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Southeastern Illinois Farmers Are Grateful For Feed, 

 Seed and Cash Donated By Their Neighbors 



LOOD stricken farmers in 

 southeastern Illinois are ex- 



^^ tremely grateful for the gen- 

 erous help they have had from farmers in 

 other sections of the state. 



Expressions of gratitude were made 

 by scores of farmers who shared in the 

 distribution of feed and seed, to A. R. 

 Wright of the Flood Relief Committee 

 and the writer following a trip through 

 Pulaski-Alexander, Massac, Pope, Saline, 

 Gallatin and White counties recently. 



Farmers in the flood area received more 

 than they expected. At this writing the 

 equivalent of 88 carloads of hay, straw, 

 grain and seed have been shipped into 

 the flood zone. 



The County Farm Bureaus in the flood 

 area handled the immense task of dis- 

 tributing the feed equitably most effi- 

 ciently. Their first step was to make a 

 careful survey of needs. Soil conservation 

 committeemen volunteered for this work. 

 From the beginning it was agreed that 

 there should he no partiality shown be- 

 tween members and nonmembers; also 

 that feed relief would be confined to 

 horses and mules except for the emergen- 

 cy period when the flood waters were 

 high and it was a question of saving 

 cattle and hogs from starvation. Farmers 

 who saved enough feed to make a crop 

 were given little or no aid. The feed was 

 distributed among those who needed it 

 most. 



During the trip we talked to many 

 flood stricken farmers out on their farms. 

 They were generally cheerful, looking 



REBUILDING 

 Worlimen repairing buildings on Zacl Leitch 

 Farm, Saline county. 



forward with hope to the new crop year. 

 George Lewis whose fine home over- 

 looks the Ohio River in Pulaski county, 

 lost a large part of his feed and 21 

 hogs. His 25 head of cattle, five horses 

 and mules had to swim for it when the 

 river rose to flood his 224 acre farm. 

 Lewis received feed oats, baled hay and 

 straw, also a quantity of seed oats through 

 the Pulaski-Alexander Farm Bureau. A 

 large part of his farm which fronts the 

 river was covered with white sand vary- 

 ing from a fraction of an inch to a foot 

 in depth. He expects to plow as deeply 

 as possible, to mix the black soil below 

 with the sand. Crops this year will be 

 impaired by this influx of sand. Lewis's 



BACK TO NORMAL AGAIN 

 Tfiii river routed many a farm family. 



GEHING READY FOR THE NEXT 

 Boat in the making in front yard, Metropolis, 

 Massac county. 



i?*- 



case, however, is not typical of farmers 

 in the flood area. Many received a deposit 

 of silt which will aid rather than hinder 

 fertility. 



Lewis had a little more than three feet 

 of water in the house. He lost two 

 barns and a tenant house from rough 

 water that pounded against his buildings 

 for two days. A barge tied up one 

 night on the roof of a concrete building 

 near his house. When the water came 

 it arose 31/2 ^^^t one night. There was 

 no time to get livestock and equipment 

 to high ground. He put 28 pigs in the 

 loft of the barn, but in rooting for feed 

 they uprooted several boards. Twenty- 

 three pigs fell out and went down the 

 Ohio. 



"The feed I got is mighty helpful," 

 said Lewis, a Farm Bureau member. "It 

 shows what organized farmers can do to 

 help each other." 



Mrs. Effie Mabry, a widow, who with 

 her son farms 40 acres near the hamlet, 

 America, in Pulaski county, lost nearly 

 all of her small stock of feed, also her 

 chickens. But she saved her three mules, 

 four cows and two hogs. She is typical 

 of many small-holders living on the 

 bottom land. They received a substantial 

 part of the feed in the counties bordering 

 the Ohio. Mrs. Mabry was profuse in 

 her thanks for the 12 bushels of oats, 

 10 bales of straw and hay, five bushels 

 of corn and other minor items she re- 

 ceived. 



She had eight feet of water in the 

 house. All of the farm was under water 

 except two knolls. She was moving the 



MR. AND MRS SYLVESTER C. METCALF 

 Still smiling after 5 feet of water in their home. 



ABOVE: 

 Many dro> 

 Relief Hay s 



Hundreds 

 Left Like Thi 



-mm 



Mrs. E. 

 er presid 

 Brelsford 

 Communit 



NEED 

 This O 

 Road Sot 

 Cache Va 



.'.-V IW- 



