April. 1927 



r The Illinois Agricultural AMociation HECOR 



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What The Counties 

 Are Doing 



STARK GOES 

 ON RECORD FOR 

 EGG GRADING 



HENRY BOYS 

 AND GIRLS HAVE 

 POULTRY CLUB 



At their 

 regular meet- 

 ing on Satur- 

 day, Mar. 26, 

 the Stark 

 County Farm Bureau directors 

 voted to ask S. J. Stanard, state di- 

 rector of agriculture, to establish 

 standard egg grrades for the buying 

 of eggrs in Illinois. 



The Henry 

 County Boys 

 and Girls 

 Poultry Club 

 closed Mar. 

 23 with 91 entries. The farm bu- 

 reau is cooperating with the Galva 

 Poultry Association which furnishes 

 two settings of eggs to each mem- 

 ber. 



Keith Weh- 

 PEORIA MAN ner, a local 



WILL TAKE Smith -Hughes 



EUROPEAN TRIP teacher, has 

 been employ- 

 ed to handle the Peoria Farm Bu- 

 reau club work next year. Glen 

 McCluKage of Limestone township 

 will take the A. F. B. F. European 

 tour this summer. 



Piatt County 



PIATT GOES 

 OVER QUOTA 

 IN INSURANCE 



surance, Apr. 1. 



had 143 appli- 

 cations for the 

 new farm bu 

 reau auto in 

 This was 36 per 



JOHNSON TO 

 Cpi'T-e TOLL 

 RA'i F. ' 

 IN HEARING 



LAWRENCE 

 COUNTY PEACH 

 GROWERS GET 

 TOGETHER 



38 H bushels. Early Chios. This 

 project was introduced three years 

 ago. Six hundred and fifteen farm- 

 ers attended seven dairy meetings 

 held last week. Higher producing 

 cows, better feeding, and improved 

 breeding were discussed. 



Lawrenc e 

 County peach 

 growers met 

 with A. B. 

 Leeper, H. W. 

 Day, and W. 

 L. Cope Tuesday, March 22, to dis- 

 cuss the formation of a Lawrence 

 County unit of the Illinois Fruit 

 Exchange. 0. P. Dowell and F. L. 

 Severns, both of Lawrenceville, 

 were selected temporary chairman 

 and secretary. 



Williamson 

 County has 30 

 poultry clubs 

 with 425 boys 

 and girls en- 

 rolled. The 

 provided 20,000 



STOPPING THE CORN BORER 



Farm Bureau Baseball 

 Season To Open With 

 First Games On May 7 



Four New Counties From 

 Southern Illinois Enter 

 League To Form New 

 Division 



WOODFORD 

 CULLS CORN 

 AND LEARNS 

 NEW HITCHES 



BOND TO HIRE 

 VETERINARIAN 

 IN APRIL 



cent more than her quota. If plans 

 materialize, farm bureau members 

 there will be benefited by the new 

 oil company now being organized 

 in Macon County. A bulk station 

 may be located in a town near the 

 border which will serve a large 

 number of farmers on both sides of 

 the line. 



Through signed 

 petitions secured 

 locally and with 

 the aid of the I. 

 A. A., the John- 

 son County Farm 

 Bureau is trying to re-establish 

 rural and village telephone service 

 in that section of Southern Illinois. 

 A hearing before the Illinois Com- 

 merce Commission will be held in 

 Vienna, Apr. 19, when proposed 

 toll rates between various ex- 

 changres in the county, which up to 

 the present have been free from 

 exchange service, will be opposed. 



Twenty per 

 cent of the 

 Bond County 

 Farm Bureau 

 ' membership ap- 



plied for policies in the mutual 

 auto insurance company. A $4,000 

 appropriation was secured from the 

 county board of supervisors recent- 

 ly to carry on tuberculosis eradica- 

 tion in cattle. A veterinarian will 

 be employed to start work some- 

 time in April. 



Schuyler 

 and Brown 

 County dairy- 

 men recently 

 organized the 

 Brown - Schuy- 

 ler Dairy Herd Improvement As- 

 sociation to start work April 1. 

 Twelve men are cooperating with 

 the farm bureau and Prof. Rob- 

 bins in the hog feeding project. 

