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THE I. A. A. RECORD 



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Pag' 



e Nine 



News in Brief 



The Missouri Farmers Association 

 reports that co-operatives in that state 

 returned more than $1,000,000 to their 

 farmer patrons in dividends during 

 1928. Reports from eighty-three co- 

 operatives alone show net earnings of 

 $608,861.52. 



The Peoria County Farm Bureau 

 directors voted recently to organize the 

 Peoria County Service Co. to handle 

 petroleum products and supplies. The 

 company will not be incorporated until 

 $16,0000 of preferred stock has been 

 subscribed. 



The Illinois Milk Producers Associ- 

 ation, Peoria, recently consummated a 

 new agreement with dealers for 1929. 

 The dealers are to pay $2.77 for Class 

 I fluid milk, and Chicago 92 score but- 

 ter price plus 4c per pound butterfat 

 and 30c per cwt. for skim-milk for all 

 Class II or manufactured milk. The 

 Association has 1260 members, and 86 

 per cent of all milk coming to the five 

 Peoria dealers. The new agreement 

 will add $28,000 to the producers' in- 

 come for 1929. 



Clarence Ramshaw was recently 

 elected president and manager, and 

 Max Wyman secretary-treasurer of the 

 Peoria County Farm Bureau Baseball 

 nine. 



Average shrink per head in Febru- 

 ary 1929 was only 1.5 lbs. on hogs 

 handled by the Chicago Producers Com- 

 mission Ass'n — a new low record. 



The Chicago Producers are handling 

 close to 10 per cent of all livestock re- 

 ceipts excluding shipments direct to 

 packers. 



V. J. Banter, JoDaviess County farm 

 adviser will succeed W. A. Herrington, 

 adviser in Stephenson county who will 

 assist M. L. Mosher in farm manage- 

 ment work in Livingston and Wood- 

 ford counties. 



Local solicitors in LaSalle County 

 signed 873 members in the Farm 

 Bureau on Tuesday, Feb. 26. 



7,000 carloads more of fresh vege- 

 tables from the south moved to north- 

 ern cities in February 1929 than in the 

 same month last year. City people are 

 eating more fresh foods, less canned 

 goods. 



Taxes took on an average more than 

 28 per cent of the net rent before de- 

 ducting taxes, of cash-rented farms in 

 Iowa in 1926 and 1927. 



A calf buyer was responsible for 

 spreading foot and mouth disease in 

 Los Angeles county, California, says 

 the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



The first real ice-cream plant to be 

 built in France is about to be erected. 



Comparatively little ice-cream is con- 

 sumed there. Experts of the new 

 company will study ice-cream making 

 and marketing in the United States. 



The Lake County Farm Bureau 

 "helped put over 90 per cent member- 

 ship in Lake County for the Pure Milk 

 Association," says the DIVERSIFIED 

 FARMER. 



Wicker to Leave I. A. A. 



Organizes Company 



Has Had Lifetime Experience in Co- 

 operative Woric 



GEO. R. WICKER director of busi-, 

 ness service and manager of the 

 Illinois Agricultural Co-operatives As- 

 sociation and the Illinois Farm Supply 

 Company, who leaves the Association 

 April 1 to take up new duties, was 

 born at Neillsville, Wis., in 1877. He 

 left the farm at age 20 to join the 

 United States regular army when the 

 Spanish-American War broke out. 

 After a little less than a year in the 

 service. Wicker returned to Minnesota 

 where he began publishing the Dodge 

 County Transcript, a weekly news- 

 paper. Through his editorial work he 

 became interested in farmers' co-op- 

 erative enterprises and in 1899 or- 

 ganized the first of these, a co-opera- 

 tive rural telephone company. Begin- 

 ning in 1905 he assisted in organizing 

 a string of 16 co-operative lumber 

 companies of which 

 he was manager of 

 two over a period 

 of 15 years. 



Elected to the 

 state legrislature in 

 1918, he introduced 

 the general co-oper- 

 ative law and a 

 number of other 

 marketing bills 

 which laid the 

 groundwork for the 

 widespread development of co-oper- 

 atives in that state. In 1921 he was 

 appointed chairman of the committee 

 on tax laws in the House. This com- 

 mittee prepared the tonnage tax bill 

 on mineral ore which contributes 

 heavily toward Minnesota's fine edu- 1 

 cational system. ' 



Wicker served as a deputy commis- 

 sioner of agriculture in Minnesota 

 from 1922 to 1925 where he devel- 

 oped a business and accounting serv- 

 ice for farmers' co-operatives, and was 

 in charge of co-operative activities in j 

 that state. \ 



Came In 1925 

 He came from that work to the ; 

 Illinois Agricultural Association in j 

 1925 to take charge of and develop 

 the Illinois Agricultural Co-operatives 

 Association, which today is a going 

 concern with more than 200 co-op- 

 erative organizations. 



When the Illinois Farm Supply Co. 

 was organized two years ago, Wicker 

 was placed in charge as active man- 



Geo. R. Wickar 



ager. Last year it did a business of 

 $677,818.07 and ^med a net profit 

 of $16,299.85. 



Wicker recently organized the 

 Wicker Corporation to deal in farm 

 supplies throughout Wisconsin, Iowa, 

 and Minnesota. Th6 company will deal 

 in petroleum products direct to the 

 consumer and later will build a chain 

 of bulk stations in southern Wisconsin. 

 Headquarters of the new company al- 

 ready have been established in Chi- 

 cago. 



28 Year* In Work 



Mr. Wicker's resignation becomes 

 effective April 1. In an interview re- 

 garding the matter he stated, "I have 

 spent 28 years in the service of farm- 

 ers' co-operative Organizations in one 

 capacity or anothei'. My resignation 

 is prompted entirely by a desire to 

 promote my own interests. I am leav- 

 ing the work with considerable regret 

 as nearly a lifetime of experience has 

 convinced me that the co-operative 

 method of conductiqig business enter- 

 prises among farm glople is at the be- 

 ginning of its greatest development." 



"I have enjoyed my associations 

 with the officers and staff of the Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Association and also 

 with Farm Advisers and Farm Bureau 

 people throughout the State of Illinois. 

 I shall continue to be interested in the 

 Farm Bureau movement and in order 

 to retain a permanent connection I 

 have become a member of the Lake 

 County Farm Bureau. 



"I wish to take .advantage of this 

 opportunity to thank my many friends 

 throughout the state for their fine co- 

 operation in developing the work in 

 which I have been engaged." 



3. 



8. 



Pure Milk Association 



(Continued from page 5) 

 3.5 per cent milk f . o. b. country 

 points with no surplus, is an ad- 

 vance of 14 cents for the dairy- 

 men above the former price of 

 $2.50. » 



Dealers will pay the Association 

 one cents per cwt. checkoff for 

 all milk received. 

 No new patrons whatsoever will 

 be taken on by any dealer unless 

 they are members of the Associ- 

 ation. 



The one-cent checkoff for non- 

 members will be used for adver- 

 tising milk and dairy products 

 on the Chicago market. 

 To stop losses resulting from 

 dealers going bankrupt a cash 

 bond of $2500 will be required 

 from each distributor. 

 No additional contracts will be 

 made in violation of the arbi- 

 trator's decision, and present 

 agreements will be kept. The 

 dealers agreed to submit to check- 

 ing of weights and tests to be 

 worked out by a joint committee 

 of dealers and producers. 

 Dealers are to turn over all rec- 

 ords to the' arbitrator when called 

 for. 



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