UNIVERSITY BULLETIN LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY Published by the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College at Baton Rouge. Issued montlily except November and December. Entered DecemlDer 22, 1909, at Baton Rouge, La., aa second-ciass matter, under Act of Congress of July 16, 1894. Vol. 5, N. S. MARCH, 1914. No. 3. V LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY If AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENT PIG CLUBS IN LOUISIANA BY Wm. H. BALIS ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION BATON ROUGE RAMIKES-JONES PltlNTINO Co. 1914 MwpgrapTj LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENT EDWIN S. RICHARDSON, Director. WILLIAM H. BALIS, Assistant Director in Charge of Pig Clubs. MISS ELIZABETH B. KELLEY, State Supervisors of Home Economics, Assistant in Charge of Canning Clubs. JOHN A. REDHEAD, Assistant in Charge of Corn Clubs. MISS OLA POWELL, Assistant in Canning Clubs. MARVIN G. OSBORN, Secretar3^ ■ ORGANIZATION OF PIG CLUBS BEGAN IN LOUISIANA. In Caddo Parish in the fall of 1910 a club of fifty-nine boys was organized by the Parish Superintendent of Rural Schools, E. W. Jones, for the purpose of raising pigs. The same winter similar clubs were started in Ouachita and Claiborne parishes and a campaign was conducted by Prof. W. R. Dodson and Prof. V. L. Roy on the Rock Island Demonstration Train, which resulted in eleven parishes taking up the work. The idea of forming clubs of this kind grew out of the Boys' Corn Club movement. The organization thus started soon proved to be very suc- cessful, so in 1911 the Agricultural Extension Department of the Louisiana State University undertook the organization of such clubs throughout the State. - - " In October, 1912, the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture began to cooperate with the University Extension Department in the Pig Club work in Louisiana. ' HOW THE WORK DEVELOPED. From an organization of 59 boys, the pig clubs have grown in three years to a membership of 1,669 boys and girls. The number of pigs exhibited by tliem at .the State Fair in Shreveport has increased from 27 tp 120, and the quality of the animals shown has improved to such an extent that several boys at the last show put their pigs in the ring against the best breeders of the South and took blue ribbons. ■ • AIM OF THE PIG CLUBS. These clubs, like the corn and canning clubs, are being organ- ized to educate the boy and girl to an interest in things of the farm. The rural school teacher can do nothing that will vitalize the work of the school more than to help a boy to learn some- thing that will be useful in his work at home. The object in having boys raise pigs is to teach them that hogs and other stock are profitable in the farming systems of Louisiana. In 1913 there was sold in .Jjouisiana by three of the big packing companies, $6,424,000 in pork products alone. There are fifteen other packing companies from which data could not be obtained. This means that there is being expended annually for every man, woman and child in the State at least $10.00 for pork products, and the money is going into the pockets of farmers in other States. At the same time the live hogs sold out of the State are practically a negligible quantity. It is a fact demonstrated by the Experiment Station and by many farmers that pork can be produced here more econom- ically than in the sections whence we are buying. A Boys' Pig Club organization can do much to desseminate this information. HOW THE WORK IS CARRIED ON. The organization of pig clubs is under the direction of the Agricultural Extension Department of the Louisiana State Uni- versity cooperating with the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture. Agencies assisting in the work are the parish superintendents of schools, the farm demonstration agents, the agricultural high school teachers, and the progressive rural school teachers. The Extension Department employs an assistant jointly with the Bureau of Animal Industry, who has charge of pig clubs. It is his duty to visit as many as possible of the schools of the State to organize clubs, give instructions to members and teach- ers and help in any way that is desired. The assistants in charge of the corn, canning and pig clubs are cooperating by organizing- all clubs at the same time. The Parish Superintendents can be of the greatest service in this work, as they have charge of the teachers, and their sanction is absolutely necessary before the teachers can give their cooperation. Many Superintendents have been directly re- sponsible for the success of this work in their parishes The Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration office is lending its aid by asking its agents, of which there are 50 in the different parishes of the State, to help in the pig club work, just as they do in the corn and canning clubs. These men, who