CHAIRMAN SEOOG AND ADVISEB PAUL DEAN of Bu- 

 reau county. "There's more cattle feeding when com is cheap." 



CHAIRMAN JOE lOCHUMS OF WOODFORD, COONTY. 

 right, explains the program. "Lost year com allotment* 

 were a jolt. Noyr they're used to it." 



"The corn loan is bringing them in," 

 Guy said. "Farmers are thinking about 

 the com price." 



On the east side of the county where 

 participation was poor last year it is run- 

 ning around 90 per cent this year. In 

 this county there is some talk about ex- 

 panded dairying but the general feeling 

 seems to be that cheap com and oats 

 have more to do with increased milk flow 

 than more grass and pasture land result- 

 ing from the AAA program. 



Joe Jochums, chairman and John E. 

 Rocke, secretary of the Woodford coun- 

 ty soil conservation committee said that 

 last year com allotments jolted many 

 farmers, that now they're used to it. 

 Corn is selling for 40c a bu. in this coun- 

 ty. "If it was 50c there would be less 

 participation" Jochums said. 



A New Cooperator 



Typical of the new cooperators in 

 Woodford is Mr. X who farms 530 rich 

 black acres. He had been plowing most 

 of the land for corn. His cribs are filled 

 with 15,000 bu. of corn on which he 

 tried every which way to get a loan last 

 year. Even an appeal to the state com- 

 mittee, however, brought no success. He 

 was given an allotment of 170 acres of 

 corn, 319 soil depleting, this year. After 

 unsuccessfully attempting to get the al- 

 lotment raised he signed up. He is in- 

 terested in the corn loan. 



Woodford county's expense of ad- 

 ministration last year was 4.9 per cent, 

 considered fairly low. 



Floyd Thomas is county chairman in 

 McLean, L)mn Lanier, secretary. In Mc- 

 Lean county 65 per cent of farms are 

 tenant operated. And the landlord- 

 tenant situation creates a problem that 

 frequently works against participation. 

 Tenants frequently complain that the 

 landlord won't cooperate and landlords 

 complain of low corn allotments. Many 

 tenants here are letting odd 40 and 80 

 acre pieces rented as extra ground go 



where landlords won't cooperate so as 

 not to jeopardize the payment on the 

 home farm. Lanier said that a number 

 of farmers have signed up for the first 

 time this year since the original AAA 

 was enacted in 1933. The estimate is 

 80 per cent of farms will comply com- 

 pared with 46 per cent last year. 



This Cuts Compliance 



Some insurance companies with large 

 land holdings are not co-operating this 

 year on account of the $10,000 payment 

 limit to any one owner. Others are 

 leaving the matter entirely up to tenants. 

 The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. had 

 16 farms in McLean county. All have 

 been sold except four. This county, 

 among the largest in Illinois, has 4,000,- 

 000 bushels of corn under seal on the 

 farm, a much larger bushelage not under 

 seal. 



Frank Klesath, member of the Livings- 

 ton county committee expects 70 to 75 

 per cent participation there when the 

 final tally is made May 1. In 1938, only 

 37.6% of farms cooperated. Multiple 

 landlords and multiple tenants, Klesath 

 said, is a big drawback to greater par- 

 ticipation. He and other committeemen 

 feel that the $10,000 limit to landhold- 

 ing companies is not justified. The John 

 Hancock Life Insurance Co., owner of 

 30 to 35 farms in the county is cooperat- 

 ing on corn allotments to be eligible for 

 com loans and parity payments. The 

 Aetna company is cooperating too. Sev- 

 eral townships where participation was 

 down to 20 per cent last year expect as 

 high as 40 to 90 per cent cooperation 

 this year. One of the lowest townships 

 (26-28%) last year will go around 75- 

 80 per cent participation this year. 



Livingston county is proud of its low 

 administration expense of only 3% last 

 year. 



Klesath thinks that the two day schools 

 for township committeemen are an un- 



necessary expense, that the meetings in 

 the townships with county committeemen 

 are sufficient. In Livingston each plan- 

 ning sheet cost 96 cents and each farm 

 contacted 65 cents. 



In Grundy county, Chairman Tom 

 Maher reports approximately 60 per cent 

 of the farms signed compared with 30 

 to 35 per cent last year. "It's mostly 

 politics in this county," said Maher when 

 asked why the signup wasn't larger. "If 

 we happened to have another political 

 party in power many of our big land- 

 holders would probably go along." 



To illustrate Maher said he called on 

 a land-holder who controls about 30 

 farms in the county. "His tenants wanted 

 to cooperate and I approached him from 

 the standpoint of their welfare," said 

 Maher. "I didn't get anywhere. He 

 didn't want to talk about the program, 

 he talked politics. He was against it 

 for political reasons." 



90% In Morgan 



In Cook county tmck farming holds 

 down participation. Yet there has been 

 a 33 per cent gain in participation in 

 the northern part of the county. 



The recent report issued by the state 

 soil conservation committee showed a 

 high of 90.3 per cent participation in- 

 dicated in Morgan county as of March 

 31. Piatt was close behind with 88.1 

 followed by Winnebago with 85.1, Ford. 

 and Boone 84.4, Champaign 82.3, Wayne 

 81.2, and so on. 



Among the states Wisconsin was lead- 

 ing in indicated participation with 78.2 

 per cent. South Dakota 74.2, Iowa 699, 

 and Minnesota 67 per cent. These per- 

 centages do not tell the whole story. In 

 most areas the percentage of crop acres 

 in the program runs substantially higher 

 than the percentage of farms. The larger 

 farms generally cooperate. Many of the 

 smaller ones don't because of their custom 

 of producing enough feed for home- 

 raised livestock. 



MAY, 1939 



