come before them either in a 

 contest, in college, or in business life. This article would be incom- 

 plete if no mention were made of the indirect results of the work. 

 It establishes a point of contact between father and son, awakening 

 a new spirit of comradeship between them. As a result more boys 

 stay on the home farms. Fathers learn to appreciate their children 

 and to give them fair play ; that is, they learn that in club work it 

 cannot be a case of ' sonny's pig, but daddy's hog.' The financing 

 of members by bankers teaches intelligent borrowing and good 



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