38 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



business methods. The associations of the members, the contests, 

 the trips to fairs, etc., open the minds, broaden the vision, and 

 awaken the spirits of the members. The club work is a feeder of the 

 agricultural colleges. It leads to community action and spirit, as it 

 gives a rallying point to interest, a community interest. It is a 

 means of tying up the heart interests of the members with life on the 

 farm. It is a character building work. In short, the indirect results 

 of pig club work are perhaps of equal importance with the direct 

 results, though not so easily measured. The consciousness of the 

 successful achievement, by a boy or girl, has a value that cannot be 

 measured in dollars and cents." 



Large as is the place which pig clubs now fill in the array of infan- 

 tile and under-age educational club work, that club by no means 

 commands a monopoly there. There are, as observed, clubs of all 

 sorts, all of them educational, all of them popular and multiplying, 

 all of them doing much useful work, telling on the present genera- 

 tion and on the coming one. Poultry clubs, calf clubs, corn clubs, 

 alfalfa (lucerne) clubs, and others besides, have an equally good 

 record. Canning and preserving clubs for girls are great favourites 

 and mean a good deal, not only for the comfort and humble luxury at 

 home, but also for the turning of farm produce into money, and in 

 this manner for the increase of production. For the Canadian 

 saying holds good very markedly on this educational ground : " We 

 eat what we can, and can what we can't." There are canning fairs 

 held as well as pig fairs, and much canned produce is got rid of in this 

 way, invariably at good prices, leaving a fair margin over for the 

 producer. But the main object of the " fair," so far as selling comes 

 into play, of course is to stimulate trade through the channel of 

 ordinary channels. Poultry clubs, for either boys or girls, are at 

 least as popular, and have done, and continue doing, a great deal 

 towards the improvement of breeds, stimulating the egg-laying 

 qualities, and extending the practice of this valuable branch of 

 husbandry, which, from a mere pocket money earning by industry 

 has become a source of rather substantial profit. In other clubs, 

 having live stock for their object — there are still only comparatively 

 few sheep and lamb clubs — improvement of breeds is likewise a main 

 aim pursued, with distinct success. Fattening and rearing young 

 stock, however, come mostly into account in the pig competitions. 

 The fattest calf, fattened in shortest time, and at least cost, the best 

 heifer, the best colt — all these things fetch rewards — cost of produc- 

 tion being in every case taken into particular account. Then, as 

 observed, there are the corn clubs, wheat, potato, or alfalfa clubs and 



