A CITY MOUSE REDISCOVERS 4-H.

The 4-H projects have long been a summer feature at Cold Spring Shops.  To the political internet, the county fairs are often a venue for meditations on the quiet discontent of the country folk with the machinations of the coastal cosmopolitans.  Every so often, though, a populist scribe stumbles on the simpler realities. "Feel-Good Friday: 4-H Auctioneer Mentors Children on the Value of Livestock and the Value of Life." Red State contributor J. O. O'Connell expresses some surprise the program is still around.

Not being a parent, I have not heard about 4-H since I was in high school. I frankly was surprised to see it’s still around, and equally surprised that its main goal is to build leadership skills in our youth.

The benefit of these programs cannot be understated. Sadly, over the past decade, we have seen a deficit where such programs do not exist.

Find yourself a county fair to go to, dear reader, and go to it.

That's the advice to exhibitors in the swine barn at the Boone County Fair outside Belvidere, Illinois.  It's on the current exhibitors to set a good example to their younger siblings or cousins or the younger city mice who look at the show.

Ms. O'Connell continues her column with a culture lesson.  "4-H is shorthand for the organization’s original motto: 'head, heart, hands, and health.'"  One of the clubs showing in Belvidere expanded on the organization's pledge as part of their display.

The bulk of her column features Idaho adult advisor and auctioneer Dan Williams, who works with the youngsters.  You'll see allusions to those auctions in the thank you posters above the pens. recognizing Wisconsin Cheese and Dr. Kim, D.D.S. for buying these pigs.

Williams is very modest and humble about his contribution to the community in teaching responsibility, leadership, problem-solving, and economic investment to his 4-H youth. In his particular arm of agriculture, the children are put in charge of an animal’s well-being. First, they have to purchase the animal. Once purchased, the child is responsible for the cost of the animal’s maintenance, growth, and upkeep. That means getting up every morning to feed the animal, and ensuring they are fed and bedded down at night.

Three domesticated dogs are work enough for me; I cannot imagine tending to actual livestock. As much as I have learned from taking on the care and responsibility of canines, I can only imagine the wealth of knowledge that is gained when caring for a bovine, swine, equine, or other types of farm animal.

The goal of this 4-H component is that once the animal is fully grown, it will have reached the proper weight to qualify for the auction. Williams gets to go full circle with his youth mentees by auctioning off their animals, and the mentees get to see their hard work, dedication, and work product returned to their local community.

I suspect there is an element of the charity auction in these sales, as it's unlikely the dentist, or a cheese factory, or the feed mill, or my local bank, is going to process the hogs.  The difference between what the business pays to 4-H and what the animals fetch at market rates as a charitable contribution.  In my part of the country, the kids very quickly, and sometimes quite creatively, write thank you notes to decorate the pens.

And although the kids might give the animals apposite names, such as a black pig with white forelegs becoming "Oreo," these are not pets.  The point is to gain the skills to raise livestock for market, and regular participants understand as much.  The fair quarters, though, are kept tidy and properly ventilated for the stock being shown.

There is also no limit to what people might do to evaluate, compare, and quantify things, including the definition, musculature, hoof conformation, and a few other characteristics of young wethers.  (For you urban cosmopolitans, wethers are assigned the male sex at birth and then undergo bottom surgery.)

Presumably preparing stock for judging is a way of ensuring the animals are more likely to qualify for auction, and to stimulate more spirited bidding by the community.  Am I being impertinent to wonder whether on a plate with mint jelly and a side of red potatoes the musculature or the shape of the hoof matters?

Never mind that.  Find yourself a county fair, go to it, and enjoy a cream puff.