Page 2 "—^ ,. 



Published twice a month by the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association. 608 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois. 

 EMited by News Publicity Deoartment, I:;, t,. Bill. Director. 



Entry as second class matter Oct. 10, 1921, at the post 

 office at Chicago, Illinois, under the act of March 3. 1879. 

 Acceptance for mailing at special rates of postage pro- 

 vided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917. authop- 

 Ized Oct. 31. 1921. 



The indlvldua^I membership fee of the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association is five dollars a year. This fee Includes 

 payment of flfty cents for subscription to the Illinois Ag- 

 rirultiiral Association Record^ 



OFFICERS 

 Preoldnit. S. H. Thomp»o», anteer. | , 



Vlrr-Pmldrnt. A. O. Bekert. BellerlUe. | i 



Treasurer, R. A. Cowles. Bloomlmg«o». 



g««!rr««rT. C««- *• J*^ gyf—T*. ; 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

 Bj Congressttmai. Dlstiicto 



11th Henry McGough, Maple Park 



12th G. F. Tullock, Roekford 



13th C. E. Bamborough, Polo 



14th W. H. Moody, Port Byron 



ISth... H. E. Goembel, Hoopole 



Itth D. G. Reder, Mendota 



17th , F. D. Barton, Cornell 



18th.. C. R. Finley, Hoopetton 



19th D. J. Holterman, Sadorus 



20th Earl C. Smith, Detroit 



21it E. L. Corbin, Carlinvlllo 



22nd Stanley Castle, Alton 



23rd Carlton Trimble, Trimble 



24th... Curt Anderson, Xenia 



2Sth Vernon Lettley, Sparta 



Directors of Departments 

 I. A. A. Office 



General Office anB Assistant to Secretary, J. D. Harper; 

 Organization, G. E. Metzger; Information, E. L. Bill; 

 Transportation, L. J. Quasey; Statistics, J. C. Watson; 

 Finance, R. A. Cowles; Fruit and Vegetable Marketing, 

 A. B. Leeper; Live Stock Marketing, C. A. Stewart; 

 Dairy Marketing, A. O. Lynch; Phosphate-Limestone, 

 J. R. Bent. 



FORWARD! FARM BUREAU! 



Five years ago this month, at the reorganization 

 meeting of the Illinois Agricultural Association 

 at Peoria, 108 farm bureau leaders each signed 

 notes of $300.00 to underwrite the organization. 



Today the balance sheet of the association, eerti- 

 fied by public accountants, shows a net worth of 

 $214,293. Of that amount some $150,000 is in 

 cash and Government securities. 



On another page of this issue is the complete 

 balance sheet accompanied by an explanation. 

 Collection of Dues 



County farm bureaus collected $353,369 in past 

 due joint membership due^ in 1923. Past due 

 membership fees are fees which have not been 

 paid to the expiration of the membership. Joint 

 membership means membership in the county farm 

 bureau and I. A. A. This collection of past due 

 membership dues in 1923 is $118,000 more than 

 was collected in past dues in 1922. 



The current collections have also improved this 

 year. In 1922 sixty per cent of the current dues 

 were paid up. In 1923 the percentage of curr^t 

 collections reached 78.5. 



1923 BOX SCORE . 



Here are some of things that the farm bureau, 

 county and state organizations, have helped to 

 bring about in 1923: 



Over 20,000 carloads of livestock with a gross 

 value of $25,000,000 were, shipped through Illinois 

 'shipping associations in the year. The I. A. A. 

 assisted in the incorporation of 38 associations. 

 Three field men are working in Illinois for Live- 

 stock Producers Commission companies under the 

 direction of the I. A. A. Ninety-two counties are 

 served by one or more shipping associations. 



A law was enacted prohibiting the manufacture 

 and sale of fiUed milk in Illinois and another law 

 prohibits the use of dairy terms and pictures in 

 advertising substitutes for dairy products. 



