I 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ^ - 



(By Congressional Districts) 



1^ to 11th Willi«n Webb, Route One, JoUet 



i; th ^ G. F. Tuilock. Rockford 



i; th '. C, E. Bamborough, Polo 



lith W. H. Moodv, Port Bvron 



h B. H. Tavlor, Rapatee 



_.h A. R. Vi right, Vama 



i; th F, D. Barton, Cornell 



|( th R. F. Karr, Iroquois 



1« th J. L. Whisnand. Charleston 



21th..K -. -Charles Borgelt, Havana 



2; St Samuel SorTells, Raymond 



2. od Frank Oexner, Waterloo 



2. rd ,. . - W. L. Cope. Salem 



2'th Charles Marshall, Belknap 



Z^Cli R. K. Loomis, Makanda 



Publiabed once a month at 404 North Wesley Ave., Mount M 

 Chicago, Illinois. Entpred as secood'^rtass mafter October 20, 1925, at 

 412. Act of February 28. 1925. authorized Ortober 27, 1925. Tht* jndiv 

 Illinois AGRicd-TURAL AaeociATioN Record. Postmaator: 





«s»)iMS!assjiiSJi«a5SiMiiaiiigi»3i!iages^^ 



Master Farmers Honored 



FIFTEEN outstanding Illinois farmers were 

 honored by Prairie Farmer at its Second An- 

 nual Master Farmer Banquet in Chicago recently. 

 They were all awarded the Master Farmer medal 

 because they are "good farmers, good neighbors, 

 and good citizens." 



It isn't strange that all these men are active farm 

 bureau members. Many of them are officers or 

 former officers on their county executive commit- 

 tees, [t's such men that made the farm bureau. 

 They ire its backbone, its leaders. They are the 

 men who get the most out of their organization be- 

 cause hey put the most in. It is idle to speculate 

 how n uch the county farm bureaus are doing to 

 make master farmers. Certainly their work has a 

 tremendously large influence. The wide use of 

 limestone rock phosphate, certified seed, improved 

 livestock, farm accounting, better cultivation, all 

 these Were stimulated when the farm bureau was 

 organized. The experiment station revealed the 

 need ii i many cases, the farm papers wielded a pow- 

 erful influence in initiating reforms and in spread- 

 ing trie gospel, but the county farm bureaus were 

 needed to drive home the bargain and show by 

 word, [example, and demonstration the value of bet- 

 ter fatt"m practices. 



PraBrie Farmer and the other farm papers that 

 are helping to honor the men who have succeeded 

 in th« oldest profession are making an inestimable 

 contr bution to the betterment of American agri- 

 cultui e. 



OFFICERS 



President. Earl C. Smith Detroit 



Vice-President. Charles R. Finley Hoopcaton 



iWasurer, R. A. Cowlea Btoomin^on 



Secretary, Geo. A. Fo« Sycamore 



I L. Li I N OIS 



CCLTUBAL ASSOCIA1 



RECORD- 



To advance the purpose for which the farm bureau was organ 

 ized, namely to promote, protect and represent the business, 

 economic, social and educational interests of the farmers of 

 lliinois and the tuition, attd to develope agriculture. 



DIRECTORS OF DEPARTMENTS 



Co-operating Accounting G«o. R. Wicker 



Dairy Marketing A. D. Lynch 



Finance R. A. Cowles 



Fruit and Vegetable Marketing A. B. Leeper 



General Office J. H. Kelker 



Information E. G. Thiem 



Legal Counsel Donald Kirkpatrick 



Live Stock Marketing Wm. E. Hedgcock 



Organization , G. E. JMetxger 



Farm Supply J. R. Bent 



Poultry arMi Egg Marketing F. A. Gougler 



Taxation and Statistics J. C. Wataon 



Transportation L. J. Quaa e y 



ris, niinoiR, by the Illinoia Afcrirultural Ansociation. Edited by Department of Information, E. O. Tliem. Director, 60S S<vth Dearborn Street, 

 le poet office at Mount Klorris Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of poetsgn provided for in Section 

 dual memlxTship tee of the Illinois Agricultural Asmx-intinn is five dnltars a year. The fee includes payment of fifty cents for subscription to the 

 returr ng an uncalled for or niisscnt copy, please indicate key number on addn'sa as is required by law. 



3nSS^33SOS3Sn3 



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Tax Revaluation Ordered 



ORGANIZED farmers were recognized again 

 when the Illinois Tax Commission in a recent 

 decision ordered revaluations for taxation purposes 

 urban and rural property in the four counties 

 Kane, Peoria, Franklin, and Clay. 



When the adjustments placing farm lands on the 

 sa me basis as city property are made, the rural tax- 

 payers of these four counties will profit to the ex- 

 tent of approximately $200,000. On the basis of 

 tie 9271 farms affected, taxes will be $20.50 per 

 fj.rm less than they would have been had the read- 

 justment not been ordered. In other words farm- 

 e]'s have been paying $20.50 per farm more than 

 tlieir share of taxes. 



The announcement of this new order follows four 

 ysars of effort by the county farm bureaus of Clay, 

 Jane, Franklin, and Peoria, and the Illinois Agri- 

 caltural Association to gain a just equalization of 

 f irm property values. In Clay County it was found 

 t lat farm lands were paying nearly twice as much 

 t ixes based on actual selling values as town and city 

 \ roperty. Here farm lands were being assessed 

 en the basis of 58 to 60 per cent of full valuation 

 ^ whereas property in the towns and villages was pay- 

 i [ig on only 32 to 34 per cent of full valuation. Ac- 

 tual sales records from the county recorder's office 

 levealed this information. 