are prac- tical farmers themselves, are in a position to see the work of RESERVE CHAMPION SOW. PIG CLUB, 1913. STONEWALL. GEO. GILMER, many of the boys in their homes, and can give a word of per- sonal encouragement and advice, which is more effective than any letter or bulletin can possibly be. The agricultural teachers in the thirty-seven state-aided agricultural high schools are required by State regulation to spend part of their time organizing corn, pig and canning clubs. The work of these men is very largely responsible for the suc- cess of the pig club organization. The regulation of the State governing this is as follows : ' ' The agricultural extension work, which the agricultural teacher in the parish has charge of, shall consist in directing and giving information to the boys' corn and pig clubs in the parish." The real success of the work in the end depends on the active interest shown by the teachers in schools where clubs are or- ganized. The other agencies named can accomplish very little without their help, for it takes daily personal encouragement and help to keep the boy interested. These other agencies can simply give the expert assistance that is needed. 6 r . . . ... - .RXEiES: AND ,R|;^J^4/i:iONa; ; The few rules we have are;4si)lairied in the fpllowi% para- graphs. Local managers can ^matee special rules^.i^ addition, if they desire. Who Can Join the Pig Club. ' Any school boy or girl in Louisiana old enough to care for a pig. Teachers are requested not to send in names of boys who can get no place to care for a pig. Kind of Pig to Get. Select breed desired and any age. A non-registered pig is allowable. A young registered gilt is preferable, because a young pig gives the members an opportunity to watch growth and development. Later her offspring will be more profitable. A non-registered boar is very undesirable. Non-registered bar- rows and gilts which are high grade are just as profitable for pork as any, provided they are not poor individuals. In order to economize it is better for each local club to agree on one breed. This will enable one good boar to suffice and also make the hogs of the locality more uniform, a very important item in shipping to market. Hog breeders of the State have made special prices to the club members. Information about this may be obtained from the Agricultural Extension Depart- ment. Old members should be encouraged to keep sows they have fed so as to raise a litter of pigs. Premiums will be offered for this in the future. Records Must Be Kept by Members. These records must show the amount and kind of feed given. No record will be accepted which shows that the member did not care for the pig at least four months. Two record blanks are to be used. One of these is sent to the member on receipt of the name, and on it is to be kept the record during the year. The other will be furnished just be- fore the fair, and both must be returned to the Agricultural Extension Department at Baton Rouge when properly filled out. No. pig will be allowed to compete for a premium at the State Fair unless the record has been made and sent to this deparfmeiit. If Toeal cliib managers wisli WHave^tliese'Trepofts, ari-ang-ements must be made to have them sent to the Exten- sion Department. Keeping this record is the most important feature of the work. Enrollment of Members. Any one interested in organizing a pig club may get the names of all boys and girls wishing to join the club and send them to,the Agricultural Extension Department at Baton Rouge. A blank sheet of paper may be used for this, but ' ' PIG CLUB must be written across the top of each sheet. This list should show: the name and age of member, post- office, rural route, parish, name of teacher, and" name of parent or guardian, if necessary to proper delivery of mail. We have several hundred letters returned each year because of improper adclrass being sent us, so care should be taken about this. CARSON SULLIV.AX. 1 1 - YKAR-OF.D BOY OF GOLDOXNA, AND SWEEPSTAKES PIG, 1913. 8 SWEEPSTAKES SOW, 1912. OTIS WOOD MADE PIG IN TWELVE MONTHS. f257 WITH THIS Fairs and Exhibits. The fair associations of the State almost without exception have given premiums for the best pigs shown by the boys and girls. School boards, banks, police juries, business houses and others have added very materially to this. In parishes where there is no fair, local club exhibits are held, which have been better attended in some cases than the regular fairs. After the local fairs are over the best of the pigs are taken to the State Fair at Shreveport. In the past arrange- ments have been made with the railroads of the State and the State Fair Association to do this free of cost to the club mem- bers. Premiums. Premiums offered should be small and so distributed that every worthy exhibit may be recognized. If the premium is worth as much as twenty dollars it is suggested that it be in the shape of a trip to the State Fair or to the winter Farmers' Short Course at the Louisiana State University. The local club organizers are expected to arrange for the premiums at their local fairs. Premiums at the State Fair and the exhibit there are in charge of the Extension Department. Information about premium lists may be had on application to this department. Crates for Shipping Hogs, The accompanying cut shows a good shipping crate. It is extremely dangerous to ship a hog in a poorly made crate. 