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ILLINOIS AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION RECORD 



To advance the purpose for which the Farm Bureau was organized 

 namely, to promote, protect and represent the business, economic, political 

 and educational interests of the farmers of Illinois and the nation, and 

 to develop agriculture. 



MAY 

 VOL 16 



1938 

 N0.5 



Published monthly by the Illinois Aencultural Asso- 

 ciation at 1 501 West Washington Road. Mendota, III. 

 Editorial Offices, 608 So. Dearborn St.. ChicaRo. 111. 

 Entered as second class matter at post oflFicc, Mendota, 

 Illinois. September U, 1936. Acceptance for mailmg 

 at special rate of postage provided in Section 412, Act of 

 Feb. 28, 1925, authorized Oct. 27. 1935. Address ftll 

 communications for publication to Editorial Offices. Illinois 

 Agricultural Association RECORD. 608 So. Dearborn St.. 

 ChicaRO. The individual membership fee of the Illinois 

 Agricultural Association is five dollars a year. The fee 

 includes payment of fifty cents for subscription to the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association RECORD. Postmaster: 

 Send notices on Form 3578 and undcliverable copies 

 returned under Form 3579 to editorial offices. 608 S. 

 Dearborn St.. Chicago. 111. 



Editor and Advertising Director. E. G. Thiem ; Assistant 

 Director and Ass't. Editor, Lawrence A. Potter. 



Illinois Agricultural Association 



Greatest Stale Farm Organization in America 



OFFICERS 



President, Earl C. Smith Detroit 



Vice-President, Talmage DeFrees Smithboro 



Corporate Secretary. Paul E. Mathias Chicago 



Field Secretary, Geo. E. Metzger Chicago 



Treasurer, R. A. CowLES Bloomington 



Ass't Treasurer, A. R. Wright Varna 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

 (By Congressional District) 



1st to 11th E. Harris, Grayslake 



1 2th _ E. E. Houghtby, Shabbona 



1 3th _ Leo M. Knox, Morrison 



I4th Otto Steffey, Stronghurst 



15th _ M. Ray Ihrig, Golden 



16th Albert Hayes, Chillicothe 



17th C. M. Smith, Eureka 



18th W. A. Dennis, Paris 



19th Eugene Curtis, Champaign 



20th K. T. Smith, Greenfield 



21st ^ Dwight Hart, Sharpsburg 



22nd A. O. Eckert, Belleville 



23rd Chester McCord, Newton 



24th Charles Marshall, Belknap 



25th August G. Eggerding, Red Bud 



DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS 



Comptroller R. G. Ely 



Dairy Marketing Wilfred Shaw 



Field Service Cap Mast 



Finance R. A. Cowles 



Fruit and Vegetable Marketing H. W. Dav 



Legal and General Counsel Donald Kirkpatricfe 



Live Stock Marketing Sam F. Russell 



Office C. E. Johnson 



Organization _ G. E. Metzger 



Produce Marketing F. A. Gougler 



Publicity George Thiem 



Safety C. M. Seagraves 



Soil Improvement John R. Spencer 



Taxation and Statistics _ J. C. Watson 



Transportation-Claims Division G. W. Baxter 



Young Peoples Activities Frank Gingrich 



ASSOCIATED ORGANIZATIONS 



Country Life Insurance Co Dave Mieher, Sales 



Manager; Howard Reeder, Home Office Mgr. 

 Farmers' Mutual Reinsurance Co. ..J. H. Kelker, Mgr. 



Illinois Agr. Auditing Ass'n C. E. Strand, Mgr. 



Illinois Agr. Mutual Ins. Co...A. E. Richardson, Mgr. 



Illinois Agr. Service Co Donald Kirkpatrick, Secy. 



111. Farm Bureau Serum Ass'n S. F. Russell, Secy. 



Illinois Farm Supply Co L. R. Marchant, Mgr. 



Illinois Fruit Growers' Exchange.. ..H. W. Day, Mgr. 



111. Grain Corporation Harrison Fahrnkopf, Mgr. 



III. Livestock Marketing Ass'n Sara Russell, Mgr. 



Illinois Milk Producers' Ass'n Wilfred Shaw, Mgr. 



Illinois Producers' Creameries.. .-F. A. Gougler, Mgr. 

 J B. Countiss Sales Mgr. 



MAY. 1938 



GEORGE THIEM, Editor 



Opening Furrow For Contour Plow- 

 ing in Stephenson County. 



^^ /^ATE winter and early spring 

 ^T^"^ rains again have washed 

 '■' — ^ thousands of tons of top 

 soil from productive Illinois farms. 

 On rolling lands, farmers with an 

 eye to the future are studying and 

 experimenting with contour farming 

 and strip cropping. Such farming 

 not only keeps the soil where it be- 

 longs but also conserves moisture, 

 brings bigger crop yields and reduces 

 production costs. Read what farm- 

 ers say about it in the story on page 

 13. 



Only three times since 1900 has 

 annual production of corn in the 

 United States fallen below two bil- 

 lion bushels. In 1901-'02 the crop 

 totaled 1,716,000,000 bu. The oth- 

 er two low years were 1934 and 

 1936 when the corn belt had the 

 worst droughts in history. In 1934 

 the corn yield fell to the record low 

 of 1,461,123,000 bu. In 1936 it 

 was 1,507,089,000 bu. These small 

 crops were largely responsible for 

 the good prices received for corn in 

 '35 and '37. By holding down acre- 

 age this year and keeping the '38 

 corn crop down to about 2,400,000,- 

 000 bu. farmers can get more total 

 dollars than they can for a much 

 larger crop. History shows this to 

 be true.. ...■ < -.i- 



In 1935 the United States im- 

 ported 43 million bushels of corn, 



.f ..>; 



in 1936 thirty-one million and in 

 1937, 86 million bushels. These 

 imports were far above normal. They 

 came about because of crop failure 

 over much of the corn belt and high 

 prices for com. It's a different pic- 

 ture today. Imports of Argentine 

 com have been negligible since our 

 bumper '37 crop of 2,644,995,000 

 bu. came in. During January and 

 February this year, the U. S. im- 

 ported only 79,540 bu., hardly a 

 shirttail full, but we exported during 

 these two months 29,393,104 bu. 

 Who says com belt farmers are los- 

 ing their market to the Argentine.' 



Oscar Johnson, vice-president of 

 the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federa- 

 tion and formerly in charge of the 

 cotton pool of the Commodity Credit 

 Corporation is one of the best in- 

 formed men in the country on cot- 

 ton. In a recent hearing before the 

 Senate Agricultural Committee he 

 riddled the "foreign competition" 

 propaganda that the AAA crop ad- 

 justment program is responsible for 

 greatly stimulating cotton production 

 abroad. Sketching in detail the his- 

 tory of cotton production in all the 

 leading cotton producing nations, he 

 stated that the increase in foreign 

 cotton production in the last eight 

 years, with the exception of one year, 

 has not been out of line with the in- 

 crease that has been going on for 

 about 50 years. In 1932, he stated, 

 there was the greatest foreign cotton 

 production in history, a year before 

 we had the AAA and when cotton 

 here was selling at 5c a lb. 



When you sift down the charges 

 constantly being made in certain 

 metropolitan newspapers and com- 

 pare them with the facts, you learn 

 to what ends editors will some- 

 times go in spreading false propa- 

 ganda. We need vigorous, aggres- 

 sive journalism critical of every- 

 thing the government does. But 

 such criticism should be constructive, 

 and by all means it should be based 

 on fact, not misinformation. — E.G.T. 



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