Who's Who Among the 

 Farm Advisers 



0. G. BABRETT 



O. G. "Ole" Barrett, farm adv ser in 

 Cook county, is rounding out his 14th 

 year as county agricultural adviser, nine 

 years of which he has 

 spent in his present po- 

 sition. The genial Coolc 

 county farm adviser is 

 known among his best 

 friends as "Ole Olson" 

 for the Swedish charac- 

 ter he played over WLS 

 and other radio stations 

 several years ago. 



Mr. Barrett was born 

 on a farm near Hudson, 

 Michigan, in 1885. After 

 graduating from the 

 Hudson high school, he 

 attended Michigan State Agricultural 

 College two years and later transferred 

 to the College of Agriculture. University 

 of Illinois where he got his bachelor's 

 degree in 1912. He secured hs master's 

 degree at the University of Missouri a 

 year later, specializing in farm manage- 

 ment. 



O. Q. is married and has five children, 

 including one married daughter, a second 

 daughter who recently graduated from 

 the University of lUinos in home eco- 

 nomics, a third daughter who is a fresh- 

 man at Urbana. a fourth daughter in 

 grade school, and one son. "I hope the 

 boy will be candidate in about a dozen 

 years for end on the University of Illi- 

 nois football team, and later when he 

 knows three or four times as much as 

 his Dad. we hip? we will be farm ad- 

 viser." says Ole. 



Too much prosperty in the county is 

 not good for the Farm Bureau nor the 

 Farm Adviser, says Ole. While real es- 

 tate activities were at their h'ghest Cook 

 County Farm Bureau was going down 

 hill. But in 1926 Cook county farmers 

 began to realize that they too must have 

 an organization and if they forgot it for 

 a minute, Ole was on hand to remind 

 them. 

 Membership in Cook county has in- 



creased steadily from 182 in 1926 to 1.616 

 at the present writing. Ole says that 

 their goal is 2.056.3 members since that 

 represents 51 per cent of the farmers in 

 Cook county based on the statistical re- 

 port of 1935 "The .3 member isn't going 

 to be hard to get." he says. "In fact, we 

 have several of them already. The .3 

 fellow is the one who pays his dues after 

 more or less urging and quits right there, 

 not mak'ng any effort to take part in the 

 work of the organization." 



Ole believes in the co-operative system, 

 "if for no other reason than to try some- 

 thing else than the old-fashioned way of 

 doing business." He grew up as a stock 

 buyer, his Dad and six brothers having 

 bought stock before him and he having 

 been something of a cow dealer himself. 

 "A sharp cow dealer." he says, "isn't 

 subject to a penitentiary sentence as a 

 horse stealer is. but should be. I know 

 full well how some of the boys buy can- 

 ner cows as cheap as possible, sell them 

 for all they can get. and pocket the 

 difference. There is nothing better to 

 teach one co-operative principles than to 

 grow up an old-line cow dealer." 



Merle E. Tascher. assistant farm advis- 

 er in Cook for the past 5% years, was 

 bom in Iroquois county in 1906. He grad- 

 uated from the Onarga 

 high school and later 

 from the College of Ag- 

 riculture, Un versity of 

 Illinois. 



Merle married Helen 

 Lindqu'st who assisted 

 for a number of years 

 in the treasurer's office 

 of the I. A. A. They have 

 a fine baby daughter 

 born about three 

 months ago. "I note in 

 the RECORD about 

 Farm Adviser Apple's 

 100 per cent Farm Bu- 

 reau baby." writes Tas- 

 cher. "I believe our daughter also quali- 

 fies." . /:: :■•.>.. :- 



M. E. TA8CHEB 



Farm Products In Industry 



G. E. Middleton of the Producers Com- 

 mission Association of Indianapolis has 

 prepared an interesting paper setting 

 forth the many uses of agricultural prod- 

 ucts in industry. Commenting upon the 

 growing use of soybeans in industry, he 

 reports that soybean flour is used in 

 sausage, the oil for glycerine, explosives, 

 enamels, varnish, lacquers, linoleum, 

 waterproof goods, soap stock, celluloid, 

 rubber substitutes, printing inks, lu- 

 bricants, and paints. Soybeans contain 

 around 20 per cent oil. 



Will County Signs 125 

 New Members Since Jan. 



I 



"The 60 members of our squad work- 

 ing on membership have signed 125 new 

 members since January 1, 1935," repwrts 

 M. C. Weber, Will county organization 

 director. 



Gain of 4,000 Auto 



Policies This Year 



The Illinois Agricultural Mutual In- 

 surance Co. has approximately 42,000 

 policies in force, a gain of nearly 4,000 

 since the first of the year. 



Earl Smith In Washington 

 On Secondary Road Matters 



President Earl C. Smith was in Wash- 

 ington June 22-23 in the interest of sec- 

 ondary roads for Illinois from work re- 

 lief funds. 



More than a million contracts for 1935 



corn-hog co-operators are in preparation 

 according to Claude R. Wickard, chief 

 of the AAA comhog section. 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY'S NEW FARM BU- 

 REAU BUILDING 



The Montgomery County Perm Bureeu force and 

 all subtidiary departments of the Farm Bureau have 

 moved into their new building which stands just 

 west of the Court House in Hillsboro. The build- 

 ing is 27 ft. « 120 ft., has seven private offices, 

 Iwo lobbies and a targe assembly room on the 

 ground floor. The exterior of the building is 

 stucco, and (he upper half of the inside par- 

 titions is glass. 



The offices are occupied by the Farm Adviser 

 and office secretary. Insurance Director, Farmers 

 Oil Company, Corn-Hog and Wheat Committees, 

 and the Farm Loan Association. 



The concrete basemenfOnder the entire build- 

 ing will have an assembly room, store room, paint 

 room, work shop and wash rack, when completed. 

 The basement entrance faces on Routes It and 

 127. The Farmers' Oil Company Service Station 

 is also situated on this comer. 



Formal opening of the building was held June 

 19. An evening meeting in the Hillsboro Com- 

 munity High School was addressed by Larry Wil- 

 liams and Talmage DeFraet. 



JULY, 1935 



M 



