Who's Who Among 



The Farm Advisers 



C\y|-Hi;N you \.ill the roll of 

 ^^1 1/ (arm .ulviscrs who Ic.ul in 

 Q j years of service in one coun- 

 ty, you can't overlook (iharlcs H. Kelt- 

 ner of Winnebago county. He's ri^ht 

 up there at the head of the cohimn, ^o- 

 ing strong after 16 years in one spot. 



Mr. Keltner was annointed with the 

 Farm Bureau spirit way back when 

 Farm Bureaus were known as soil and 

 crop improvement associations. In 

 fact, it was Big Bill Eckhardt of De- 

 Kalb who suggested to Prof. Charles 

 H. Keltner of Mt. Morris College and 

 later the DcKalb Teachers' College, 

 that he might like being a county agri- 

 cultural aiiviscr. Being a professor of 

 agriculture in those days was not what 

 it was cracked up to be, accortling to 

 Keltner. And so after some delibera- 

 tion he took a trip down to Urbana to 

 talk it over with , Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins, 

 then chairman of the committee on hir- 

 ing farm advisers. 



Dr. Hopkins was just about to put 

 his official O. K. on the new candidate 

 when he happened to think of another 

 question -- "How much actual farm- 

 ing have you done since you left col- 

 lege.'" The answer was, "None. " So 

 to become eligible, Keltner found him- 

 self operating the old homestead farm 

 up around Warren in JoDaviess coun- 

 ty. There he worked three years prov- 

 ing to himself that the things he 

 learned at Urbana and taught at Mt. 

 Nforris and DcKalb would work when 

 backed up with a little gray matter and 

 plenty of elbow grease. 



"So I came off the farm to 'Winne- 

 bago county, " said Keltner. "It helped 

 wonderfully. It gave me self-confi- 

 dence, too. "We found practically all 

 the soils of Winneb.igo acid. Grinding 

 up our local deposits of limestone was 

 one of the first things we promoted 

 after I'tirrived in September, 1920. To- 

 day you will find alfalfa growing all 

 over Winnebago county. 



"Hog cholera control is another im- 

 portant project here. "Vaccinating pigs 

 is well established now as a sound 

 practice on well-managed Winnebago 

 county farms. The Winnebago County 

 Farm Bureau put out a lot of serum 

 in the past week," he said. 



Winnebago countv has "SI'S sc]u.i.rc 

 miles of mostly good land. About 110 

 of it is brown silt loam, 98 brown 



CHAS. H. KELTNER 

 "No drinker nor smoker, he" 



sandy loam, 83 yellow gre^ silt loam, 

 while the remaining 224 acres consist 

 of yellow silt loam, yellow grey sandy 

 loam, iijixed loam, etc. 



Thef^yare 82(i Farm Bureau members 

 in Winnebago's \(^ townships. Harold 

 Jepson, organization director, is work- 

 ing hard to increase this number. His 

 September record was '^3 new paid-up 

 members. 



The Grange is well organized in 

 Winnebago, and the Grangers work 

 hand in hand with the Farm Bureau. 

 In fact, the membership is synonymous 

 in many localities, and most, if not 

 all. the directors of the Farm Bureau, 

 are prominent in the Grange. The 

 Farm Bureau co-operates with the 

 Grange in putting on the annual Trask 

 Bridge Grange Picnic — one of the 

 biggest gatherings of farmers held each 

 year. 



Mr. Keltner was born in 1S79, east 

 of Mt. Carroll in Carroll county, Illi- 

 nois. His father, now 83 and fetired, 

 was a minister in the Church of the 

 Brethren. Mr. and Mrs. Keltner have 

 six children and • two grandchildren. 

 A daughter is married and resides in 

 Rockford, Ralph, also married, teaches 

 in the Rockford High School, and 

 four boys are still at home. 



Like all successful farm advisers. Mr. 



Keltner is a h.ird worker A 12 hour 

 work d.iy is about his a\erage. You 

 can stand that when you have a strong 

 constitution and Keltner is big and ro- 

 bust. He hasn't had a day off from sick- 

 ness in 1(1 years. To keep posted on tlie 

 newest discoveries and develo|''nients 

 in agriculture, he considers one of the 

 iinj^ortant jobs of a farm adviser. He 

 takes seriously the rt-sponsibility of 

 adviser in getting such inform.ition 

 across to farmers. , 



Mr Kclriicr does nofcsmokc or drink. 

 He likes photography and has taken 

 some excellent motion pictures. Of 

 late he and Mrs. Keltner liave spent 

 a few clays each year during the fishing 

 season trying their luck witli \X'all I?)es 

 in northern Wisconsin. 



The I'.irm Bureau office is headc-juar- 

 ters tor information on agriculture in 

 the city of Rockford. The newspapers 

 and r.idio station WROK have co-op- 

 er,ited wholeheartedly with the Farm 

 Bure.ui, and Mr.. Keltner finds time 

 once or twice a week to sjieak over the 

 station. Soil impro\ement, livestock 

 sanitation and the commercial services^ 

 are not tlie only projects that have been 

 emphasized in Winneb.igo county un- 

 der .Mr. Keltncr's direction, 'llie countv 

 has the highest percentage of cows of 

 any county in Illinois or Wisconsin 

 under test in its three dairy herd im- 

 j^ro\ement associations, accordini; to 

 A. n N'ystrom of the L'. S. D. A. 

 l-very member belongs to the Farm 

 Bureau. This iN one reason why Win 

 nebago has more' than its share of good 

 dairymen and purebred breeders. 



boys and gkis' \\\ C hib work rates 

 ace high in Wiiuiebau'o. an>l Keltner 

 gives Jepson much of the credit for the 

 fine reiord iIk county is in.iking m this 

 project. 



Schoo-I teacher for 1 3 vears. farm 

 adviser !(> years, and a student and 

 leader in agriculture from the begin- 

 ning. Mr. Keltner has an enviable 

 record as an executive who gets things 

 done He is carving out a successful 

 career as agricultural adviser over the 

 broad acres of Winnebago. And 'when 

 that work is completed its results will 

 live long after him in the better farms, 

 finer homes and inspired people who 

 work together there for a happier 

 farm life. — Editor. 



DECEMBER, 1936 



15 



