American Agriculturist, September 22,1923 
201 
Peggy Keith—Farm Girl 
The Story of a Typical American Youngster 
Y OU’D grin, too, if you had to your 
credit all the achievements which 
Peggy Keith is able to count as hers. 
For Miss Peggy is an American farm 
girl whose fame has spread from one 
coast to the other. She has been her¬ 
alded as the leader of 75,000 other 
farm girls, and it would be hard to 
find anyone anywhere who could touch 
her record, let alone equal it. 
As a result of her livestock enter¬ 
prises, started when she joined a local 
Girl’s Club at the age of eight, she 
will come this fall to the Eastern 
States’ Exposition at Springfield, Mass. 
Peggy and her Guernseys will be there 
at the Department of Agriculture Ex¬ 
hibit, from September 16 to 23, but she 
will have left at home many more ex¬ 
hibits of her skill, for Guernseys are 
not the only animals that bespeak 
Ppcrcrv^ intprPQf 
The New York “World” mentions a 
few in a recent article which calls 
her “America’s most able farm girl.” 
Pictures show Peggy with her prize 
collies, with a prize cockerel, and with 
the Guernsey cattle, which are her par¬ 
ticular pride. Her home is in Fanquier 
County, Virginia, near Warrenton; 
she was raised on a 535-acre farm 
which her mother has managed for 
many years, 
'Milk-Drinking Made Her Strong 
When three years old, the little girl 
was given a Shetland pony, Corinna. 
And Corinna still kicks up her heels 
on the Keith farm, nor will her owner 
sell her, though often tempted. Peggy, 
be it noted, was not a strong baby. 
She was always a fighter though, and 
now is as sturdy as one could wish. 
She has always been a milk-drinker 
and keeps up the good habit. 
When she was eight years old, she 
joined the potato club, planting, culti¬ 
vating and harvesting her small crop. 
The plot grew and corn was added. 
Then she planted tomatoes, and put 
them up. Next came a setting of eggs^ 
which started her in the poultry busi¬ 
ness. By the time she was twelve, she 
had capital and strength enough to 
launch into the cattle line. 
She took short courses in stock judg¬ 
ing and went to junior shows. Mean¬ 
while, she finally obtained a calf in 
payment for feeding and caring for 
others. She kept trading for better, 
until she could get a registered Guern¬ 
sey heifer. Now she has four pure¬ 
bred cows and a pure-bred bull. 
But Peggy has not forgotten the 
ponies* for Corinna started her in that 
line, too. She has a herd of twenty, 
and also raises white collie pups. With 
the exception of the Shetland pony, 
■orinna, Peggy has herself earned 
everything she owns. At little more 
s ^ e now bas in her own name 
•plO.OOO worth of livestock. 
Trying For New Honors 
“Peggy has demonstrated with the 
most compelling force that honest, hard 
work _ is clean, wholesome, honorable 
and dignified,” says the “World.” “She 
is not ashamed to perform the common 
farm tasks and her callohsed hands 
show it.” 
Now Peggy Keith, with three young¬ 
er sisters to help her, is to go up 
against the experienced breeders and 
showmen who will exhibit at Spring- 
field. There are at home twenty silver 
cups, one gold cup, and scores of rib¬ 
bons to bear witness to her zeal in 
the business which she has chosen. She 
may bring home more—and she may 
not. But whatever the outcome of her 
trip North, she has shown that an 
American farm girl with pluck, initia¬ 
tive and common sense can hold her 
own, in the battle to make farming pay. 
•-She is an inspiration not only to young¬ 
sters of the club age but to “oldsters” 
as well. 
Hats off to Peggy Keith! 
A SCHOOL INFORMATION BUREAU 
An energetic rural teacher in Illinois 
was discouraged with the lack of co¬ 
operation from the parents of her pu¬ 
pils. They seldom visited the school, 
leaving her to meet all the struggles 
and victories alone. 
She called her older boys together 
and had them fit an old bookcase with 
pigeonholes and magazine partitions. 
To the girls she gave the pleasant task 
of lettering these alphabetically. Then 
the pupils -/ere instructed to look out 
for all articles on farm life or progress, 
to clip them, whenever possible, and 
file them in the proper compartments. 
In one-half of the bookcase subjects 
likely to appeal to men were filed; in 
the other, were valuable hints for 
women concerning domestic problems, 
club-papers, pin-money items, flower, 
bee, poultry-raising and the like. Many 
subjects important in farm life were 
covered by latest reports—diseases of 
stock, proper feeding of animals, crop- 
rotation, insect pests and preventatives, 
and market reports; and easier way of 
making cake, weaving rugs, drying 
fruit or dyeing dresses. 
Parents became really interested and 
new items were sent constantly to this 
school information bureau. It was open 
every school day and on special occa¬ 
sions, the only stipulation being that 
the piece or pattern was to be copied, 
so that the original might always be on 
hand for reference. Many farmers or 
farmers’ wives soon made it a habit to 
stop by for the latest news and ideas; 
and when they came they stayed a 
while to visit with their own and their 
neighbors’ children. TLe children also 
learned to recite easily before “com¬ 
pany” and gained as much poise as 
their older city brothers and sisters. — 
Bell Elliott Palmer. 
« 
The Broad Highway 
(Continued from page 199) 
generous aid in the spirit in which it 
is offered, but—” 
“But?” exclaimed Sir Richard. 
“Until then—” 
. “Oh, the devil!” said Sir Richard, 
and ringing the bell ordered his horse 
to be brought to the door, and there¬ 
after stood with his back to the empty 
fireplace, his fists thrust down into his 
pockets, frowning heavily and with a 
fixed intentness at the nearest arm¬ 
chair. 
Sir Richard Anstruther is tall and 
broad, ruddy of face, with a prominent 
nose and great square chin whose 
grimness is offset by a mouth singu¬ 
larly sweet and tender, and the kindly 
light of blue eyes; he is in very truth 
a gentleman. Indeed, as he stood there 
in his plain blue coat with its high 
roll collar and shining silver buttons, 
his spotless moleskins and heavy, 
square-toed riding boots, he was as fair 
a type as might be of the English coun¬ 
try gentleman. It is such men as he, 
who, fearless upon the littered quarter¬ 
decks of reeling battleships, undis¬ 
mayed amid the smoke and death of 
stricken fields, their duty well and 
nobly done, have turned their feet 
homewards to pass their latter days 
amid their turnips and cabbages, beat¬ 
ing their swords into pruning-hooks, 
and glad enough to do it. 
(To be continued) 
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