t:, 



Page Eighteen 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



October y 1951 



■.-•■ ■*,; 



Linsley Answers Alibis 



On Linnesfone Question 



Cites Morgan Co. Farmer Who In- 

 creased Corn Yield 60 Bu. an 

 Acre in Tw^o Years 



IN spite of the rapid increase in the 

 use of limestone there still are thou- 

 sands of Illinois farmers who are put- 

 ting off liming every year, states Prof. 

 C. M. Linsley of the College of Agri- 

 culture, University of Illinois. Mis- 

 taken ideas about soil acidity or the 

 value of limestone often account for 

 this delay. There are four reasons com- 

 monly offered by farmers for not using 

 limestone, continues Linsley. Sometimes 

 these are honest reasons, but more often 

 they are merely excuses given by those 

 who have not carefully analyzed their 

 business of farming. .: 



(1) "Z,imestone is not needed on 

 my land." Most farmers who offer this 

 reason are guessing, and guessing wrong. 

 Only a small percentage of the farm 

 land in the state is sweet. Enough 

 money is frequently thrown away in 

 clover seed over a number of years to 

 pay for liming the entire farm. 



(2) **CanH afford to buy lime- 

 stone." This is sometimes an honest 

 reason. But bankers usually would 

 rather lend money to farmers for lime- 

 stone than for any other purpose. They 

 know that an investment in soil-build- 

 ing is a sound investment and one of 

 the most profitable a farmer can make. 



Six dollars invested in limestone to 

 grow sweet clover made it possible for 

 a Morgan county farmer to increase his 

 acreage of corn 3 5 bushels ah acre in 

 the first crop and 25 bushels in the 

 second. 



(}) "Have to tvait too long for 

 results." Farmers who use limestone 

 say that this is not a sound reason in 

 the face of the fact that most of the 

 men who offer this excuse have already 

 waited at least 15 to 20 years. They 

 should not object to waiting a year or 

 two longer; as a matter of fact, they 

 will probably delay liming for another 

 10 years and forget they are still wait- 

 ing. 



(4) "Too hard work to haul and 

 spread." Hauling and spreading lime- 

 stone is hard work, everyone will ad- 

 mit, but no harder than many other 

 jobs that must be done each year. There 

 is perhaps no farm work that will pay 

 as high wages per hour. It is not 

 so much the amount of work a man 

 does on the farm that brings him money 

 as it is doing those jobs that pay the 

 highest wages. 



Uncle Ab says if you have sense 

 enough to be happy, you have sense 

 enough. 



\ u ■■H 



CHAMl'lOX IJAIIIV JIUCJES 



Krt'l to riKht: 

 kt'r. itiitl .lohn 

 Stiicktttii Illaokhii 

 toaiii ^vhiob won 

 haiiii conteKt Ihiw 



«-4tIlfllt'<l li>' H. It. 



.l«»i)avi«>N.s 4M»unty 

 iin'jer formerly 

 dairy farm in Ka 

 nKrioiiltiire in the 



Sam Ituford, Itex Par- 

 Biiforil comprise the 



>vk 4-H dairy judsins 



tlrst place at the Ur- 



year. The b«iys ^vere 



"Hank'* Briinnemeyer, 



farm adviwer. Itriinne- 



operated a HolNteln 



ne eonnty, and tang^ht 

 Yorkville IliKh School. 



Thousands of Dollars 



• In Hail Claims Paid 



ONE out of every three counties in 

 Illinois suffered crop damages from 

 hail this year, records of the Farmers 

 Mutual Reinsurance Company show. 



In the final check-up on claims Oc- 

 tober 1, the end of the annual crop 

 hail insurance period, it was learned 

 that the heaviest losses during the past 

 summer were in Knox, Henry and 

 Champaign counties. From these three 

 counties alone damage claims totaling 

 thousands of dollars were sent in by 60 

 farmers holding policies in the Farmers 

 Mutual. - . • 



Twenty-five counties out of the sck^ 

 enty-six which had policy holders in 

 the company this year reported losses. 

 At least a dozen severe hail storms 

 striking in widely separated areas were 

 responsible for the damage. 



Most of the loss was on corn and 

 soybeans, which in many cases were 

 completely destroyed. The largest claim 

 reported was for $1,032. It came from 

 Knox county. A total of 113 claims 

 were paid by the company on October 1 . 



The ten leading counties in hail in- 

 surance in force were Knox, Henry, 

 Warren, McDonough, Champaign, Taze- 

 well, Mercer, McLean, Logan and Mon- 

 roe. . 



(Continued from previous p*ge) 

 about 10 per cent better than the re- 

 turns secured by other farmers who 

 kept accounts. The^Jiog raising is done 

 under the sanit^*ion system of sweet 

 clover pastureyT)airy cows on this farm 

 also have bem more efficient than aver- 

 age. ":■ ^' ■'■■:■ 



The combination of high crop yields 

 and efficient livestock produced both 

 gross and net receipts which were $5 

 an acre higher than the average, despite 

 the fact that the land on this farm was 

 valued $50 an acre less than the average 

 of other farms in the area. 



Farmers "Under-Insured," 

 U. S. D. A. Man Declares 



"The insurance protection carried by 

 farmers falls far short of meeting their 

 insurance needs," V. N. Valgren, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture economist, 

 told the National Association of Mu- 

 tual Insurance Companies in session at 

 Chicago, October 7. 



"Approximately four-fifths of the 

 farmers in the United States," he said, 

 "have their buildings and other proper- 

 ty insured against fire. More than two- 

 thirds have windstorm insurance. Hail 

 insurance covers about 8 to 10 per cent 

 of the total crop acreage. Livestock in- 

 surance is negligible. Accident and sick- 

 ness insurance carried by farmers is 

 small. Less than one-half of American 

 farmers have any life insurance. The 

 percentage of all farmers who have em- 

 ployer's liability insurance is 'decidedly' 

 small. The majority of farmers still 

 lack adequate automobile insurance pro- 

 tection." 



Mr. Valgren declared that "to some 

 extent the farmers' lack of insurance 

 may be charged to an unwarranted dis- 

 regard of the need for protection. To 

 a much larger extent it is chargeable to 

 a meager income and an inability to buy 

 the forms of protection that farmers 

 need. This second reason ties up closely 

 with the cost of insurance which in 

 turn is affected by the nature of the 

 protection provided." 



Schools Can Insure in 



Mutual Fire Companies 



The right of township and county 

 mutual fire and mutual windstorm in- 

 surance companies to insure school 

 houses and other public buildings is rec- 

 ognized both by statute and by common 

 law, according to a study made by the 

 I. A. A. 



In some parts of the state such risks 

 have been insured in the mutual com- 

 panies for many years. Many mutuals, 

 however, hesitated to take such large 

 risks before the organization of the 

 Farmers' Mutual Reinsurance Company. 

 This company now supplies the smaller 

 mutuals ample protection by reinsur- 

 ance. 



It is a principle of common law that 

 school districts and other political cor- 

 porations charged with the management 

 of public property have the implied 

 power to protect such property by in- 

 surance or otherwise. 



It follows that the school boards, 

 trustees and other officials have in their 

 discretion the right to insure in mutual 

 companies. 