2«+ ZiZ- U4- Cleats jor drop gatg ^ 6idc view 21 1 2«1- -^^3- -t*-^ l.\\\V\W Softd botlbm (<\V\V\\A\N\\\V^<-z OKop qaTe -^ ^ ^^ ^^ /«+ Dkod 0|ate 5:<:i<^d K*;^ RJ:^. ixt S^f j;Ji>i^^»i>^':^^AV^^v>^\.>>v^v.v\.Vss; lop view DESIGN rOR A tlOO SniPPINO CRATt' TronT View Drawn by E. B. Doran. Designed Ity W. P. Martin. The crate should be made 8 niches wider than the pig-, 12 inches longer and hig-h enough to give plenty of room to stand. The pieces on the sides and ends at the bottom should never be nailed on so that cracks will be left that the hog's feet can slip through. 10 Feed and Care of the Pig. - ; . ' ; -,: ■ ■ -, ■■. ; On the last page of this circular there is a list of bulletins and other publications which tell how to feed and care for a pig. Some of these publications can be had free of cost upon ap- plication to the colleges and universities named in the list. As the pig club members usually start with one pig each, they do not often get a place to take care of them, just as a farmer would do with a large number. With one pig it is possible to feed largely on waste material around the farm, such as unsaleable grain, slops from the kitchen (if they are free from washing powders), sour milk and waste vegetables from the garden. Every member, however, should try to practice regular farm methods as far as possible, as the object of this work is very largely to teach the boys how to raise hogs on feeds grown at home. This is the only way that hog-raising as a business will ultimately pay well in Louisiana, or, for that matter, in any other State. Bulletin 124 of the Louisiana Experimnet Sta- tion gives a very complete discussion of the feeds that we can raise in Louisiana for hogs and how to plant them. No boy's pig should ever be put up in a small, filthy pen. Every farm has some place on it where a pig can run on Bermuda and lespedeza grass. Clean water is another very important matter and in hot weather good shade is essential. A pig that is allowed to run on a good, clean pasture, with plenty of fresh water and shade, will keep in good health and grow better. The most important of all, though, is the amount of care and attention that the pig gets from the pig club boy or girl who is raising it. Some of the boys even wash and brush their hogs. The boy who was sent to A¥ashington City for his work in raising a pig fed it every two hours until it was about half grown. While these things were not all that m.ade their pigs grow, the care and attention this indicates is just as important as the feed. Every pig club member should be urged to plant some of the following crops and let the pigs gather them in the field if pos- sible : cowpeas and corn, winter oats or rye, peanuts, sweet potatoes, winter rape, stock beets on strong ground, soy beans, Bermuda and lespedeza pasture. 11 Two-Year-Old Razor-back. Club Pig 6 Months Old. Raised by Leo. Vernon, Tangipahoa. Some Salient Features of the Work. This 3'ear over 500 bo^^s and girls sent in reports of how they raised their pigs. There were 120 hogs shown by club members at the Louisiana State Fair and 50 boys were in attendance. The breeders present were so interested in the boys as to direct them how to fit their hogs for the show ring, and allowed them to enter their pigs in the ring with those of professional breeders, to see how they would compare. Some of them were placed first over strong classes of breeders' hogs. Mary Douglas, a little girl from Gilliam, had a fine pig this year. She is to receive all the money she can make until she is 21 years of age in raising pigs. This money vs to be used for her college education. Harry Means, a boy from Ida. has a bank account vi $105.00 made chiefly by raising pigs. And he still has fourteen pigs. W. R. Horton, an agricultural teacher in the Dodson High School, hvul nine pigs shown b\- his boys in 1912. They all won premiums, and this year J\Ir. Horton had to get a car to take his club pigs, and then did not liave room for all. E. M. Sledge, the agricultural teacher at Goldonna. got a sow for his school farm in the fall of 1912. He sold the pigs from 12 this sow to the boys in his school, and the pictures show what some of them did. The following is a letter from one of his boys, written for the Shreveport Journal : "Now, boys, do not think it is too much expense to raise a pig. Since I was two years old I have been taught to save what few dimes I got hold of, and then my papa is