ill* 



FLIP THE SWITCH. GRIND FEED AS YOU USE IT 

 A. E. Becker, president, Menard Electric Co- 

 operative, explain* operation oi a high-speed ham- 

 mer milL 



NO MORE STOKING A KITCHEN BANGE — 

 says Mrs. Council. She'll hare more time ior her 

 great-grandchildren. 



irrigation experiments. Perhaps electric 

 power will xesult in a new form of crop 

 insurance. Maybe it will change farming 

 methods in some parts of the com belt. 

 At any rate it will be interesting to watch 

 the outcome of Ainsworth's water control 

 studies which have been made possible 

 through economical power. 



Similar events took place in the south- 

 ern part of Sangamon county where the 

 lines of the Rural Convenience Co-opera- 

 tive have been energized. Some of the 

 families on these lines have already 

 learned the advantages of automatic re- 

 frigerators, stoves and pumps. 



Mrs. E. C. Kiplinger, wife of the co- 

 op's president, saved as much as her 

 power bill for two months through time- 

 ly use of her new refrigerator. When 

 rain came one morning a few weeks ago 

 and stopped threshing operations on the 

 Kiplinger place, Mrs. Kiplinger had a 

 $6 beef roast almost ready to serve the 

 threshers. 



The men went home before dinner 

 and the Kiplingers faced eighteen monot- 

 onous meals of beef hash. But Mrs. 

 Kiplinger avoided that. She put the 

 whole meal, already cooked into her re- 

 frigerator. There it remained three days 

 when it was taken out, heated and served. 

 Although storing meals was a new ex- 

 perience for this farm woman it is com- 

 mon practice where electrical refrigera- 

 tion is available. 



Members of the Menard Electric Co- 

 operative can purchase all kinds of elec- 

 trical equipment on a co-operative basis 

 through the newly organized Menard 

 Appliance Company. The Rural Elec- 

 tric Convenience Co-operative is oflFering 

 similar service to its members. 



Both companies report increasing sales 

 of new equipment. During August, re- 

 frigerators were the most jxjpular. Mo- 

 tors and pumps to be used in connection 

 with farm water systems sold fast, too. 

 Several small hammer mills, capable of 

 grinding feeds as they are used, were sold 

 to replace the larger tractor-jjowered 

 types. 



Power costs are snuU when it is 

 brought to the farm the co-op way. And 

 the more power a farmer uses the less it 



costs him per kilowatt hour. The first 

 charge is a membership fee, usually 

 $5.00. Then there is a minimum month- 

 ly rate of about $3.50 for 40 kilowatt 

 hours. 



There is nothing mysterious nor com- 

 plicated about the term "Kilowatt Hour." 

 It is simply a unit of energy measure- 

 ment just as a gallon is a unit of volume 

 measurement. We say a car travels 20 

 miles on a gallon of gasoline. And we 

 say a bulb bums 20 hours per kilowatt 

 hour of electricity. 



Power companies find that the heavier 

 the load on their lines the cheaper they 

 can furnish power to consumers. To 

 make greater use of power more attrac- 

 tive and to make a larger line load, com- 

 panies offer lower rates for all current 

 used in any month over a specified 

 amount. In order to set a fair rate, 

 power dealers, including co-op>eratives, 

 employ a "block" system or sliding scale 

 of charges. 



Rates offered by the Central Illinois 

 Public Service Company are fairly typical. 

 Users pay $1 for the first 12 kilowatt 

 hours of energy. They pay 714 cents 

 each for the next 25 K.W.H. If they 

 use more, they get the second block of 

 25 K.W.H. at a five cent rate. For all 

 kilowatt hours over 67, the users pay 

 only three cents each. 



This is the way it's figured on a month- 

 ly basis: 



132 KWH 6.25 



Average rate, 4.73 cents per kilowatt 

 hour. 



This user reduced his rate from 8 1/3 

 cents per kilowatt hour for the first 12 

 units to less than 5 cents for the total 

 units used. All additional appliances 

 would be operated on the three cent rate. 



Another first cost is wiring. This 

 varies with the number of outlets re- 

 quired, the distance from the line to the 

 buildings, the distance between build- 

 (Continued on page 23) 



-*lia^ 



IT PUMPS IRRIGATION WATER 

 FOR CORN 

 A portable motor, lar^e enough to run 

 a silo filler, on Ralph Ainsworth's iann. 



APPUANCES GOING TO FARMS — 

 a common scene after the power was 

 turned on. 



y 