♦ Surplus Control Again ? 



THE battle for surplus control legislatioti is on 

 in Congress for the third time since 1924. The 

 revised bill introduced in the Senate by Senator Mc- 

 Nary, and most recently in the House by Represen- 

 tative Haugen is a modification of the McNary-Hau- 

 gen bill of last year. 



The features held objectionable heretofore by cer- 

 tain Southern democrats have been removed. But 

 the bill has not been emasculated. It contains pro- 

 visions for a Federal Farm Board, the application 

 of an equalization fee, loans to cooperatives for 

 handling stirpluF crops at a nominal rate of inter- 

 est, and a revolving fund of $250,000,000 to be ap- 

 propriated by Congress for loaning to the Board. 



There is nothing in the bill that might be con- 

 strued as price-fixing. The administration will 

 have an opportunity to demonstrate its expressed 

 interest and good intentions for agriculture as set 

 forth in the president's recent message. We sin- 

 cerely hope it will do so. Farm organizations 

 throughout the country are as well united on this 

 measure as it is humanly possible for them to be. 

 It's the administration's turn to show its hand. 



Ik 'ilk Shippers Have a Grievance 



WHOLE milk shippers in the Chicago fluid milk 

 eone are faced again with the dilemma of in- 

 difFeijent prices. Milk testing 3.5 per cent from 

 tuberculin tested herds brings only $2.50 per cwt. 

 The ! urplus above the average or base amounts de- 

 liven d during August, September, and October 

 sells for $2.20 per cwt. Dairymen contend that 

 they can't continue to deliver whole milk so cheaply 

 under the stringent requirements of the Chicago 

 Health Department. Their costs have been raised 

 tremendously by accrediting their herds, submit- 

 ting to regular sanitary inspection, installing sani- 

 tary equipment, and employing high priced labor. 



"There is no incentive to apply the tuberculin 

 test," say the untested herd owners. "Selling un- 

 tested milk to the condensery, or butterfat to the 

 creamery at 60 cents a pound, is more profitable." 



H(!re is a grievance that ought to be righted. 

 The dealers are human and will continue to buy as 

 cheaply as possible. The old Milk Producers' As- 

 sociation is defunct and out of the running. The 

 Pun Milk Association, the new organization of 

 tested herd owners, is valiantly striving to rep- 

 resent the whole milk shippers in securing fair 

 pricds. It could be more effective with a stronger 

 following. Farmers' difficulties are not righted 

 until they themselves take the necessary action. 

 Whenever we start, we can't avoid getting back to 

 mor| effective organization as the solution of most 

 of our problems. 



Farmers »re not averse to paying taxes. They 

 : lave always contributed their share of the cost of 

 rovernment. But bad as our tax system is in this 

 itate, its administration works even a greater hard- 

 ship when one class of real estate is discriminated 

 igainst. 



When these four counties equalize valuations it 

 will virtually complete a job started more than four 

 vears ago. Since then nearly all counties in Illinois 

 pave equalized valuations as between farm and city 

 roperty where a discrepancy was brought to light. 

 Mr. Watson estimates that Illinois farmers have 

 been saved between $2,000,000 and $2,500,000 each 

 year from this work alone. Taxes have not been 

 necessarily reduced by this amount, but they were 

 approximately that much less than they would have 

 been had farm valuations not been equalized. 



CAN'T SHAKE IT OFF 



— WasHington News. 



An Indictment 



lifT^HE farmer hasn't been insistent enough in 

 L his own behalf. He has been retiring, liberal- 

 minded, individualistic ; too ready to rely on his own 

 self-sufficiency. This is the reason for the distinct 

 tendency ih this country for agriculture to be neg- 

 lected in favor' of industry and other branches oi 

 our economic life." 



These words coming from a farm bureau mem- 

 bership solicitor might sound worn out and trite.^ 

 but coming from Magnus Alexander, research 

 worker, industrialist, and president of the National 

 Industrial Conference Board they are worth more 

 than passing attention. Consciously or uncon- 

 sciously Mr. Alexander laid the farmers' difficulties 

 squarely at his own door in his recent message be- 

 fore the American Farm Bureau Federation. In 

 other words, while the steel trust was organizing, 

 cutting out wasteful competition, securing a high 

 tariff, and building up a "40 per cent stock divi- 

 dend," the farmer was out trying to beat his neigh- 

 bor growing crops and producing milk to sell below 

 cost of production. Is Mr. Alexander right? Write 

 your own answer. 



^^ [ 



\ r Women Invited *■ 

 'T'HE women are coming to the annual meeting 

 -*- of the Illinois Agricultural Association this year. 

 They will have a part in the program through the 

 "Home and Community" conference to be held si- 

 multaneously with four other conferences on Thurs- 

 day afternoon, Jan. 27. This is a departure from 

 the old that promises to be productive of much good. 

 Women have furnished the inspiration for most of 

 man's enterprises. For years farm women have 

 played prominently in community clubs, meetings, 

 and organized activities. Now they are to be of- 

 ficially recognized at the state convention. The 

 meeting will be better for their presence. 



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