The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-06-17
MOBIslZIE1G THE CHILDREN Frank G. Carpenter

1 of the department of agriculture al | Washington. They are an example oi
 what some of the girls and boys are l doing in every state of the south, and
 they give one some idea of a machine 1 that will be extended to the whole country and increase our food supply | to an enormous extent. I have found
 this work going on in every state | visited, and have gathered some data
 which will show you how important it
 is at this critical stage of our his | tory.
 1 Take, for instance, the pig clubs. 1 They are being started all over the south. and not only the states and counties. but banks business firms. chambers of commerce and individuals are interested in them Many people
 are loaning money to the boys of the pig clubs as patriotic work and now that the war is on these funds will be greatly increased The first club was organized in Caddo parish La. in the Tall Of 1910. with membership of 59 boys. It was an outgrowth of the corn clubs of that region and was started to give some of the club mem 1 bers an opportunity of marketing their own corn through the pigs, That club was success and other clubs were formed in Louisiana The work was ta ken up in other states and carried on in cooperation with the state ag- rlcultural colleges The agents inter- ested the bankers and others. and, by means of lantern slides and pig club motion picture films showed the peo- pie what might be done in improving the breeds of the hogs and increasing the meat and money supply Some of the work IS now done in connection with the schools, and it is gradually spreading to such an extent that it will form a big item in the pork of the future.
 This pig club work is divided into two sections-that of fattening a hog for home consumption or the market, ana that of raising a litter of pigs. Each boy may take the branch he likes pest but in most cases it is a com bination of the two.
 The pig clubs are financed by the parents of the children, or if the boy has no money he is shown how he can get work enough to earn his stock. or the money is loaned from the pig club funds of the banks through the agent. In the latter case the boy signs a note Tor the money and agrees to submit report Of his years work to the party lehdlng 1t and to the agent. He is put on his honor, and so far, almost noth- ing has been lost The pigs must be fed and cared for according to the rules set down by the agents and the best stock only is used.
 In 1915 there were more than 10000 children in the pig clubs, and of these more than 5000 were in Louisiana Ala pama and Georgia, where the work was first started. Many of the states are now onerlng prizes a the fairs for the hest pigs raised by these clubs, and it is not uncommon to see the prize given to a girl. Alice Mccoy got the prize at the Louisiana state fair in 1914. and Rachel Specs won the prize at three state fairs Tn North Carolina in 1915 Her pig was d Iamworth, and it distanced all com CTS.
 The most of the pig club members are boys. Everywhere they are beating their fathers, and some of them are making extraordinary records. In 1915 the avera ge valuation Of hog in Louisiana was S770; put the pigs of the boys clubs were worth on the average S22. 26 and similar pro- portion existed in Alabama and Georgia. TWO hundred and five pigs were exhibited by members of the clubs at the Louisiana state fair, and John Robert Reid won sl22 in prizes and was offered $4oO for one of his sows and it's litter He refused snls s put sold four of the little pigs for S26O, and he estimated his net profit that year at $647.
 Little Jack Stasr of Midland. Tex bought pure bred runt 10 weeks old, which weighed 29 pounds, and then asked to join the pig club. He is only years old, and was kept out on account of his age. Nevertheless, he fed the runt ac- cording to the directions and at the next county fair it weighed 45O pounds. It