Mourn Loss of Dean of 

 Illinois Farm Advisers 



FARM adviser ranks in Illinois and 

 the nation suffered a great loss in 

 March with the death of Alden E. 

 Snyder who had served continuously for 

 28 years as adviser in Montgomery coun- 

 ty. He died in the early morning of 

 March 15 from a heart attack. 



Mr. Snyder was the dean of the state 

 farm advisers, being the oldest in the 

 point of service. He was Montgomery 

 county's first and only farm adviser, and 

 would have celebrated his 28th anniver- 

 sary in his position on April 1. 



Mr. Snyder's outstanding record of 

 service also was recognized nationally in 

 1940 when the National Association of 

 County Agricultural Agents honored him 

 with the Distinguished Serv'ice Citation 

 for his work in developing agricultural 

 interests in his county. 



Mr. Snyder's pleasant personality, his 

 familiar greeting, "It's a FINE morn- 

 ing," and his cigar — .all of which be- 

 came traditions in the county — will be 

 greatly missed in the days ahead. 



Mr. Snyder was employed by the 

 Montgomery County Farm Bureau when 

 it was organized. As the Hillsboro Jour- 

 nal story of his death said, "He came 

 to Montgomery county with no knowl- 

 edge whatever of what should or could 

 be done to serve the small group of 

 farmers who had organized the Farm 

 Bureau despite criticism and ridicule of 

 those who could not see the advantages 

 to be gained by the advice and leader- 

 ship of an agricultural agent through a 

 group of farmers. 



"It was such a great step in advance- 

 ment that those who 'wanted to be let 

 alone' to do as they pleased with their 

 land without any dictating from a 'white- 

 collared boy,' put forth every resistance 

 possible. . . . 



"He was a disciple of hard work. He 

 never hesitated to go to the farm of any 

 one asking his aid to do some special 

 work. . . For years he spent all of his 

 daylight hours attending to errands all 

 over the county and more than half of 

 the night at meetings and conferences 

 where his presence was needed. . . He 

 never shirked a duty or 'let down' a 

 friend. . . Farmers have lost a real friend 

 and farming a firm advocate. . ." 



Mr. Snyder was born Nov. 29, 1883, 

 in Limestone township, Kankakee county. 

 He received his bachelor of science de- 

 gree from the U. of I. College of Agri- 

 culture in 1912 and after a summer of 

 trarel in Europe he began farming at 



Kankakee. On Oa. IZ, 1913, he married 

 Miss Florence C. Baxter of Nauvoo. 



It was on April 1, 1918, that the 

 Snyders moved to Hillsboro and he took 

 over the duties of Montgomery county 

 farm adviser. He was active in county 

 fair work, the Farmers' Institute, and 

 all projects of value to farmers such as 

 rural electrification, better farm roads, 

 grain marketing, etc. 



Alden E. Snyder 



Mr. Snyder leaves his wife, two 

 daughters, two sons, two brothers, and 

 two sisters. Mr. Snyder was a member 

 of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran 

 Church, the Masons, Hillsboro Rotary 

 Club, Litchfield Elks Club, and Epsilon 

 Sigma Phi and Gamma Sigma Delta fra- 

 ternities. 



Funeral services were held at the' Hills- 

 boro Lutheran Church, and burial was 

 made at Kankakee cemetery. 



NEW ASSISTANT IN 



ST. LOUIS GRAIN OFFICE 



Eugene F. Hugo, recently discharged 

 from the Army after more than four years 

 of service, is new 

 assistant in the St. 

 Louis office of Illi- 

 nois Grain Corpora- 

 tion. Illinois Grain is 

 an associated com- 

 pany of Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association. 

 During army serv- 

 ice Hugo worked 

 two and one-half 

 years as special 

 Eugene F. Hugo agent, Counter Intel- 

 ligence Office, Washington, D. C. 



Cedl Musser Named 



Manager of New lAA 



Co-op Lodcer Service 



CECIL MUSSER, 44, Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association livestock Zeldman 

 for the past six years, has been named 

 manager of the Illi- 

 n o i s Cooperative 

 Locker Service, lAA 

 subsidiary compris- 

 ing 40 member com- 

 panies with 80 cold 

 storage locker plants. 



He will supervise 

 the organization's 

 engineering service, 

 purchase supplies 

 for member plants 

 and promote greater Cecil Musser 



efficiency and coordination. 



One of the proposals Musser may be 

 called to work upon is the request of 

 some locker plant managers for central- 

 ized buying of frozen foods for distribu- 

 tion to member companies. 



He will also find wide variations in the 

 cost of locker operations per food locker 

 unit. This problem is expected to take 

 much of his time when he attempts to 

 bring the least efficient units into line 

 with the most efficient. 



Musser is expected to study the state 

 organization closely for possible courses 

 of action then work out his program for 

 the coming year and submit it to the 

 state board of directors for their approval. 



Musser was born in Effingham county 

 and moved to Logan county with his 

 parents as a boy where he was reared. 

 He graduated from Lincoln high school 

 and business college then attended Lin- 

 coln college and the University of Illi- 

 nois. 



He worked for the Logan-Mason 

 County Sers'ice Company and later be- 

 came Logan county organization director. 

 Before joining the lAA staff six years ago, 

 he was general manager of retail sales 

 for a Chicago coal company with 11 

 mines. He has been serving as fieldman 

 in District One, the extreme northern 

 section of the state. 



Musser is married and has been living 

 at Kirkland in DeKalb county. He is the 

 father of three children, Jane, 19, Joyce, 

 16, and Joseph, 2. 



Business amounting to approximate- 

 ly a half million dollars during the 

 past year was reported at the 52nd 

 annual meeting in March of stockhold- 

 ers of the Farmers' Cooperative Asso- 

 ciation of Varna. 



{ 



Feed grain liberally to the dairy cow dur- 

 ing the first three or four months of the 

 lactation period. 



12 



L A. A. RECORD 



