"IT GOT FARMERS TO UlkJUHf 



AND Uo^Jtikf dofMefi'' 



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\/^V HE first time we visited Union 

 / County, Illinois, was some 12 



\^ years ago. It was in the fall. 

 There had been a rich harvest of fruits 

 and vegetables for which this pictur- 

 esque region is famous. The city of 

 Anna was bustling with trucks going 

 and coming loaded with baskets of 

 apples, peaches and pears. Prosperity 

 was evident on every hand. The last- 

 ing impression you gained was that of 

 a horticulturist's paradise where nature 

 and man conspire and work together 

 harmoniously to bring peace, prosper- 

 ity, and happiness to a fortunate peo- 

 ple. 



That the county boasts of more than 

 its neat hill-side orchards, vineyards, 

 and small fruits and vegetables is not 

 apparent as you drive north or south 

 on the main highway. Therefore, when 

 the estimable agricultural adviser, Mr. 

 E. for Elmer, A. for Alfred Bierbaum 

 suggested recently that we go out and 

 see one of the county's livestock and 

 grain farms, it was natural to raise a 

 skeptical eyebrow and wait to be shown. 



Driving west the winding highway 



takes you through the bluffs and hills 

 downward to the broad Mississippi 

 river plain where you find some of the 

 state's richest soils and best alfalfa, 

 corn and wheat ground. Here Dan 

 Davie's parents brought him as a small 

 boy from a coal mining region in south- 

 eastern Iowa back in the '80s. The 

 Davies settled on the flat land around 

 Ware, much of which 50 years ago was 

 marshy and covered with timber and 

 underbrush. But even in those early 

 days drainage and the building of 

 levees was under way to convert this 

 area from a refuge for ducks, wild 

 geese, and other water fowl to the 

 more profitable purposes of producing 

 corn, wheat, and livestock. 



Mr. Davie took a keen interest as he 

 grew older in better farming. And 

 when the Union County Farm Bureau 

 was organized some 20 years ago he 

 became a charter member. He has con- 

 tinued as a member, and on and off as 

 director, from the beginning, co-oper- 

 ating in the production adjustment pro- 

 grams, and now in the soil conserva- 

 tion plan which he is helping direct as 



chairman of the County Committee. 



Dan Davie has acquired certain con- 

 victions of his own about organization 

 for farmers. Perhaps he absorbed some 

 of the philosophy of organization from 

 his father who worked in the coal 

 mines in Iowa when working condi- 

 tions and wage scales were not as fav- 

 orable as they are today. At any rate 

 he summed up his views by saying: 

 "The best thing the Farm Bureau has 

 done is to get farmers to thinking and 

 working together." 



"Farm Bureau is worth more than 

 twice what it costs every year in ac- 

 tual savings," he continued. "But its 

 most important benefits come not from 

 these savings, but from the state and 

 national influence of farmers in work- 

 ing for parity prices and fair returns on 

 their labor and investment." 



The Davie farm comprises 350 acres. 

 Cash crops are wheat and alfalfa, al- 

 though much of the hay, both alfalfa 

 and red clover, and all of the corn and 

 other small grain crops, are marketed 

 on the hoof through beef cattle, hogs, 

 and sheep. 



.The 20 Hereford breeding cows are 

 kept to utilize the pasture in uncleared 

 portions of the farm. The white faced 

 calves grown on the farm are fed out 

 for market along with an average of 

 around 30 steers bought annually at the 

 national stockyards, E. St. Louis. Mr. 

 Davie invariaibly markets his cattle, 

 ' hogs, and lambs through the St. Louis 

 Producers because he likes the service 

 he gets there, and believes farmers 

 should support co-operative marketing 

 as the safest way to guarantee the best 

 possible prices. 



Some of the choicest steers that come 

 out of Southern Illinois to the St. Louis 

 market are grown on the Davie farm. 

 He has used a good purebred Hereford 

 bull for many years. The present herd 

 sire was purchased from a purebred 

 breeder, John Cerney of Cobden, in the 

 same county. A finishing ration of 

 ground corn and cob meal, about two 

 pounds of cottonseed meal per head 



L A. A. RECORD 



