"Keep Members In- 

 formed" Says F. W, 

 Peck, St Paul 



Even good management and a strong 

 financial structure are not sufficient to 

 assure a successful cooperative, accord- 

 ing to F. W. Peck, director of agricul- 

 tural extension, at the University of 

 Minnesota. There is one fundamental 

 weakness that is too apparent in many 

 of the associations. This factor is 

 "membership relations." 



"There is an unconscious tendency in 

 many places to overlook the place of a 

 producer and his interest in a coopera- 

 tive enterprise. The producer is coming 

 to be the 'forgotten man' in some coop- 

 eratives. The owner is not kept informed 

 and he does not know what is going on. 

 The farmer owns his cooperative, and 

 ways and means must be devised to keep 

 his interest and to make him enthusias- 

 tic for his own institution," he said. 



A well-informed member is the best 

 and "heapest solicitor an association can 

 use, ai.d of the three principal methods 

 for building better producer understand- 

 ing, — local meetings, information by mail, 

 and personal contact, — Peck said that 

 the most effective is the development 

 of local units where meetings can be 

 regularly held. "All three must be used 

 and no organization can keep its mem- 

 bers informed without them." 



"Meetings should be two-way affairs 

 in which members are given facts and 

 also the opportunity to make suggestions 

 and ofTer criticisms. A balanced pro- 

 gram of business and entertainment is 

 desirable, and it is absolutely essential 

 that someone be assigned the task of 

 arranging the program ahead of 

 time." 



First Prize Essay in 



Farm Accident Letter 



Contest 



My Narrowest Escape {roxn Death 



ONE little mistake — and wow!! 

 Eight different bones broken! 

 Yes, one usually has to pay for 

 his mistakes one way or another. I paid 

 not only in cash but in suffering. I am 

 still paying and chances are that I'll be 

 a cripple the rest of my life. 



It was seven months ago that my car 

 slipped into a ditch almost at the door 

 of my farm home. I hitched my team to 

 it but they could not pull it out. I then 

 got my tractor and chained it to the 

 car. I put the tractor in low gear and 

 started forward. I watched the hitch I 

 had on the car — pulling so slowly I did 

 not notice the lowering of the seat on 

 which I was sitting. 



The car wasn't moving and the wheels 

 of the tractor were not slipping. Glanc- 

 ing forward I saw the front of the trac- 

 tor almost straight up in the air — no 

 time to release the clutch — no time for 

 anything except to make one great lunge 



sideways. Alas, too late! ! The lower 

 half of my body caught under the trac- 

 tor. 



Screaming and clawing with my hands, 

 calling for help, I lay there for thirty 

 minutes. I gave up — thought I was going 

 to the beyond. Then I heard the welcome 

 sound of a wagon. Raymond Hart and 

 Gordon McCarty came to my rescue. 

 With the strength of six men they lifted 

 that tractor machine and pulled me out 

 — a broken mess, to the hospital, the 

 whole lower part of my body crushed. 



Never forget this, my friends, it was 

 God's will that I was saved. I have heard 

 of nine different men killed the way I 

 was hurt. 



Just that one little mistake — I hitched, 

 all unthinkingly, to the axle of the trac- 

 tor instead of to the drawbar. 



Homer B. Summers, 

 Scott County, El. 



MRS. JOSEPHINE WHARTON, 83. OF 

 Will county, !s much interested in better farm 

 management so she accompanied her manager, 

 Arthur States, former president of the Will 

 County Farm Bureau, on the tour through 

 Woodford county. They also attended the 

 Institute of Co-operation at Urbana. States is 

 the man to the left, M. L Mosher, right. 



A total of nearly 50,000,000 hogs on 



farms next January 1 may be the result 

 of expansion of the hog industry, ac- 

 cording to the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Economics. On Jan. 1 there were about 

 43,000,000 hogs on farms, as compared 

 with 39,000,000 at the beginning of 1935, 

 the smallest number in more than BO 

 years. 



Clip Oats Nurse Crop 

 To Meet Soil Program 



James W. Woodburn, president of the 

 Rock Island county soil conservation 

 board, is shown clipping the oats stand 

 which provided a nurse crop for a new 

 seeding of clover on his farm. Such 

 clipping is in accordance with require- 

 ments of the new soil conservation act, 

 which is intended to decrease the acreage 

 of soil depleting crops and increase 

 acreage of soil conserving crops, such as 

 alfalfa and clover. As well as being 

 county president, Mr. Woodburn is com- 

 munity chairman for Port Byron and 

 Coe townships. With him is shown Ralph 

 H. Ketzle, secretary of the county asso- 

 ciation. 



TO 



In bu 

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 surance 

 Countr; 

 the sai 

 Farm 

 the coi 

 pressioi 

 year. 



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I. A. A- RECORD 



