^t/ 



Two New Programs 



(Continued from page 5) 



lAA, the Illinois Farm Supply Com- 

 pany, the soil improvement committee 

 of the Farm Advisers' Association, con- 

 ferring with representatives of the 

 University of Illinois. It is designed to 

 supplement the Illinois system of per- 

 manent soil fertility and does not 

 change that program in any respect 

 whatever. 



The lAA has designated the Illinois 

 Farm Supply Company to take 

 charge of, make the necessary invest- 

 ments, and process and distribute the 

 mixed fertilizer and the fertilizer in- 

 gredients in this program. 



The Illinois Farm Supply Com- 

 pany has entered into an agreement 

 under which it will own jointly 

 with the Indiana Farm Bureau Co- 

 operative Association, the Wiscon- 

 sin Farm Bureau Cooperative As- 

 sociation and the Midland Cooper- 

 atives, an acidulating plant now 

 under construction at Hartsdale, 

 Ind. They will also own jointly 

 with these other cooperatives a 

 mixing plant in conneaion with 

 the acidulating plant which will 

 provide in part at least the mixed 

 fertilizers for the Illinois Farm 

 Supply Company until demands 

 require further expansion. 

 . This acidulating plant will have a 

 capacity of upwards of 40,000 tons per 

 year of superphosphate. The Illinois 

 Farm Supply Company will receive 

 more superphosphate from this plant 

 than any of the other cooperatives in- 

 volved and will secure from the mix- 

 ing plant all of the mixed fertilizers 

 that its potash allocation will make. 

 It is the plan in this Plant Program to 

 distribute these fertilizers as nearly 

 as possible direct from the manufactur- 

 ing plant to the farm. 



This program will not be placed 

 in any county by the Illinois Farm Sup- 

 ply Company without the approval of 

 the County Farm Bureau. The County 

 Farm Bureau must name the distrib- 

 utor or distributors in the county. 

 Qualifications for distributors are the 

 same as those outlined for Service 

 Brand Feeds. In naming the distribu- 

 tor, however, County Farm Bureaus 

 should keep in mind that the distribu- 

 tion of plant foods is not a year around 

 program and it should be placed with 

 some company already in existence 

 which will have other business. 



The control of quality in the Plant 

 Food program is under a committee 

 set up in exactly the same way as that 

 described under Service Brand Feeds. 

 Every effort is being made to make 

 these materials available as soon as pos- 

 sible. 



Stephenson County Foimers Snre 

 They've Had Their Shore of Hail 



THEY say that lightning doesn't often 

 strike twice in the same place, but 

 some Illinois farmers know from recent 

 experience that such a saying doesn't 

 apply to hail. 



Some Stephenson county farmers have 

 had hail hit their corn three times during 

 the past summer, and similar reports 

 have been received from other counties. 

 Right now Farmers Mutual Reinsurance 

 Company is figuring up the hail losses 

 reported by policy owners in Stephenson 

 county and it appears that the losses will 

 be between 280 and 300 The smallest 



fiayment made to date was $12 and the 

 argest $9400 to one policy owner. . 



Stephenson county had three hail 

 storms this summer. The first one came 

 June 25 and others followed on July 26 

 and Aug. 23. 



The June 25th storm brought in reports 

 of 650 losses from 36 counties to the of- 

 fice of the Farmers Mutual Reinsurance 

 Company, with most of them being from 

 Peoria, DuPage, Mercer and Stephenson. 

 Mercer county also reported a number of 

 losses from Aug. 15 and July 26 storms. 



While Stephenson county had a 

 number of hail losses this year, it looks 

 as though hail storms play no favorites 

 as far as the northern half of the state is 

 concerned. 



DuPage county, for example, hadn't 

 had a bad hail storm for 12 years until 

 the June 25th storm spoiled the record. 



Farmers Mutual Reinsurance Company 

 in the 1944 season had an estimated 



2000 losses reported over the state which 

 will exceed one-half million dollars, as 

 compared with 848 losses in 1943 when 

 $232,000 was paid out. Howe\'er, 

 Farmers Mutual has 81 million dollars 

 in growing crop hail insurance in 1944 

 as compared with 50 million dollars in 

 1943, 29 million in 1942, 13 million in 

 1941, and 10 million in 1940. 



Carl Block, president oi the Stephenson 

 County Farm Bureau, looks over com 

 stalks cut down by hail on the iarm oi 

 L. D. Mitchell, Pearl City. Block was help- 

 ing put the hail struck com up for silage. 



Here are four samples oi seed corn taken 

 from a Stephenson county field six weeks 

 after a hail storm struck it. The storm 

 came a day after detasseling. No. I and 



rV ears are from the same hill, and No. U 

 and in are from the female row. four rows 

 from the male I and II samples. This 

 county had some 2S0 to 300 hail claims. 



OCTOBER, 1944 



25 



