Sons Orchard near Metropolis reports 

 heavy damage. In one young orchard 

 there are very few if any live buds left. 

 The older orchards have sufficient buds 

 for j\ fair to good crop. Other or- 

 chards in that area located on higher 

 ground have a fair to good set of 

 fruit buds remaining. 



During February and March representa- 

 tives of the lAA Fruit and Vegetable 

 Department and of the Fruit Growers Ex- 

 change' discussed marketing of fruits and 

 vegetables in six Farm Bureau meetings in 

 Southern Illinois. Production of high qual- 

 ity products, a proper grading program, 

 and sales handled by someone interested 

 in the grower were emphasized. 



At a recent meeting in Pulaski-Alexander 

 Farm Bureau building at Mounds, Dr. A. 

 S. Colby of the University of Illinois ad- 

 vised sixty growers present to mulch straw- 

 berry fields in Southern Illinois. In ex- 

 periments at Urbana, plants covered with 

 wheat straw to a depth of three inches 

 came thru without any damage when the 

 temperature was 7 degrees above zero. Un- 

 der the wheat straw the temperature was 

 22 degrees above zero. Under the same 

 condition and time, a corn fodder mulch 

 was used and the temperature under this 

 mulch was 18 degrees above zero and 

 resulted in quite a bit of crown injury. 

 Crown injury is easily detected by re- 

 moving 9 plant from the soil and slicing 

 away a portion just above the roots of 

 the crown. A discoloration near the cam- 

 bium layer or outside edge indicates cold 

 weather injury which reduces the yield 

 according to the amount of injury. 



Warm sunshine and higher temperaiures 

 have resulted in a sudden burst of activity 

 in the fruit growing sections of the state. 

 Growers are making an effort to finish 

 pruning as quickly as possible. Applica- 

 tions of dormant sprays are being applied 

 to orchards. Peach buds on the F & E 

 Bierer Farm near Murphysboro show little 

 if any development at this time. While 

 Miss Bierer considers it too early to es- 

 timate crop prosp^ts the outlook seems 

 favorable. John D. Wilson near Murphys- 

 boro reports that his peach trees show 

 a heavy set of fruit buds. H. P. Sauer, 

 Jackson County reports good buds on his 

 Golden Delicious apples. Sales of fer- 

 tilizers and spray materials from the Fruit 

 Exchange Supply Company have been of 

 good volume during the recent weeks; 

 however heavy rains are delaying opera- 

 tions in the orchard. 



The annual meeting of the Edgar County 

 Growers Association was held in Paris on 

 February 28th. At that meeting the fol- 

 lowing officers and directors were elected 

 — * Herman Yeargin, president. Ben Reel 

 vice president, Chester Boland, secretary 

 and treasurer, directors Forrest Chew and 

 Charles Williams. 



The annual meeting of the Eastern Illi- 

 nois Apple Association was held at Benton, 

 February 2 1st and 22nd. 



The annual meeting of the Illinois Fruit 

 Growers Exchange will be held in the 

 Exchange building in Carbondale Wednes- 

 day April 19th starting at ten A.M. 

 In addition to the membership, friends 

 and others interested are given a'''most 

 cordial invitation to attend this meeting. 



COSSACK ALFALFA 18" HIGH IN EAHLY SPRING 

 This picture sent in by Farm Adviser Kemp of Knox county shows cm 18" growth 

 oi Cossack alialia on April 22, 1938 on the C. H. Booth form near Galesburg. Note that 

 there are no leaves on the trees in the background. This hardy plant will grow in cool 

 weather, is extremely resistant to winter- killing. 



At a meeting of Producers' Creamery man- 

 agers, Bloomington, March 13, a full dis- 

 cussion of operations of the creameries was 

 had. A new schedule was worked out for 

 the shipment and delivery of butter from 

 these plants to the central plant in Chi- 

 cago. Alfred Osterhoff who has hauled 

 approximately three million pounds of but- 

 ter annually from these plants to Chicago 

 was reemployed for another year. At pres- 

 ent he operates five large trailer trucks 

 each of which will haul approximately 

 one car of butter per trip. 



Illinois Producers' Creameries continue to 



show substantial gains in volume over 

 previous years. During the first four months 

 of the present fiscal year butter manu- 

 factured at the nine member plants in- 

 creased 22.1 per cent. Highest increase 

 was at Moline where volume was 93. 1 

 per cent over the same period a year ago. 



Contrary to the opinion of many butter 



operators a few years ago, the Producers' 

 Creamery of Carlinville is making butter 

 which scores 90 score or better. This plant 

 was opened on May 14 last year and is 

 now manufacturing more than a car load 

 of butter each month. It is servicing farms 

 in Macoupin, Greene, Calhoun and Bond 

 Counties with twice-a-week pickup trucks. 



Illinois Producers' Creameries board 



which met in Chicago, February 24, ap- 

 proved a new contract with the member 

 plants This contract has been submitted 

 to each member creamery and practically 

 all have been approved, signed and re- 

 turned to "the central office. This contract 

 was rewritten in order to meet current op- 

 erating conditions in a more satisfactory 

 way. 



Forrest Mob»rg, formerly field superin- 

 tendent of the Galesburg Creamery, recently 

 was presented with a beautiful leather travel- 

 ling bag as a token of appreciation of 

 Forry's services to the creamery. Harry 

 Gehring, president, made the presentation. 

 Mr, Moberg is a native of Knox County and 

 began his dairy work as a cow tester in that 

 county. He was later selected as manager 

 of the Galesburg Pure Milk As.sociation. 

 and when the creamery was organized, he 



took charge of the field work for the cream- 

 ery company. All of his friends in the 

 creamery work wish him every success in 

 his new work as organization director for 

 the Knox County Farm Bureau. 



The Illinois Farm Bureau Serum As- 

 sociation is 100% cooperative. Pays 

 patronage refunds to Farm Bureau 

 members. Did you get yours in 1938? 



Livestock feeders today are getting 

 probably the lowest interest rates in 

 history said Roy Grieser, manager of 

 the National Livestock Credit Cor- 

 poration in announcing the recent re- 

 duction of rates from 5 to 4^2 per 

 cent. All production credit associations 

 are offering the same rate of interest 

 on loans to eligible borrowers. Iri 1929 

 farmers were paying seven per cent 

 on feeder loans. 



More than 40,000 members have attended 



the annual stockholders' meetings of the 

 496 national farm loan associations that have 

 held their meetings since November 1, 

 1938. This is nearly 20 per cent of the mem- 

 bership of these associations and may be- 

 compared with 18 per cent of the member- 

 ship which attended meetings of all national 

 farm loan associations last year. 



A. E. Bader, manager of Earlville Farm- 

 ers Cooperative Elevator and Walter Well- 

 man of Farmers Elevator Company of Ran- 

 som (LaSalle County) recently spent a day 

 in an advisory capacity with the Board of 

 Directors of Illinois Grain Corporation. This 

 is in keeping with the plan of the directors 

 to invite managers to meet with them dur- 

 ing the year. 



Rep. Dennis J. Collins of DeKalb, 

 chairman of the Agricultural Commit- 

 tee in the House at Springfield, recent- 

 ly introduced a resolution urging Con- 

 gress to extend the 3V^% rate on feder- 

 al farm loans until July 1942. 



"Tc 

 the 



16 



L A. A. RECORI> 



