

been worked out by the lAA business serv- 

 ice committee and which were approved by 

 the board of directors of Illinois Coopera- 

 tive Locker Service. All present were in 

 accord with these policies. 



Price ceilin/?s as applied to locker plant 

 operations brought out considerable dis- 

 cussion. Locker plants had locker rentals 

 and service charges frozen as of March 

 1942. The effective date for such ceiling 

 prices went into effect on August 19, 1942. 

 Most of our locker plants, because of 

 higher costs of supplies and labor raised 

 their charges before March 1942. Those 

 that failed to do so now find it difficult to 

 operate on a profitable basis and are inter- 

 ested in the procedure for increasing service 

 charges and locker rentals. 



Jay Simon of the Chicago OPA office and 

 A. L. Frankel, district representative of the 

 same office, addressed the meeting on the 

 subject and outlined the procedure for secur- 

 ing price adjustments as follows: 



1. Outline clearly and fully information 

 showing for what services increased 

 charges are desired and the amount of 

 each increase. 



Support such request with income and 

 expense statements, profit and loss 

 statements and balance sheets for the 

 years 1941, 1942, and 1943. 

 Furnish information in regard to serv- 

 ice charges and locker rentals made for 

 like services by nearby competitors. 



4. Prepare all supporting evidence in du- 

 plicate and outline fully by letter just 

 what is desired. 



5. File application for adjustment with 

 nearest district office. The officers in 

 charge and location of Illinois district 

 offices are as follows: 



R. Biggert, 228 North LaSalle Street, 

 Chicago; J. L. Hirschfield, Moline; A. 

 W. Offill, Peoria; C. R. Davis, Spring- 

 field. These offices will furnish in- 

 structions as to method of procedure. 



2. 



3. 



By L. L. Colvis 



Annual meeting of the Illinois Fruit 

 Growers Exchange and the Fruit Exchange 

 Supply Company will be held April 18 in 

 Carbondale. 



As of March 18, the prospects for a 



1944 fruit crop in the United States look 

 favorable. This is the "on" year for ap- 

 ples. Tree numbers have gone down to 

 less than 80 million in the U.S. These, 

 however, could produce from 40 to 50 mil- 

 lion more bushels than the short 1945 crop. 



None of the principal peach producing 



sections of the country have been seriously 

 hurt by low winter temperatures, and there 

 is a possibility of a bumper peach crop. 

 Early blooming, however, is increasing the 

 danger of injury from spring frosts. Grow- 

 ers feel that the crop at present is hanging 

 in the balance and will be determined 

 largely by temperatures from now on. 



should have a much better crop of apples 

 than in 1943 and with favorable weather al- 

 most a full crop of peaches. It is true 

 that peach buds have been killed in Pike, 

 Calhoun, and Jersey county areas, but from 

 Belleville and Centralia south in Illinois 

 there has been no damage to date. Peach 

 trees in the extreme southern Illinois are 

 blooming now. This is somewhat earlier 

 than normal. 



actually sell at ceiling prices. If there is a 

 full crop this may not actually happen be- 

 cause in that event the law of supply and 

 demand will set the price probably «6ome- 

 where below ceiling unless the ceiling price 

 is established at too low a figure. 



We are informed by the OPA that price 

 ceilings are planned for all fruits and 

 vegetables for 1944. At just what point 

 this ceiling will be established and how it 

 will work has not yet been determined. At 

 present there is a tendency on the part of 

 OPA to use a system whereby the price of 

 peaches to consumers will be at the same 

 level regardless of the section of the country. 

 This is assuming, of course, that fruit will 



The container situation continues to look 



extremely unfavorable. Very few growers 

 have been able to lay in a supply of wood- 

 en bushel baskets and in all probability 

 there will not be enough made this year 

 to pack a normal crop of fruit. Ceilmg 

 prices on baskets were raised effective 

 March 13. The price is now J2.73 per doz- 

 en to the manufacturer f.o.b. his plant on 

 trucklots or carlots of three hoop tub bot- 

 tom baskets with star crown covers. This 

 will mean that growers will be paying 25 

 cents or slightly more per basket by the 

 time they get thera to their farms. 



Timber Pools Active 



Considerable activity in marketing 

 black walnut logs has been carried on 

 during the last month by cooperative 

 groups in various counties of the state 

 to meet the need of material for gun- 

 stocks. 



Champaign county is starting on its 

 second pool after winding up opera- 

 tions on its first pool in which 47 farm- 

 ers listed 1,097 trees for sale, measuring 

 97,000 board feet. This amount of lum- 

 ber will be enough for 30,000 gunstocks. 

 The high bid on this was $7652. 



Under the arrangement used in the 

 Champaign pool, all owners of walnut 

 trees sign up to sell the standing irees, 

 the buyer to send cutting crews, the 

 county pool getting the cash for the en- 

 tire pool before any cutting is done, the 

 farmers getting their cash before logs 

 are removed from their premises. The 

 total expense of the pool is confined to 

 mail and office work, as the extension 

 foresters do not charge for their serv- 

 ices to the pool. 



McLean County Farm Bureau is now 

 working on a walnut pool, and Piatt 

 County Farm Bureau has approved a 

 similar project. In DeWitt county, farm- 

 ers are signing up in a third f>ool. 



Three farmers in the Peoria area have 

 sold enough walnut logs to stock about 

 3000 rifles, according to C. S. Walters, 

 project forester for the eight-county 

 Peoria area. No trees under 16 inches 

 in diameter were cut, unless they were 

 defective, Walters said, since the men 

 are allowing the small sound trees to 

 grow for future use. 



In the Randolph Farm Bureau Co-op, 

 during the six weeks ending in February, 

 18 members sold enough ash logs for^ 

 handle stock to make more than $3000 

 for themselves. Of the 18 owners repre- 

 sented in the sales, only four called in 

 any outside labor. The largest volume 

 of logs was produced by Ernest and 

 Dwight Fulton of over 17,000 board 

 feet. 



The picture in Illinois is quite similar 

 to that for the country as a whole. We 



Ash logs, coming from some of the 60,000 

 acres of timber lands in Randolph county, 

 are moving to moiicet os a project of the 

 Bandolph Farm Bureau CooperatiTe. At 



left is Guy W. Hawkins, co-op manager, 

 and at right Farm Adviser E. C. Secor. 



(Sparta News Plain Dealer Photo.) 



APRIL 1944 



21 