Forty-seven counties purchased rock phosphate 

 through the I. A. A. in the year. 



The Transportation Department handled 431 

 traffic problems for members in the year, and col- 

 lected 349 railroad claims amounting to $9,544. 

 The membership was represented in eighty hear- 

 ings and conferences on transportation problems.' 



The 200,000 pounds of wool in the I. A. A. pool 

 ia 1923, which is an increase of 52,000 pounds 



The nUnoii Agricultural Aiaodation Record 



jMMMtfy 21, 1924 



over 1922, netted six cents a pound more than 

 average local prices paid. 



Three laws were enacted in the year appropri- 

 ating $1,000,000 for eradication of bovine tubercu- 

 losis. Forty-six counties have employed veterinari- 

 ans for area tuberculosis testing. Ten counties 

 have tuberculosis vigilance committees and fifteen 

 counties have offered rewards to apprehend viola- 

 tors of tuberculosis regulations and laws. 



The reduction in taxes on farm land for both 

 county and state purposes in 1923 as compared 

 with 1922 is estimated at $2,000,000. The reduc- 

 tion on farm land taxes since 1920, when the farm 

 bureau first started work on the problem, is esti- 

 mated at $3,963,733. 



In the year farm bureaus ordered 275,000 tons 

 of agricultural limestone. The I. A. A. sampled- 

 and analyzed the product of 31 commercial quar- 

 ries producing and selling limestone. 



Illinois cooperative dairy associations sold $4,- 

 900,000 worth of products in 1923. The I. A. A. 

 rendered service to 20 cooperative dairy associa- 

 tions in the year. 



Thirty-one county farm bureaus purchased 18,- 

 000,000 cubic centimeters of anti-hog cholera 

 serum in the year, at a cost of 75 cents per 

 hundred. 



ACCOUNTING FOR CO-OPS 



"Farmers' cooperatives simply must have correct 

 accounting and authoritative auditing or their offi- 

 cers and directors are blindly exercising their 

 trusteeship." That is what George E. Frazer, a 

 man of wide experience in the business world, 

 said at the annual meeting. They must get good 

 accounting and good auditing for the protecting 

 of their members or, like other public institutions, 

 the state must step in and regulate them, Mr. 

 Frazer stated. 



It was the recognition of the need for better 

 accounting that brought about the legislation in 

 Minnesota under which an accounting division for 

 cooperative marketing was established in the State 

 Department, of Agriculture, said George Wicker 

 at another time during the Ineeting. 



When talking about cooperative dairy organiza- 

 tions, Secretary George A. Fox made the state- 

 ment that every failure is traceable directly or in- 

 directly to faulty accounting and lack of financial 

 controL 



LET'S NOT FORGET TO PLAY 



Forget the business problems for a few minutes 

 and read what Benjamin Darrow said at the 

 annual meeting: 



"There is a crushing poverty in playless lives. 

 As the relatives and friends have stood in sorrow 

 on the porch of some farm home, the iron hearse 

 has crunched the gravel of the driveway loudly 

 and it has come to carry away the body of a man 

 who should have given ten or twenty years more 

 of his accumulated wisdom and ability and love 

 to his family. He robbed God of many years more 

 of service on earth. His epitaph should be, 'He 

 Forgot To Play.' 



"Young people are not the only ones who need 

 more social enjoyment. 



"Choring by lantern light has cost the farmer 

 as much as it has made him. 



"Laughter wipes away the worries and music 

 soothes the heartaches." 



It is startling to hear this kind of talk in the 

 midst of an annual meeting loaded with prob- 

 lems of cooperative marketing, legislation, taxa- 

 tion and so on. But it is easy to recognize what 

 Mr. Darrow is talking about, and if we will admit 

 it, the most of us are guilty. 



