The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-12-01
NEW P|G CLUB PLAN BEING INAUGURATED
 FOR ALABAMA BOYS
Bell Telephone Co. Cooper ating With Auburn Au-
 thorities in Project
.DADEVILLE BOYS
 GET FIRST PIGS
Each Boy Pays Back Some Little Pigs, and Thus the Good Work
 Is Continued

A departure has been made in the pro- motion of animal industry in the south
 in the shape of a pig club in Alabama on a new basis This club has been started through the initiative of the Southern Bell Telephone company, act ing through the cooperation of the ex- tension department of the Alabama Poly technc Institute in the person of J. C. Ford state pig club agent, and of c. E. Newman, assistant Boys club agent
 The telephone company made it's start in pig club work last spring in Cobb county, Ga., where it promoted pig club by giving to 27 boys registered Berkshire pigs Many citizens and banks in the county came forward and provided other boys with pigs, the result being that the club started off with 65 mem bers and took first and second prizes at the Southeastern fair in the under six month Berkshire class" One boy exhibited pig which he had received on April 2s, weighing 20 pounds. and which he showed at the fair in the mid dle of October weighing 2s5 pounds the gain of 245 pounds having been made at a cost of cents a pound.
 EXPERIMENT IN ALABAMA The experiment with the Cobb county Pig club was so satisfactory to Col. w. T. Gentry. president of the telephone company, that he instructed Chauncey Smith, special agent, who had handled the promotion of the Cobb County, Ga, club, to proceed to promote pig club in Alabama. The recognized pig club .IttI,e- tn be started in the spring and, unless this work was to go over unIll next year. some new basis had to be found. MT smith, MT. Ford and MT. Newman ac- cordmgly put their heads together and decided to start a club on an entirely new basis under which the boys were to be provided with registered bred gllts which would farrow in the spring. Ihls put up to the members Of the club the duty of carrying the gilts through the winter under an agreement Wlth lnc Southern Bell Telephone company to re- turn to it two weaned gilts from the first and three from the second litter Of pigs making the proposition strict ly commercial one from the boys point of view; that is, he pays the value for what he receives out of what ne earns, thus cultiyating in him a spirit Of self reliance and teaching him how to undertake legitimate business op- ligation This, it is felt, is much better for the boy than merely giving him the pig as present. The company expects to use the pigs which it will receive from the boys in the extension Of the pig club work as long as the demand seems to be present and the value of the pigs which the boy agrees to return IS Ile- ured out to be about the equlvalent or that of the pig which the boy receives hot ;c tl,a does not expect 10 make any profit except such as may come to it indirectly through helping the development of the live stock indus try and thereby the prosperity of the community which it serves.
 FIRST CLUB AT DADEVILLE
 The first club on this basis was opened at Dadeyille in Tallapoosa county on Saturday, November "A. The hogs were secured from Dunaway x Lambert prominent hog and cattle growers ot Dallas county, at a cost ot SSs0 or soo apiece for the six hogs-a price which indicates quality, especially when allow ance is made for the fact that the grow CTS made a special discount on account of the use to which the hogs were to be put
 The boys were all present, and the hogs were lined up before the court house. where talks were made by MT. Smith. of the telephone company, and by Mr.. Ford and Mir. Newman of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. The quality of the hogs was universally com mented on in the most favorable way they being thoroughbred stock of the finest kind, weighing 250 to 300 pounds apiece, and revelation to many clti- zens who had never seen that sort or hog before
 Finally the boys and the hogs were photographed and the pigs driven home one of them going as far as 20 miles from Dadeville.