 Records are kept of amounts fed. 

 Several men in the project are us- 

 ing the sanitation system and some 

 are not. Some good comparison? 

 are expected. Demonstration plotF 

 to show the value of differen' 

 amounts of limestone and rock 

 phosphate were recently sown to 

 different kinds of clover and alfalfp 

 on wheat. 



Thirty-five 

 Gallatin Coun- 

 ty Farm Bu- 

 reau members 

 bought 146 

 bushels of cer- 

 tified seed potatoes of which 107% 

 bushels were Irish Cobblers and 



GREEN COUNTY 

 SIGNS 122 IN 

 AUTO INSURANCE 



SCHUYLER AND 

 BROWN FORM 

 DAIRY HERD 

 ASSOCIATION 



GALLATIN 

 COUNTY INTER- 

 ESTED IN SPUDS 

 AND DAIRYING 



WILLIAMSON 

 HAS BIG POUL- 

 TRY CLUB 

 UNDERWAY 



merchants have 

 eggs, from pure bred flocks, for 

 the members. Club leaders are 

 rural and Smith-Hughes teachers. 



A series of 

 corn culling and 

 disease germina- 

 tion demonstra- 

 tions were held 

 in Woodford 

 county during February and March. 

 Nine men attended the University 

 of Illinois corn disease germination 

 school, and twenty the two-day 

 county school. Losses in this 

 county from corn root rot disease? 

 approximated one-half million dol- 

 lars according to Prof. Hackleman. 

 One hundred farmers attended the 

 three horse hitching demonstrations 

 held here, showing how to use the 

 four, five, six, and eight horse 

 hitches with the tying-in and buck- 

 ing-back system and driving with 

 two lines. 



One hun- 

 dred twenty- 

 two applica- 

 tions have 

 been made 

 by Greene County farm bureau 

 members for auto insurance in the 

 Illinois Agricultural Mutual Insur- 

 ance Company. They think it the 

 .best project the farm bureau has 

 sponsored for some time. "This 

 number means that more than one 

 member out of five has signed up 

 for insurance in his own company," 

 writes Farm Adviser Laible. 



0. L. Welsh was 

 McDONOUGH reelected p r e s i- 

 HAS GOOD dent, W. R. Claw- 



ANNUAL son was elected 



MEETING vice-president. 



Ward F. Higgins, 

 secretary, and 0. P. Kline, treas- 

 urer, at the recent annual meeting 

 Df the McDonough County Farm 

 Bureau. More than 700 people at- 

 tended. M. G. Van Buskirk of 

 Oneida and Miss Claire Atwood 

 from the University of Illinois were 

 the speakers. 



A new com- 

 PULASKI HAS munity club 



NEW COMMUNITY at Grand 

 AND 4-H CLUBS Chain and a 

 4-H Sewing 

 Club of 25 members at Karnak are 

 new accomplishments of the Pul- 

 iski County Farm Bureau. These 

 new activities are in portions of the 

 ?ounty which have been more or 

 'ess dormant in the past. "Our 

 people are coming to realize that 

 't makes life more interesting and 

 livable if they know each other 

 better and work together," says 

 Farm Adviser Hughes. 



Two dozen 

 McHENRY HOLDS people came 

 BROODER HOUSE out on a 

 DEMONSTRATION stormy day 

 to the brood- 

 er house building demonstration 

 conducted recently by Frank Han- 

 son of the University of Illinois on 

 the Louis Koltz farm in McHenry 

 county. A picnic lunch was ser\'ed 

 at noon in the bam. 



Here are snapshots of the oil burners and a KOTcrnment army 

 truck ready to burn over corn stalk ground on the Frank Love 

 farm east of Grant Park in Kankakee county. The oil burners 

 are made of gas pipe. The oil is forced into the burners from the 

 truck tank with a pump. Outlets are placed 12 inches apart and 

 the 27-foot pipe located behind the wheels covers a swath eight 

 corn rows wide." The crude oil bursts into flame as it leaves the 

 pipe and consumes all corn stalks, weeds and trash in its path 

 Com stalk ground within a radius of a mile of the spot where the 

 first corn borer was discovered, has been or will be burned over. 



