THE FARM BUREAU 



E. T. ROBBINS, Farm Adviser, DeWitt County 



EN YEARS of Farm Bureau work in Illinois are already 

 a matter of history, and the record reveals significant 

 changes in aims and methods. Begun primarily to extend 

 agricultural education among busy farmers, the Farm 

 Bureau's major efforts are now directed in business chan- 

 nels. This has been a logical and natural change. The 

 Farmers' Institute, the Short Course and the agricultural shows were 

 already covering much of the agricultural extension field. As soon 

 as a Farm Bureau converted a man to the use of limestone, for ex- 

 ample, the immediate question was where, when, and how to buy it. 

 When a Farm Bureau assisted a man to purchase the limestone, he 

 was actually initiated into its use ; otherwise he seldom made the start. 

 It was just so with rock phosphate, alfalfa, sweet clover, pasture mix- 

 tures, soybeans, improved varieties of grain, and pedigreed live stock. 

 Then followed the necessity of finding a market for any resulting pro- 

 duct, such as sweet clover seed, soybeans, Percherons, or Shorthorns, 

 whose marketing channels were not already well beaten paths. The 

 Farm Bureau exchange list quickly established itself as a regular and 

 valuable feature of the periodical communications sent to the members. 

 County association live-stock sales became a necessity. 



These business features of the work have tied the membership 

 more closely together than purely educational projects could do. Men 

 will flock to a stock show, a horse race, or even a street dog fight ; they 

 will attend a meeting where dollars tell of business achievement. 

 Action attracts where mere mental stimulus is ineffective. But when 

 gathered for the consideration of business problems of local, state, or 

 national scope, farmers are ready to grasp incidentally new ideas for 

 improving farm production. Agricultural teaching has found its 

 most attentive farm audiences at business meetings. 



THE FARM BUREAU BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP 



The Farm Bureau is unique among farm organizations because 

 it is founded upon individual paid memberships, secured through the 

 initiative of natural local leaders. It is built from the ground up, not 

 from the top down. The overhead organizations of state and na- 

 tional scope are the outgrowth of these county units, developed by 

 them to concentrate the influence of the thousands and millions of in- 



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