unloading facilities and stora>?e bins were 

 erected at Taylorville. The goal for 1944 

 is a 40,000-ton total. 



Knox county, 14; Henry county, 11; War- 

 ren county, 7, and Mercer county, 2, mak- 

 ing a total of 34. 



By John R. Spencer 

 The practice of spreading agricultural 

 limestone on growing corn is one which 

 should be more generally followed. Most 

 trucks are built so that, two rows of corn 

 can be straddled without injury to the corn 

 plants unless they have attained sufficient 

 growth to be harmed by the truck chassis. 

 The soil packing action by the tires is 

 only temporary and is broken by the next 

 cultivation. 



The application of limestone on growing 

 corn (1) receives a good mixing with the 

 surface soil by cultivation and (2) will have 

 nearly a year's time for neutralizing acid 

 soil before clover is seeded in small grain 

 following corn. "Limestone should be ap- 

 plied six months, and preferably a year, 

 before clover is seeded. . ." U. of I. agron- 

 omy department. Also (3) it lengthens to 

 some extent the time available for getting 

 in limestone during the crop season. 



A limestone distributor in Christian 



county is enthusiastic over this cornfield 

 practice and has good results. Last year 

 this concern distributed more than 20,000 

 tons of limestone in eight months after their 



Theaa two pictures demonstrate a rec- 

 ommended practice of spreading lime on 

 com. It is apparent that the standard size 

 truck can straddle com rows at the width 

 in which they are generally planted. 



A limestone company in Kendall county 



has installed a new jaw crusher in the pit 

 for the primary breaking with conveyor to 

 the mill house for secondary crushing and 

 screening as in past operations. The pro- 

 duction of agricultural limestone was ex- 

 pected to start in April. It was reported 

 that sufficient trucks for hauling and spread- 

 ing are available in the area. 



Price increases allowed recently by OPA 



to the six quarries in Cook county bring 

 the price of agricultural limestone, with 

 one exception, to $1 per ton. The exception 

 is 90c price at one quarry. 



A recent meeting at Chicago attended by 



college agronomists from ten middle west- 

 ern states, fertilizer manufacturers, and 

 government officials recommended the con- 

 tinuance of the grade reduction program for 

 the 1944-1945 season starting July 1. This 

 is a reduction in numbers of analyses or 

 combinations of mixed fertilizer to about 

 15 for Illinois from the 60 odd available 

 before the war period. This, however, is 

 not new to Illinois farmers as there were 

 only a limited number of analyses available 

 in the spring and summer of 1945. The 

 fewer numbers of grades or combinations 

 results in less confusion to the grower with 

 no impairment of field results on crops and 

 increases fertilizer factory output by better 

 utilizing the short labor supply. 



"A few of the commonest causes of in- 

 fertility may be briefly reviewed. There can 

 be no doubt that the principal one through- 

 out Great Britain is shortage of lime or, 

 what comes to the same thing, soil acidity. 

 . . Few new developments will do more to 

 improve the fertility of our soils than the 

 general use of relatively coarse ground 

 limestone on acid soils." E. M. Crowther, 

 Rothamstead Experimental Station, Rotham- 

 stead, England. 



Women drivers on limestone spreading 

 trucks are making their appearance in 

 Whiteside and Lee counties to aid in this 

 essential work. 



cream 



By Frank Gougler 

 Manager Virgil Johnson of Producers 



Creamery of Galesburg reported that dur- 

 ing the first four months of the present 

 fiscal year — October, November, De- 

 cember, and January — 44 per cent more 

 milk was handled than in the same period 

 a year ago. 



During the winter months some of the 

 milk received was sold to local markets 

 for the bottle trade, but as production in- 

 creases less is being sold in this manner 

 and more is being separated. The sweet 

 cream is churned into Prairie Farms butter 

 and the skim milk is made into powder. 



Recent new members secured by the 

 Galesburg Producers nun»ber as follows: 



Expansion program of the Producers 

 Creamery of Peoria is well under way in 



the north area of the territory covered in 

 the project. During April, a stock selling 

 campaign has been underway in five coun- 

 ties, and in all but one the sales are far in 

 excess of the original quotas. 



Sufficient capital has been raised, in the 

 opinion of the board, that the management 

 has been authorized to secure the services 

 of an architect to make plans and draw 

 up specifications for the new plant. 



The board of directors has taken an op- 

 tion on a piece of property in Henry in 

 Putnam county as a site for the building. 

 Tentative plans call for a two-story brick 

 building, 50 by 100 feet. 



One of the requirements necessary for se- 

 curing priorities to build and equip such a 

 plant is to assure WPB that sufficient milk 

 can be secured in the territory to make a 

 million pounds of skim milk powder an- 

 nually. This requires I2V2 million pounds 

 of milk. Milk production in the area is ap- 

 proximately 200 million pounds. Herds 

 in this area average five cows per farm 

 with a production of 25,000 pounds of milk. 



/?. 



This picture appears on the cover of the 

 bulletin put out by the emergency form 

 lobor program staff telling Illinois farmers 

 of the Victory Farm Volunteer program. 



BECAUSE of the increasing shortage of 

 experiencecl farm help, it is estimated 

 by officials of the Illinois emergency 

 farm labor program that 12,000 more 

 farm jobs will be filled by boys and 

 girls from the Victory Farm Voluntefr 

 ranks in 1944 than in 1943. 



An April report of the farm labor 

 staff for Illinois showed unfilled orders 

 for 1699 year round workers. Of this 

 number, 770 were for married men, and 

 929 for single men. 



On the basis of these figures, it is ex- 

 pected that more than 36,000 farm jobs 

 will be filled during the year by approx- 

 imately 30,000 boys and girls between the 

 ages of 14 and 18. 





Report 

 Rural Y 

 April 20 

 ports coi 

 doubtedi' 

 larger. 



Knox 

 chases re 

 ren is sec 

 is third 

 fourth w 



20 



L A. A. RECORD 