TAX VALUES SLASHED 



(Continued from col. 5, page 1.) 

 15 to 20 per cent in value since 1923, 

 while city lots and improvements' in- 

 creased 12 to 15 per cent during the 

 same period. It was Watson's opin- 

 ion that the taxes on city property 

 would have to be increased 35 per 

 cent or farm lands reduced 25 per 

 cent to put farm lands and city 

 property on an equal basis. 



One of the farmers supported the 

 argument by stating that if taxes 

 were based on the earning power of 

 property, farm lands would deserve 

 a much larger reduction. George C. 

 Gale, Galesburg attorney, appeared 

 before the assessors unsolicited and 

 argued in favor of the reduction. 



Winnebago Gets 20 Per Cent 

 Cut 



Champaign Cuts 10 Per Cent 



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The Champaign County Board of 

 Assessors at their meeting in the 

 Urbana courthouse Mar. 30 voted to 

 reduce the assessed valuation of 

 farm land 10 per cent. For the first 

 time in years all the assessors were 

 present, and the vote on the reduc- 

 tion was 27 to 2. 



This tax reduction was the result 

 of a survey made by the Champaign 

 County Farm Bureau through its 52 

 tax leaders. Approximately two 

 men were appointed to act as tax 

 leaders in each township. This 

 spring, these men under the leader- 

 ship of Farm Advisor C. C. Burns, 

 and John C. Watson made a record 

 of all bona fide sales of property in 

 Champaign county between the last 

 half of 1925 up to Mar. 1, 1927. 

 After these sales were recorded they 

 were rechecked to make sure that 

 no unfair examples were included, 

 such as forced sales, gifts, etc. The 

 sales were then divided into four 

 classes including farm lands, vil- 

 lage lots, Urbana lots, and Cham- 

 paign lots. Then the full valuations 

 on the assessors books for each of 

 these properties were secured. The 

 total of the full valuations of each 

 class was divided by the total of the 

 sales values of each class to arrive 

 at the valuation ratio. The results 

 of the summary were as follows : 



\n. Tofa! To«aI Valua- 



I'<3h)o Pull Sale Tton 



Sales Clau Valuations Values Ratio 



-.9 r*ll«l LANDS H2S.R9S 9M,359.!7 42.«"t 



17 VILLAGE LOTS 52.0TS Hfi.327.50 5n.^r, 



f» URBANA LOTS 90.330 289.19o.00 31. 5*7 



11'. CHAMPAIGN LOTS 135.950 543.933.50 24.9% 



These figures were mailed out to 

 the community director of each 

 Farm Bureau unit with the sugges- 

 tion that he and his tax leaders take' 

 them up with the assessor or as- 

 sessors in the township or townships 

 his unit covered. This was done in 

 practically all of the units and when 

 the assfessors met March 31 they 

 voted 27 to 2 to reduce farm lands, 

 in spite of determined opposition on 

 the part of the treasurer^ and as- 

 sistant treasurer. 



.iJ 



"Our local farm bureau tax com- 

 mittee went before our county treas- 

 urer and township assessors yester- 

 day and submitted data collected by 

 the committte," wrote Farm Ad- 

 viser Keltner of Winnebago county 

 in a recent letter. "The assessor 

 then voted to reduce the \'aluation 

 of our farm lands in Winnebago 

 county 20 per cent" 



Winnebago county followed the 

 same plan four years ago and re- 

 ceived on that presentation a 40 per 

 cent cut which placed values on a 

 fair basis at that time. Continued 

 declines in farm values since then 

 led to the new reduction. 



Many Other Counties Reduce 



Many other counties have an- 

 nounced reductions in valuations of 

 farm property, including a cut of 

 20 per cent in Iroquois county, 10 

 per cent in Crawford county, and 

 so on. 



"The Macoupin County Farm Bu- 

 reau went to court back in 1922 to 

 protect the land owners of the 

 county against an unjust tax in- 

 crease — and won," writes Farm Ad- 

 viser Earl Rusk. "And we have 

 been fighting for the principle of 

 equalization ever since. Four years 

 ago WE found farm land assessed out 

 of line and succeeded at that time, 

 with the cooperation of the asses- 

 sors and others, in securing a re- 

 duction which went a long way to- 

 ward equalization. This reduction 

 has been the means of saving nearly 

 $40,000 annually to land owners in 

 the county. 



