



A-':-*.*. ^ 



A^ARKfiTLHi^ R^ TOP SEED 



CuTl Anderson, 

 Secretary- 

 Treasurer 

 Egyptian Seed 

 Growers Ex- 

 change. The 

 group presents 

 officers, direc- 

 tors and dele- 

 gates at the re- 

 cent Exchange 

 meeting at Flora 

 where the co- 

 operative was re- 

 organized and a 

 campaign for 

 new members 

 planned. 



By Harrison Fahrnkopf 



EIGHTY-FIVE per cent of the world supply of red top 

 grass seed is produced in eight or nine counties of 

 southern Illinois. The red top territory embraces all of the 

 counties of Clay, Marion, Richland, Wayne, Jefferson, and 

 parts of the counties of Effingham, Fayette, Jasper, Lawrence, 

 Edwards, Hamilton, White, Washington, and Clinton. This 

 area comprises two and one-half million acres or 4,000 square miles, 

 and has 19,700 farms. Seven thousand of these farms produce all 

 of the red top seed. The average tenancy is 23 per 

 cent. The average production of 9,000,000 lbs. of 

 seed for the territory has a value of $1,350,000. The 

 average production per farm is 1,500 lbs. of red top 

 seed annually, having a value of $200. The average 

 production for this territory in the seven years ending 

 with 1928 was 11,000,000 lbs. annually. The year 

 1927 was a record year with 18,000,000 lbs.; the year 

 1925 the lowest with only 6,000,000 lbs. 



Red top seed is used for one purpose only, that is 

 for sowing. It is used extensively in lawn grass and 

 golf grass mixtures. 



Seed Growers Meet at Flora. 

 In the group to the left are: left to 

 right, front row: — Donald Kirkbatrick, 

 legal counsel, Illinois Agricultural Associa- 

 tion: C. L. Palmer, Noble: C. F. Sanders, 

 Dix: John Rogier, Patoka, President: J. M. 

 Luse, Flora, vice-president: T. F. Farmer, 



Cisne: P. W. Warner, Salem. 

 Left to right, second row: — Miss Large, office 

 secretary: Geo. McElyea, Louisville: J. 0. 

 Coen, Olney: Curt Anderson, Xenia, secretary- 

 treasurer: Clarence Barnard, JohnsonviUe: 



W. L. Outhouse, Patoka. 

 Left to right, third row — G. A. Spcnilding, 

 Fairfield: Roy Charlton, warehouse supt.: 

 Mr. Fleming, NoWe; L. L. 

 Carrie, farm adviser, 

 Wayne county: W. T. 

 Wooden, Mt. Ver- 

 non: C. T. Kibler, 

 farm adviser. 

 Clay county: S. 

 M. Ruckman, 

 Xenia; Har- 

 rison Fahrn- 

 kopf, grain 

 marketing 

 director, I. 

 A. A.: R. R. 

 Wo o m t r , 

 Xenia. 



•«55SiSg5r 



How Exchange Is Organized 



MANY of the farmers in the red top territory were 

 members of the Illinois Agricultural Associa- 

 tion several years ago when the I. A. A. assisted in 

 organizing the Egyptian Seed Growers' Exchange and 

 the Red Top Growers' Warehouse Association. The 

 Legal Department of the I. A. A. assisted in negotiat' 

 ing the corporate set'up, and the Organization Depart' 

 ment helped to secure the present membership. 



The Egyptian Seed Growers' Exchange is organized 

 under the Illinois Agricultural Co-operative Act of 

 1923. It has an authorized capital of $250,000 com- 

 posed of 10,000 shares of preferred stock of a par value 

 of $25 per share. There is also authorized 10,000 shares 

 of common stock of no par value. One share of this 



stock will be issued to each grower signing the new 

 marketing agreement and will entitle the holder 

 to patronage dividends from the Growers' Exchange. 

 The Red Top Growers' Warehouse Association is 

 also a co-operative association incorporated under the 

 Agricultural Co-operative Act of 1923. It is a sub- 

 sidiary of the Exchange. The Warehouse Corpora- 

 tion is necessary so that a warehouse receipt can>be 

 issued by it to the Exchange, the receipt being used as 

 collateral for loans obtained from local banks, from the 

 Intermediate Credit Bank at St. Louis, and from the 

 Federal Farm Board. 



Increases Price To Grower 



WHILE the Egyptian Seed Growers' Exchange at 

 present handles less than 10 per cent of the 

 seed produced in the territory, it has had a very ma- 

 terial effect on the price paid growers throughout the 

 southern Illinois counties. According to the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, the average price of red 

 top for the five years, 1917 to 1921 inclusive, was 

 12 3-5 cents per lb. According to the same authority 

 the average price paid red top growers by all buyers 

 during the five-year period, 1922 to 1926 inclusive, 

 was 16 cents per lb. During this five-year period (the 

 first five years of the pool) the Egyptian Seed Growers' 

 (Continued on page 14) 



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