sonville, Harrisburg, and Decatur. The 

 newest dairy, Decatur, opened, December 



17. 



Annual meetings of the other I. A. A. 

 subsidiary companies are slated for Wed- 

 nesday, January 27, the first day of the 

 convention. Every company is expected 

 to report increases in both membership 

 and volume of business. 



Country Life Insurance Company and 

 the Illinois Agricultural Holding Com- 

 pany will hold meetings in the LaSalle 

 Hotel. Howard Reeder, actuary, will dis- 

 cuss the annual statement of the insur- 

 ance company. He is expected tp report 

 more than $20,000,000 paid insurance 

 written during the year. 



"Risks and Mortality" is the subject 

 to be elaborated up>on by Dr. John Bo- 

 land, medical adviser of the company. 

 He is expected to show some of the rea- 

 sons why Country Life can safely and suc- 

 cessfully write policies at costs lower 

 than those of ten other leading com- 

 panies. 



L. A. Williams, manager, will present 

 plans and objectives for 1937. It is 

 likely that he will uncork new objectives 

 and the means by which they can be at- 

 tained. 



F. W. Peck, director of extension. Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota, and former chief of 

 the Bank for Co-operatives, will be the 

 principal speaker at the annual meeting 

 of the Illinois Agricultural Auditing As- 

 sociation. He will draw from his ample 

 experiences in working with co-operatives 

 when he discusses business practices of 

 co-operative organizations. 



The Association's manager, F. E. Ring- 

 ham, is expected to report an increase of 

 7 percent in the number of audits made 

 during the year. In addition, the associa- 

 tion succeeded in securing income tax 

 exemptions for many co-operatives in the 

 State. 



The annual report of sales to be pre- 

 sented at the annual meeting of the Il- 

 linois Farm Bureau Serum Association is 

 expected to show the dissemination of 

 nearly 35 million cubic centimeters of 

 serum and virus to ' Illinois swine pro- 

 ducers. 



At the Illinois Agricultural Mutual In- 

 surance Company meeting, A. E. Rich- 

 ardson, manager, will report 10 percent 

 more business written for 1936 than in 

 1935. This company started in 1927 

 with 6,423 policies in force and has 

 grown steadily until now it has almost 

 55,000 policies mostly on autos and 

 trucks. 



A triple program is to be featured by 

 the Illinois Farm Supply Company in the 

 form of two meetings and a banquet. 

 The meetmgs, one for the directors of 

 the 63 member companies,hand Ae other 



WATER CONSERVATION IN ILLINOIS 



n 



THE water 

 table in Illi- 

 nois has receded 

 from 50 to 350 

 feet in the last 70 

 years, according 

 to Colonel Kas- 

 son, engineer in 

 charge of the 

 WPA water con- 

 servation project. ^ , . I , --- . r . . 



. .* . Dam and pond made by CCC camp in Edwards county on Farm 



His ambition is to Bureau member Clarence Proctor's farm. The pond is 15 feet 

 raise the water deep — covers two acres. 



table by making 



I 



ponds on farm lands over Illinois. 



Thousands of tons of good Illinois 

 top soil are carried away by the 

 rapidly running surface water every 

 year. Dust storms carry away more 

 of the precious top soil. The water 

 table has receded so far that crops 

 lose their natural right of drinking 

 from the ground. Successful farm- 

 ing in Illinois, as a result, is now 

 dependent on rain and lots of it, 

 according to conservation author- 

 ities. 



Through the farm pond project, 

 it is claimed that water conservation 

 can make the streams respectable and 

 well-behaved all year round. Water 

 impounded near the source of their 



tributaries will seep into the ground, 

 tend to re-establish the water table, 

 while during long dry spells, this 

 water can be released from the reser- 

 voirs into the stream beds, allowing 

 farmers sufficient water for emer- 

 gency farm needs., I 



State officials have been urged to 

 set up a test project, acquiring title 

 to ground that can be flooded. A 

 creek can be dammed up, melting 

 snow and spring rain water can be 

 impounded, and farmers can look 

 ahead to dry spells confident that 

 drought is no longer an economic 

 factor. The whole idea sums down 

 to building of dams and creating of 

 artificial lakes by the WPA and CCC 

 in an effort to stop old man drought. 



for salesmen and managers, will run 

 simultaneously, Wednesday afternoon,. 

 January 27. The banquet for all per- 

 sons affiliated with the Farm Bureau or 

 the Illinois Farm Supply companies, will 

 be staged at 1 1 o'clock Wednesday night. 



The directors of the Illinois Farm Sup- 

 ply member companies will be shown 

 comparative analyses of their 1936 busi- 

 ness. 



Sales plans for 1937 will be the main 

 discourse at the meeting for salesmen. 

 They are expected to perfect a plan of 

 attack which will better the Supply Com- 

 pany's sales recQrd of $1,000,000 per 

 month in 1936. 



Egg marketing will feature discussions 

 tn Illinois Producers' Creameries annual 



meeting. This company recently launched 

 an egg buying program which started on 

 December 28, in the Olney district. Plans 

 to expand this enterprise will be sub- 

 mitted at the meeting. 



Details of other meetings and confer- 

 ences will be announced later. Prospects 

 for a 1937 ^arm Sports Festival and 

 plans for a round of baseball and soft 

 ball games will' be the subject of a con- 

 ference Wednesday afternoon. 



With farm income higher than it has 

 been in several years, a large attendance 

 is anticipated. President Earl C. Smith 

 and his associates have spared no effort 

 to make the 1937 annual meeting the 

 most helpful and inspiring yet to be held. 



6 



I. A. A. RECORD 



