/ . 



GRAVEL FOR FAYEHE COUNTY ROADS 

 300 ware on drouth relief. 



NEW ROAD IN SEFTON TOWNSHIP 

 178 miles of gravel this year. 



Farm Bureau Aids Fayette 



County Good Roads Program 



^^4 —HEN you look around the state 

 ^<Y\/ for a County Farm Bureau 

 Q g that's up and coming and go- 

 ing places consider for a moment that 

 thrifty infant in Fayette County which 

 grew from an idea to 384 members with 

 a widespread program of service, in less 

 than two years. 



Fayette county is well known for a 

 lot of things, according to Jonathan 

 Turner, farm adviser. For instance, you 

 might point out its size. Fayette county 

 is one of southern Illinois' largest. From 

 one end to the other it is better than 60 

 miles. You may also dwell on the fact 

 that it has more miles of the Kaskaskia 

 river within it borders than any other 

 county. 



But until recently Fayette had another 

 outstanding record. It was a state leader 

 in mileage of unimproved dirt roads. In 

 fact, the most recent census showed that 

 92.62 per cent of Fayette county farmers 

 resided on such unimproved roads. It 

 was natural, therefore, for the County 

 Farm Bureau to take a keen interest in 

 the farm-to-market road improvement 

 program on which the lAA has been 

 working for more than a decade. 



The Farm Bureau appointed a road 

 committee early in its organization to 

 counsel and work with the county super- 

 intendent of highways. So when WPA 

 road improvement and drouth relief came 

 along, the Farm Bureau used its influence 

 to put as many workers as possible on 

 the road graveling project. 



And with what result.' Believe it or 

 not, 178 miles of dirt roads have been 

 graveled in Fayete county since May 1. 

 Today you can ride all over the county on 



graveled roads, for the first time in its 

 history. At the peak of activity 800 

 men were working on the road improve- 

 ment program which included approxi- 

 mately 300 rural residents who were on 

 drouth relief. 



Of course all of the contribution for 

 road improvement didn't come from the 

 Works Progress Administration although 

 it paid for labor. The county itself spent 

 about $40,000 on materials and super- 

 visory service. Several huge gravel pits 

 opened up in the county made it easy to 

 get gravel and reduced the expense of the 

 hard surfacing project. 



When the University of Illinois made 

 a survey several years ago of the amount 

 of liming done in Illinois counties, it put 

 Fayette county way down near the bottom 

 of the list. Its record was only 4.46 

 per cent of limestone requirements. In 

 other words, only this percentage of lime- 

 stone actually needed on Fayette county 

 soils had been applied. Contrast this 

 with 12 per cfent of limestone require- 

 ments in Effingham county and 18 per 

 cent in Bond county. 



Farm Adviser Turner and the Farm 

 Bureau decided to do something about 

 this situation. Much has been done al- 

 ready. Some new records in carloads of 

 limestone spread were made in this coun- 

 ty in 1936. Many farmers used it for 

 the first time. 



Turner at once saw the need for edu- 

 cating the owners and operators of Fay- 

 ette county's acid soils on the value of 

 liming. He believes that it's much easier 

 to put over ideas through demonstration 

 and visualization than by speeches. So 

 he has set out to acquire a tract of land 



where actual experimental results with 

 various types of soil treatment will show 

 farmers the value of limestone and le- 

 gumes. The College of Agriculture will 

 be asked to co-operate. Mr. Turner has 

 aroused the interest of Fayette county 

 business men as well as the leading farm- 

 ers in this project, and before long he 

 hopes to have something more definite 

 to announce. 



JONATHAN TURNER 

 Hit ambition — an experimental farm for 

 soil and crop demonstration. _j 



"We hope to have co-operadve egg 



marketing in every Illinois Producers 

 Creameries before 1937 closes," says 

 Frank Gougler, director of Produce 

 Marketing for the lAA. 



Volume index of agricultural prod- 

 ucts for the month of October, 1936, 

 rose to 74 percent of the pre-war aver- 

 age. 



JANUARY, 1937 



