THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Seventeen 



Up to Farmer, Legge 



Tells New York Folks 



Ought to Heed Advice About 

 Production from Washing- 

 ton, He Says 



Alexander Legge 



icT^ ERHAPS the soundest advice we 

 -t^ can give to agriculture is con- 

 tained in the one word, 'Organize'," 

 declared Alexander Legge, chairman of 

 the Federal Farm Board, before the 

 New York State Farm Bureau Federa- 

 tion meeting at the New York State 

 Fair, Syracuse, on September 2. 



"Properly organized, I cannot see 

 any reason why agriculture might not 

 go even farther 

 than industry," 

 said Mr. Legge, 

 "inasmuch as most 

 of your products 

 are consumed every 

 day and several 

 times a day and 

 t h e _ consumption 

 must be fairly con- 

 tinuous if we are 

 to live. 



"The greatest 

 difficulty we have to contend with," he 

 continued, "is that in some mysterious 

 way, through legislative action or oth- 

 erwise, the handicap under which agri- 

 culture is suffering, will be removed, 

 and the position of the farmer made 

 secure without any action on his part. 

 My friends, this is not even a good 

 dream. It is currently believed that 

 dreams sometimes come true, but this 

 one never will." 



Farmer Doesn't Get It 



He called attention to the informa- 

 tion being collected continuously by 

 the government regarding agricultural 

 production and markets. "One trou- 

 ble has been in the past," he said, "that 

 the information apparently has not got- 

 ten through to the man interested and 

 that is the farmer producing the com- 

 modity. Earnest efiforts are being made 

 to revise and condense this vast fund 

 of information and put it in such shape 

 that the producer can readily under- 

 stand just how it applies to his par- 

 ticular problem." 



Mr. Legge stated that the Federal 

 Farm Board has extended aid to 17 

 different classes of agricultural prod- 

 ucts already. He pointed out that 

 the more strongly organized groups 

 naturally secure the first benefits. "We 

 cannot loan to an individual farmer, or 

 to a merchant or a banker," he said. 

 "Loans are restricted to co-operative 

 organizations, producer-owned and pro- 

 ducer-controlled." He asked New York 

 farmers if they were not neglecting 



to organize and advertise their apple 

 crop. "As a boy back on the farm in 

 a far western state," he said, "when we 

 were able to get a barrel of New York 

 apples for Christmas it was a real oc- 

 casion. Everybody regarded them as 

 the finest quality produced anywhere. 

 Aren't you people in the Empire State 

 rather neglecting this commodity, and 

 if so, why? 



Need Better Organization 



"Your land values are not high as 

 compared to other sections of the coun- 

 try where this crop is raised extensive- 

 ly. Large consuming markets are close 

 at hand and certainly no one can pro- 

 duce a better quality of product. With 

 a good strong marketing organization 

 to insure the producer getting his full 

 percentage of the consumer's dollar, it 

 is my notion that this industry might 

 be safely developed to considerably lar- 

 ger proportions than at present." 



He called attention to the fact that 

 during the past 30 years the medium- 

 sized, or smaller than average crop in- 

 variably made the greatest financial re- 

 turn. 



Principles Sound 



"From our experience of the past 

 few months the Farm Board confident- 

 ly believes that the principles of the 

 Agricultural Marketing Act not only 

 are sound but offer the best approach 

 to dealing with the farm problem," 

 Legge continued. "Various suggestions 

 have been made of changing the law. 

 Such action, in our opinion, would be 

 a serious mistake. It may be that great- 

 er experience will demonstrate the need 

 for amendment, but that time has not 

 arrived. 



"Agriculture cannot be made pros- 

 perous by legislation. That will come 

 only when the producers operate their 

 industry on a sound basis. Success of 

 the program that is being developed 

 under that law will depend largely on 

 the willingness of farmers to take ad- 

 vantage of the opportunity before 

 them." 



Speaks to Grange 



■1 



On the following day, September 3, 

 Mr. Legge gave a similar talk before 

 the New York State Grange meeting 

 at the New York State Fair. He stated 

 that the Farm Board had advised re- 

 duction in acreage only in wheat and 

 cotton, calling to the attention of cer- 

 tain other growers the danger of ex- 

 panding production in other crops. 



Referring to the Agricultural Mar- 

 keting Act, he said: "The success of 

 the program is not going to depend so 

 much on what the Board does, but on 

 the willingness of farmers to act col- 

 lectively." 



W^Dope 



FOUR County Farm Bureau teams 

 are on the last lap of the race for 

 the Illinois Farm Bureau baseball cham- 

 pionship. As we go to press word 

 comes that Sangamon county, one of 

 the leading contenders for the state 

 championship, was defeated in a 11- 

 inning game at Springfidd on Septem- 

 ber 6. Logan county was the victor. 

 Details of the game are lacking. A 

 brief report states that Sangamon 

 slammed out 19 hits while Logan was 

 getting 15, but the latter came out at 

 the long end of the 10 to 9 score. 

 Three-I league umpires officiated. 



Carroll county turned the tables on 

 LaSalle at the Carroll county picnic 

 near Lanark the same day. The score 

 was 9 to 5. LaSalle won the first game 

 played at Ottawa the week before. The 

 next game will decide which team shall 

 go on in the race. McDonough county 

 will play either LaSalle or Carroll in 

 the semi-final play-oflf, and the winner 

 of that series will play Logan in the 

 final battle of the year. 



Hard Fought Series 



The Sangamon-Logan series was one 

 of the hardest-fought matches of the 

 season. After being defeated for the 

 first time this year by Logan, Sangamon 

 came back in the second game at Chat- 

 ham, August 26, and won 6 to 5. 

 Logan county had the best of the argu- 

 ment in this game and led by two runs 

 until the ninth when Sangamon 

 bunched enough hits to drive three 

 markers across the home plate. In the 

 last game Langley, Sangamon county 

 pitcher, struck out eight men and 

 walked five. The Logan county hurl- 

 ers, Quisenberry and Hanahan, struck 

 out six men and walked two. 



One of the surprises in the semi-final 

 play-off was LaSalle county's victory 

 over the strong Carroll county nine at 

 Ottawa on August 28. 



LaSalle county won 7 to S, although 

 Carroll got nine hits to LaSalle's eight. 

 A feature of the game was the triple 

 play in the ninth which ended Carroll 

 county's threat to win. Carroll had 

 men on first and third when E. Sturte- 

 vant hit to Kirkhus, the LaSalle county 

 second baseman. Kirkhus threw the 

 ball to first to retire the batter, the 

 first baseman shot the ball to the catch- 

 er to get Ganger, who was stealing 

 home, and the catcher hurled the ball 

 to the third baseman to catch the base 

 runner there to end the game. 