"We have just finished an up-to- 

 date summary of the tax," writes 

 Rusk, "and have again appeared be- 

 fore the assessors with the facts. 

 Land has decreased in value during 

 the past four years so that it is 

 again somewhat out of line with 

 other property. We believe that 

 most of the assessors will trj' again 

 to equalize the assessments so that 

 all classes of tangible property vrill 

 be valued for tax purposes on a 

 fairly equal basis. An attempt will 

 be made also to get more intangible 

 property on the tax books. We arc 

 committed to the task here of ever- 

 lastingly watching and when neces- 

 sary fighting for equality in tax 

 matters." 



Other counties which secured re- 

 ductions are De Kalb, 10 per cent, 

 Livingston 10 per cent, Edgar 10 

 per cent, Pike 25 per cent. Coles 15 

 per cent, and Iroquois 20 per cent. 

 There are unconfirmed rumors of re- 

 ductions in a number of other coun- 



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Farm bureau baseball tn 

 Illinois will open officially on 

 May 7 when the first jrames 

 of the -season are scheduled 

 in the new Southern Illinois 

 division of the Illinois Farm 

 Bureau Baseball League. 



With the addition of four . 

 new teams which include 

 Bond, Jefferson", Clay, and 



Lawrence counties promises to bo 

 4 race for the state title more hotly 

 contested than any time hereto- 

 fore. The four new teams will 

 compnse Division 6. At a meet- 

 ing held in Mt. Vernon on April 5 

 a schedule of gamr^s was drawn up 

 for the 1927 season. 



The first games will be played 

 on May 7 with Bond »nd Jefferson 

 counties meeting each other at Mt. 

 Vernon, while Clay and Lawrence 

 counties fight it out at Louisville. 



The 14 county farm bureau teams 

 from Central and Western Illinois 

 voted to launch their schedule on 

 May 21 following a meeting of 

 League officials at Peoria this wee!.'. 



The five divisions from this sec- 

 tion include teams from the follow- 

 ing counties: District 1, Warren and 

 Henderson; District 2. Marshall- 

 Putnam, Woodford, Peoria, and 

 Tazewell; District 3, McLean, De- 

 Witt, and Logan; District 4. Adams. 

 Schuyler, and Brown; District .■>. 

 Cass and Morgan. 



Applications from other counties 

 desiring entrance into the League 

 will be considered, and if accepted 

 will be placed in districts most con- 

 venient to them. 



150 ATTEND DISTRICT 

 MEET AT SHELBYVILl 



The best I. A. A. meeting ever 

 held in the 19th district is the way 

 members expressed themselves fol- 

 lowing the meet- 

 ing at Shelbyville 

 on Friday, March 

 25. More than 

 150 were present. ' 



President Earl 

 C. Smith and 

 John C. Watson 

 of the Illinois': 

 Agricultural As-' 

 1^^ sociation spoke 

 on activities of 

 the Association 

 while J. D. Bils- ^ 

 J. L. whisnand borrow discussed 

 the relation of University Extension 

 to the farm bureau. 



J. L. Whisnand, executive com-, 

 mitteeman representing the lj9tti 

 district, presided. i 



1 i 



WINNEBAGO MAN PRO- 

 POSES f>EALS FOR CLUB 



A creed and program of work 

 has been proposed by E. V. Der^-ent 

 for the Farmers' Luncheon Club or- 

 ganized by the Farm Bureau of 

 Winnebago county. The program 

 proposes that members work to- 

 gether to foster the idea that farm- 

 ing offers as good an opportunity as 

 any business to ser\'e society; to 

 raise the st&ndard of the profes- 

 sion, farming; to extend the influ- 

 ence and acquaintance of the mem- 

 bers among, high-minded, progres- 

 sive farmers of other counties; to 

 widen the mental horizon and de- 

 velop the interests and intelligence 

 of each member; to widen the 

 spiritual horizon of each member; 

 and to inspire each member to do 

 some unselfish service for the good 

 of the community, county, or state. 