Mr. Darrow 's remedy is a commnnity club, 

 filled with good times. . " 



STABILIZING LIVESTOCK MARKETS 



The big ultimate aim of the National Livestock 

 Producers Association is to stabilize markets, to 

 cat out gluts and lean runs. Before very much can 



be done in regulating the flow of livestock to mar- 

 ket, the Producers commission associations must 

 have a big volume of the business, and before Pro- 

 ducers can get a big volume of business they must 

 sell to the satisfaction of their customers. 



A few days ago the Chicago Producers Commis- 

 sion Association reported an increase in business of 

 133 per cent in cattle. 111 per cent in hogs and 

 239 per cent in sheep, for the last six months in 



1923 as compared with the same period in 1922. 

 The Chicago Producers handled 15,855 carloads of 

 livestock in 1923. 



The success of Producers livestock commission 

 companies cannot be measured by the si^e of the 

 dividend declared, but a big dividend does denote 

 efficiency. The association at E. St. Louis an- 

 nounces a dividend of $80,000i 



) . I ■-..■ -^ i v-:r ■■:.; 



^ SANGAMON FIGURES TAX CUT 



The Sangamon County Farm Bureau selected 

 34 farms of 80 acres each at random from 17 town- 

 ships in the county. It found that the county 

 tax for the 34 farms in 1923 was $980.46, and in 



1924 the county tax will be $816.60 for the 34 farms, 

 or a reduction of six cents per acre. It concludes 

 that this reduction applied to the 500,000 acres of 

 farm lands in the county would make a total saving 

 of $30,000. 



The assessed valuation of these 34 farms in 1923 

 was a total of $152,230, and in 1924, $107,120, a 

 difference of $45,110 on the 2,720 acres in these 

 farms, or about $16.50 per acre. This reduction in 

 valuation, applied to the 500,000 acres of the coun- 

 ty would be a total reductiAn in valuation of $8,- 

 250,000. Applying the 1924 state tax rate of 50 

 cents a hundred to this reduction makes a saving of 

 $40,125. 



The Sangamon County Farm Bureau concludes 

 that the saving in county taxes is equal to 2,000 

 farm bureau memberships of $15.00 each, and the 

 saving in state taxes is equal to 2,675 farm bureau 

 memberships. 



EGGS ARE EGGS IN ILLINOIS 



"With the view of finding out what Illinois farm- 

 ers can do to better the marketing of poultry and 

 eggs, the I. A. A. sent one of its men to investigate 

 cooperative marketing organizations in the west and 

 south. 



After probing into the affairs of marketing or- 

 ganizations in nine states and asking questions of 

 their competitors, the investigator comes to the 

 conclusion that grading of eggs according to quality 

 and appearance is the most important thing which 

 cooperative marketing is giving to egg producers. 



Eggs are eggs in Illinois. The good ones, often 

 the bad ones, the white ones, the brown ones, the 

 speckled ones, the dirty ones, the big ones and the 

 little ones, are all sold or traded for groceries at 

 tl ne price per dozen. But before they reach 

 tb rket, the big eastern market, all of the eggs 

 ar idled and graded. Country egg shippers 

 mmission buyers in the terminal markets 

 nt piles of bad eggs that farmers were paid 



an 

 th 

 foi 



J lont think for a minute you slipped any- 

 thi..g, uirer on the commission man. As well as 

 throwing out some bad eggs the commission man 

 has many eggs that are of the best grade and they 

 are sold for a whole lot more than the producer 

 received. Car lot buyers of eggs in the country 

 have told our investigator that a good share of their 

 profit is in grading. 



The consumer demands uniform grade, high qual- 

 ity eggs and he gets them and pays for them, but 

 the producer does not furnish them, nor does he 

 get paid for them. Most eggs are not sold by grade 

 and quality in Ulinois. The man who has good 

 quality eggs has no advantage when selling to his 

 grocer or huckster over the man who cares little 

 about quality. There is no incentive to the pro- 

 ducer to better the quality. The I. A. A. is work- 

 ing on this problem. . 



..J.'.:; 



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