UM^ ■ -m 



A MODERN OFFICE BUILDING 



SEED CORN TESTING IN THE BASEMENT 

 "Orrie Arntien and Kenneth Hodges Do the Work." 



MISS RUBY WAYMACK 

 "A card for every member.' 



A Ten Year Record of 



Farm Bureau Service 



McDonough County Attempts to Reach Every 

 Member With Its Broad Program of Activities. 



y^ \A fj HAT is probably tlie most 

 ^-V 1/ lompletc 10-year record of 

 ff J the services rendered by a 

 (oiinty I'arm Bureau was disclosed in the 

 annual report of Farm Adviser Ray C 

 Done^hue at the last annual meeting 

 of the McDonough County Farm Bu- 

 reau. 



The record, which goes back to 1927. 

 makes some 38 classifications of services 

 and contacts with Farm Bureau mem- 

 bers. During the past two years 100 per 

 cent of tlie members, the record shows, 

 have paid their dues, and in I'M^ and 

 19^6, every member used at least one 

 or more services of the organization. 



Several items shown in the table need 

 further explanation. For example, auto 

 mobile insurance shows a substantiallv 

 lower figure than (he membership. How- 

 ever, there are many more polities in 

 force in McDonough county than the fig- 

 ures shown since a number of members 

 have from two to five automobiles, 

 trucks and trailers insured, for each of 

 which a policy is issued. 



A number of services, such as the crop 

 adjustment programs, were otfered only 

 part of the 10-year period. Organized 

 purchasing of seed carried on in the 

 earlier years was later discontinued when 

 this business was centralized in the Seed 

 Company. 



The careful system of records, with a 

 daily report blank kept most conscienti- 

 ously by Nfiss Ruby Waymack, office sec- 

 retary, and others of the clerical stafi. 



made possible this accurate summary of 

 Farm Bureau services. Fach Farm Bu- 

 reau member in McDonough county has 

 his name listed on a card in the county 

 office to which entries from the daily rec- 

 cord are transferred periodically. At al- 

 most any moment the Farm Adviser can 

 turn to the card and learn which ser- 

 vices, the member has been getting. This 

 record is also invaluable to the organiza- 

 tion director. 



To illustrate, Charles J. Webb who 

 operates a farm more than 12 miles from 

 the county office at Macomb, used 22 

 different Farm Bureau services in 19^6. 

 He was in the office at least Ci'^ times 

 during the year - - a higher than normal 

 record because >X'ebb is president of the 

 Production Credit Association which 

 brings him to town fre(|uently. 



The girls in the office use a code to 

 identify each service, and this code num- 

 ber, rather than the description of the 

 service, appears on the membership card. 



Other County F'arm Bureaus might 

 well look into this McDonough F'.irm 

 Bureau membership service record. If 

 the criticism that many Farm Bureaus 

 fail to hold members once they are 

 signed, is valid, the place to start is a 

 careful check on every member's use of 

 the organization. Roy Burris of Morgan 

 county made this point clear when he 

 made the following analogy at the lAA 

 annual meeting breakfast. "When you 

 put a new bunch of cattle in the yard," 

 said Burris, "they stand over in one 



corner apart from the others and won't 

 eat. The problem is to get them to 

 eat."" 



Ray C. Doneghue is one of the few 

 Farm Atlvisers in Illinois who has 

 worked in only one county. He com- 

 pleted 18 years of service on March 18. 

 The McDonough county organization 

 was established in 191S and Mr. Done- 

 ghue came a year later. R.iy was born 

 on a farm 20 miles south of Cleveland, 

 Ohio. After graduating from Ohio State 

 University in 19()() he came to Illinois 

 to work on the soil survey. He received 

 his masters degree in soils at the Uni- 

 versity of Missouri two years later. Then 

 he went west to become assistant pro- 

 fessor of agronony at the North Dakota 

 Agricultural College. As director of 

 agronomy in the experiment station, he 

 was placed in charge of the soil survey 

 in that state. 



'Melvin Thomas (former farm adviser 

 in Coles county) was my first assistant 

 in the state soil survey," Doneghue said. 

 The first soil fertility experiment carried 

 on in North Dakota were started during 

 my service there. They arc still under 

 way." 



Ray believes that the most trying pe- 

 riod in the history of the McDonough 

 C^ounty Farm Bureau came in the post- 

 war depression years of 1921 and 1922. 

 The Farm Bureau was voung at that time 

 and a discouraging re.iction set in fol- 

 lowing the sharp drop in farm prices. 



McDonough county, like many others. 



10 



I. A. A. RECORD 