agent for the tele- phone company, and I have made several dimes as messenger boy. I then sold a little yearling I had and it made me enough to buy a pig. I was an inexperienced boy in the pig business, but I determined to learn all I could and proceeded to do my best. I had a little grass lot where I kept ray pig. I fed it on shorts mostly and once in a while I gave it some chops. About GO days before the Fair I got a little tankage, which is a bone producer. My pig was a Duroc Jersey sow. I showed it at the State Fair and had good luck. I won four prizes and also sweep- stakes. The pig cost me from the time I bought it until tlie Fair 4^/^ cents per pound, but unless you want to make an exhibit it would BOYS FROM SCOTT, LA., AT THE STATE FAIR WITH ONE OP THEIR PIGS, WHICH WON SWEEPSTAKES AT THE LAFAYETTE FAIR. 13 not cost so much. You cah'grow a pig for about a dollar a month if you just want it to grow. Do not let any one persuade you not to get a pig, but get a pig the first opportunity you have and meet us boys at the State Fair next year with a pig. If you can't get one kind, get another. There is more money in hogs today than anything we can get. So come along, boys, and let us get busy in the pig clubs. Let every one try to have the best pigs, and by so doing we will have fine hogs and more of them. Let's make this the grandest thing next year at the State Fair."' Yours truly, Carson Sullivan, Member of Pig Club, Goldonna, La. LITTER MATES. Pig Club Methods vs. Root-Hog-or-Die Way. Large Hog raised bj' Orange McGee, Golonna. ■14 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS ON SWINE Teachers may get copies of some of these for the Library. U. S. Department of Agriculture, "Washington, D. C: Hog Houses Farmers' Bulletin 43& Hog- Cholera Farmers' Bulletin 379 Pig Management Farmers' Bulletin 205 Feeding- Hogs in the South Farmers' Bulletin 411 Hog Raising in the South Circular 30 Pig Clubs Farmers' Bulletin 566 North Dakota Agricultural College, Fargo, N. D.: Pork Production Under North Dakota Conditions. .. .Bulletin S3 Montana College of A. and M. Arts, Bozeman, Mont.: Pig Feeding Experiments Bulletin 73 Experiment with Pigs Bulletin 89 Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster, Ohio: iSpecific Effects of Rations on the Development of Swine Bulletin 213 Forage Crops for Swine Bulletin 242 University of Illinois, Urbana, 111.: Food Requirements for Gpowmg;. and Fattening Swine. Circular 126 A Portable 'Panel Fence ' ...;..... Circular 132 Feeding the Pig. . . . -. . .-. .Circular 13,3 The Local Construction and Operation of Hog Houses. Bulletiu 1019 Feeding Swine with Special Reference to Developing ■ " - for Breedirig-, Rurpo'ses Circular ,< 1^3 University . of Wiscdnsiri, Madison, Wis.: - ' ".;•, . Portable Hog Houses Bulletiji 153 ■ Relative Value of Shelled Corn and Corn Meal for ,- ". ' ,v- •" Hogs....' Bulletin H^ Practical Swine Management .'. . .Bulletin i^4 Uni-versitJ^ of Arkansas, Payetteville, Ark.: , . '■ ' - ' Pork Production Experiments ; ;.'.". '.-.Bulletin" 73 Brood Sows: Selection, Feeding Management. ..... ™Circuiar 10 Farmers' Handbook on Swine. 1 .................... ^.Circular ' .2 investigation of Swine Diseases in Arkansas. .;,.... .Bulletin 67 • '.'■' Iowa. State College of A. and M. Arts, Ames, Iowa: Forage Crops for Swine Bulletin . . . Hogging Down Corn a Successful Practice. Bulletin 143 University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.: Forage Crop Rotations for Pork Production Bulletin llO Mississippi A. and M. College, Starkville, Miss.: Pork Production at the Delta Station Bulletin 107 Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, Ala.: Fattening Hogs in Alabama Bulletin 168 Curing Meat on the Farm Bulletin 166 Louisiana State University and A. and M. College, Baton Rouge, La.: A Few Facts About Swine Production in Louisiana Cir. Breeds of Hogs and Best Crops to Grow for Hogs, and Other Data Bulletin 124 15 SUMMARY YEAR'S WORK 1913. 1. Members Heard from not makina; formal re o port 148 2. Number reporting. . . 367 3. Enrollment 1,669 4. Number of parishes with clubs 40 5. Average age of pigs when purchased 9.9 weeks 6. Length of time fed 6.25 months 7. Average weight at beginning 34.5 pounds 8. Average weight at reporting 185.5 pounds 9. Average cost per pound with pasture 4.9 cents 10. Average cost per pound without pasture ... 6.8 cents 11. Number each breed owned by Pig Club mem- bers: Poland China 155 Duroc Jersey 72 Grades 75 Berkshires 43 0. 1. C 8 Essex 5 Tam worth 3 Yorkshire 2 Hampshire 3 12. Number reported lost by cholera 31 Much of this loss could have been easily prevented had club managers insisted on the proper sanitary precautions and used anti-hog cholera serum when necessary. Serum is made by the State Live Stock Sanitary Board, Baton Eouge. Do not send requests to any one but this board. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 002 835 078 8 €