in her 

 |) White- 

 one of 

 of the 

 y at a 

 1. ■ The 



icing 



GRAVEL FOR FAYETTE COUNTY ROADS 

 300 were on droufh relief. 



NEW ROAD IN SEFTON TOWNSHIP 

 178 miles of gravel this year. 



Farm Bureau Aids Fayette 



County Good Roads Program 



V \\ ««HHN you look around the state 

 ^•vVl/ tor a County Farm Bureau 

 ff (f that's up and cominc; and go- 

 int; places consider for a moment that 

 thrifty infant in Fayette County which 

 grew from an idea to 38i members with 

 a widespread program of service, in less 

 than two years. 



I"ayette county is well known for a 

 lot of things;'' according to Jonathan 

 Turner, farm adviser. For instance, you 

 might pomt 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 

 (Ounty. 



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 

 ^)1.(->1 per cent of Fayette county farmers 

 resided on such unimproved roaJs. It 

 was natural, therefore, for the Coimtv 

 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 W'PA 

 road improvement and tirouth 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 I'ayete county since May 1. 

 Today you can ride all over the countv on 



JANUARY, 1937 . 



graveled roads, for the first time in its 

 histor)'. 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 S-l0,000 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 Illinofs made 

 a survey several years ago ot the amount 

 of liming done in Illinois counties, it put 

 layette county way down near the bottom 

 of the list. Its record was only 1.(6 

 per cent of limestone rec]uire-ments. In 

 other words, only this percentage of lime- 

 stone actually needed on Favette countv 

 soils had been applied. (ontrast this 

 with 1 2 per cent of limestone require- 

 ments in FtTingham county and IS- per 

 cent in Bond countv. 



■Farm Adviser Turner and the Farni 

 Bureau decided to do something about 

 this situation. .Much has been done a! 

 ready. Some new reiords in carloads of 

 limestone spread were maile in this (oim- 

 ty in 19V\ Many farmers used it for 

 the first time. 



Turner at once saw the need for edu- 

 cating the owners and operators of I-'ay- 

 ctte 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 ty|x-s of soil treatment will show, 

 farmers the value of limestone and le- 

 gumes. The College of Agriculture will 

 be asked to co-opetate. \Ir. Turner has 

 aroused the interest of F'ayette county 

 business men as well as the leatling tarm- 

 ers in this project, and before long he 

 hopes to have something niore definite 

 to announce. 



JONATHAN TURNER 

 His ambition — an experimental farm for 

 soil and crop demonstration. 



"We hope to ]ia\e co-operatixe egg 



m.irkcting in c\crv Illinois l'rc)>hKi.Ts 

 ( re.mierics "before IV^" Josls." s.ivs 

 I'r.uik Gougler, dirc-itor ol Froduic 

 .M.ukcting for the lAA. 



\'olume index of agricultural prod- 

 ucts tor the montii of Oitolxr. l93Ci, 

 rose to ~( percent of the pre war aver- 

 age. 



29 



