Bigger Yields Better Grain 



From Lime and Pliospliate 



i(\^^^^HIS was a poor farm when 

 ^*~~#^ when I came on the place 

 ^^ sixteen years ago. It had 

 been corned and oated to death," said 

 Lee A. Scherer who operates a 240 acre 

 farm near Roanoke in Woodford County. 



Today the entire farm has been hmed 

 and 1000 lbs. of rock phosphate per 

 acre applied where tests showed it was 

 lacking. Scherer strongly advises testing 

 the ground before applying either fer- 

 tilizer so that no mistakes will be made. 

 He said, "My low ground doesn't need 

 phosphate and my upland does need 

 limestone." 



The fact that limestone and phosphate 

 pay well is proved by farm account 

 records kept by Mr. Scherer in coopera- 

 tion with the Farm Management Depart- 

 ment of the State College of Agriculture 



for fourteen years. He found long ago 

 that liming was necessary for good stands 

 of sweet clover on his higher ground. 



Speaking of small grain, he said, "I 

 get bigger yields, better quality, it stands 

 better and I know a lot of credit is due 

 the phosphorous. One 4 2 -acre field of 

 oats threshed 86 bushels per acre this 

 summer and I have a 30 acre field of corn 

 that is husking out over 100 bushels per 

 acre. ■ 



Records guide Lee Scherer also in his 

 Holstein herd as he watches costs care- 

 fully through his dairy herd improve- 

 ment association membership. He feeds 

 according to production and markets 

 whole milk cooperatively at Peoria. Last 

 year his twelve cows averaged 350 

 pounds of butter fat. 



iHka's ln/ka AiMiif ike hunt. Admus 



I LINTON county, a tight clay area 

 that produces a million bushels 



of wheat, a million dollars worth 



of milk, three-quarters of a million dol- 

 lars of livestock, and a quarter million 

 dollars worth of poultry and eggs each 

 year, is one of Southern Illinois' top 

 notch dairy counties. The Clinton County 

 Farm Bureau and its three farm advisers, 

 Chas. H. Rehling, W. A. Cope, and 

 now C. E. Twigg have had a lot to do 

 with the remarkable achievements of 

 Clinton county farmers in soil improve- 

 ment, crop yields, and livestock breeding. 



Twigg was born 35 years ago near 

 Paris, Edgar county, Illinois. He was 

 raised on a general livestock and grain 

 farm where he became intimately ac- 

 quainted with the rudiments of farming. 



After graduating from Paris high 

 xhool he entered the College of Agricul- 

 ture, University of Illinois, in the class of 

 *25. The year following his graduation 

 he spent studying agricultural geology at 

 the University. From that time his hobby 

 has been soils, how they were formed 

 and how to get the most from them. 



During the next five years, vocational 

 ag students of Equality high school in 

 Gallatin county received the benefit of 

 Twigg's studies in the field of agriculture. 



By 1931, the Farm Bureau in Jeffer- 

 son county was in need of a farm ad- 

 viser. Twigg was well qualified for the 

 position through the broad experiences 

 be had had in nearby Gallatin county. 

 He took the job and was there until he 

 received the appointment to succeed W. 



A. Cope as farm adviser of Clinton coun- 

 ty. He started his new work in July, 

 1935. 



While in Jefferson county, Twigg in- 

 creased the interest in 4-H Club work, 

 got farmers to study their problems 

 through farm accounts, championed the 

 Leaming variety of corn. He had a finger 

 in the pie that later became the Egyptian 

 Service company. He helped organize 

 the Producers Creamery of Carbondale. 



In Clinton county Twigg found the 

 opportunity he wanted to put his soils 

 studies into play. For nearly twenty 

 years the farmers he had come to serve 

 had rapidly built up the nitrogen con- 

 tent of their soils with legumes. As a 

 matter of fact, the county has 30,000 

 aaes in soil building crops each year. 

 Twigg discovered that the soil now con- 

 tains more than enough nitrogen and 

 is lacking in phosphorus. 



This year, Twigg and several Farm 

 Bureau members are experimenting with 

 Trumbull wheat, a variety which has a 

 stiff straw, in an effort to find a wheat 

 that will not lodge even on Clinton coun- 

 ty's best soil. Then too, Twigg is ad- 

 vising farmers to spread rock phosphate 

 on their farms in order to increase yields 

 and counteract the effects of too much 

 nitrogen. 



Good roads and automobiles have tem- 

 porarily unbalanced the usual community 

 interests in this county. One of the 

 major problems of the energetic Clinton 

 county adviser is to create renewed in- 

 terest in community affairs. He has 



started a young people's group which is 

 making strides in bringing folks together 

 socially. 



In Clinton county the Twigg family 

 of two girls and four boys is considered 

 medium-sized but Twigg claims to have 

 the largest farm adviser's family in the 

 state. Each member of the family in- 

 cluding a niece who lives with them, has 

 a Country Life insurance policy. There 

 are ten policies in all. 



The members of the Clinton County 

 Farm Bureau like their adviser and are 

 continually admonishing him to "slow 

 down and take things easy once in a 

 while. " But the best way to get him off 

 the problems of farming, they have 

 found, is to pass him the information 

 that the "big ones" are biting in the 

 Kaskaskia river. — L.A.P. 



NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF 



ILLINOIS MILK PRODUCERS 



ASSOCIATION 



Notice is hereby given that the regular An- 

 nual Meeting of the stockholders and members 

 of Illinois Milk Producers' Association will be 

 held in the Leiand Hotel, in the City of 

 Springfield, State of Illinois, on Tuesday, the 

 25th day of January, 1938 at 8:00 o'clock P.M. 

 for the purpose of electing directors for the 

 coming year; for receiving and, if approved, 

 confirming reports of officers for the preceding 

 year and of considering and, if approved, 

 ratifying and confirming all the acts and pro- 

 ceedings of the Board of Directors of the cor- 

 poration done and taken during the preceding 

 year; and for the transaction of such further 

 and other business as may properly come be- 

 fore the meeting. 



Only stockholders and members of record 

 at the close of business on January 5, 1938, 

 will be entitled to vote at the said meeting. 



Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 27th day of 

 December, 1937. 



Wilfred Shaw, Secretary. 



Sixteen young folks in Pulaski-Alex- 

 ander counties recently elected tem- 

 porary officers, made trial plans for 

 three monthly programs, became the 

 78th County Rural Youth Group in 

 the state. 



Uncle Ab says that loan sharks will 

 get those who go in too deep. 



"The vital need of agriculture today 



is not so much for men of greater na- 

 tural ability as for men with the train- 

 ing, courage and sincerity to utilize 

 fully the ability they already have in 

 learning the facts of their work and 

 applying them to best advantage to 

 meet their particular need." — Prof. 

 Wilber J. Fraser in his book, "Profit- 

 able Farming and Life Management." 



Wayne Sidewell, former Ag teacher 



at Carlyle, Clinton county is the new 

 county agricultural adviser in Jefferson 

 county. 



, 



L A. A. RECORD 



