ILLINOIS WINS HONORS 

 AT INTERNATIONAL < 



{Contittued from page 10) 



who traded a strain of superior hybrids 

 to Lester Pfister, of El Paso, for an 80- 

 acre farm, now valued at $20,000. 



An Illinoisan was crowned soybean 

 king as Harvey L. Stiegelmier of Nor- 

 mal, won the grand championship with 

 an exhibit of Lincoln beans. His entry 

 weighed 60.1 pounds to the bushel. 



The title of "corn duke" was be- 

 stowed upon Vernon Ely of Mazon for 

 his hybrid yellow dent variety. It 

 weighed 58.3 pounds to the bushel. 

 The corn duke title is awarded only for 

 hybrid shelled corn. 



Crown prince of the shell com exhibitors 

 was on Illinois man, Vernon Ely (above) 

 of Grunciy county. He took first place. 



Stockmen from Illinois make up the 

 largest block of exhibitors from any one 

 state, won 48 of a possible 238 cham- 

 pionships, and had runners-up and 

 scattered placings in most of the breed 

 and weight classes. 



Champion fat Poland China barrow 

 was owned by Oscar W. Anderson, 

 Leland, and champion and reserve 

 champion fat Yorkshire were exhibited 

 by the Curtiss Candy Company Farms, 

 near Chicago. 



Cattlemen at the show agreed that the 

 Tolan farm. Pleasant Plains, Sangamon 

 county, is emerging as the home of some 

 of the finest Angus cattle in the country. 



The Tolan farm entries swept the 

 Angus class. They showed the grand 

 champion Angus bull and cow, the ten 

 best head of Angus and placed first in 

 many of the class showings. 



Shorthorn winners from Illinois in- 

 cluded the Edellyn Farms, Wilson, Lake 

 county. They showed the reserve cham- 



pion breeding female and the ten best 

 head of Shorthorns. 



Janet Countryman, 12, of Clare, De- 

 Kalb county, was Shorthorn class winner 

 in the junior livestock feeding and in the 

 same showing James Schlichting, Apple 

 River, Jo Daviess county, won second. 



Illinois sheep winners included : Wil- 

 liam Duncan, Lake Villa, fat Oxfords, 

 wether lambs; A. O. Murray and Sons, 

 Mazon, pen of three wether' lambs; 

 Alvin L. Helms and Sons, Belleville, 

 breeding Cheviots, reserve champion. 



ILLINOIS FARMERS FEEL 

 BURDEN OF RECENT 

 FREIGHT RATE RISE 



ILLINOIS farmers are beginning to 

 feel the burden of the increased 

 freight rates which went into effect this 

 month ori authorization of the Inter- 

 state Commerce Commission. 



The Commission granted rail and 

 water common carriers an increase in 

 their rates effective January 1, 1947, on 

 five days notice, amounting to an aver- 

 age of approximately 17.6 per cent. 



It is estimated that the additional 

 revenue will aggregate close to a bil- 

 lion dollars. 



What the increase means to the aver- 

 age farmer is explained by G. W. Bax- 

 ter, director of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association transportation department. 



Products of agriculture such as grain 

 and grain products were increased 15 

 per cent; livestock 15 per cent; animal 

 and poultry feed 15 per cent; agricul- 

 tural limestone 15 cents per ton; phos- 

 phate rock 20 per cent with a maximum 

 of 30 cents per ton, and fertilizer in- 

 cluding potash 20 per cent subject to a 

 maximum of six cents per hundred, or 

 $1.20 pef net ton. 



This increase on grain shipped to 

 Chicago from a point in central Illinois 

 rises from a 12-cent rate to a l4-cent 

 rate. This is based on 80,000 pounds 

 and amounts to $16 per car, or about 

 two cents per bushel. 



A carload of cattle moving from 

 Bloomington to Chicago, formerly tak- 

 ing a rate of 19 cents, is now 22 cents, 

 an increase of $6.60 per car. 



The new rates have increased by 

 about a cent a bushel corn sent to Chi- 

 cago from central Illinois. 



Limestone hauled by rail now aver- 

 ages 15 cents more per ton than under 

 the old rates. 



The average car of rock phosphate 

 shipped in from the Florida districts 

 costs $12 more. Potash fertilizer, usu- 

 ally hauled in from New Mexico, costs 

 $48 per car more. 



The new rates have upped the ship- 

 ping cost on feeder cattle from Texas 

 by about $15 per carload. 



The lAA and the American Farm Bu- 

 reau Federation opposed the increases. 



Baxter said that with the car shortage 

 already moving corn by truck 100 miles 

 to river points, this increase in rail 

 freight rates means that trucks can 

 move grain from still farther points to 

 the river where cheap barge rates apply. 



"I think it means a loss»of business 

 to the railroads," Baxter predicted. "It 

 is the same with livestock as it is with 

 grain — more will move by truck." 



lAA records show that 838,000,000 

 pounds of corn moved into Chicago by 

 barge in 1942. The elevators at Morris 

 alone shipped 304,000,000 pounds of 

 corn by barge. The barge rate there 

 was two cents per 100 pounds into Chi- 

 cago, compared to the rail rate of five 

 cents. 



The AFBF has voiced its concern be- 

 cause of the great need of most farmers 

 for increasing quantities of plant foods 

 to replace elements removed from the 

 soil during the heavy cropping war 

 years. Most of the fertilizers are hauled 

 by railroads which are raising their 

 charges to near-prohibitive rates. ' 



ILLINOIS FARM BUREAU 

 TOPS ALL STATES IN 

 MEMBERSHIP GAINS 



ILLINOIS beat Iowa, its closest rival, in 

 membership attainments in 1946, ac- 

 cording to the recognition given at the 

 annual meeting of the AFBF in San 

 Francisco. 



Sixty-eight Illinois counties attained 

 their 1950 AFBF goals in 1946 as com- 

 pared with 58 in Iowa, and 50 Illinois 

 counties made the two-million member 

 goal of the AFBF as compared with 25 

 in Iowa. 



Illinois as a state was one of three that 

 reached its 1950 AFBF goal in 1946. The 

 other two were Iowa and North Caro- 

 lina. 



Two Illinois counties, Menard and 

 Piatt, qualified for "excellent" awards by 

 having 90 per cent or more of all the 

 farms listed in the 1945 census enrolled 

 in their respective Farm Bureaus. Only 

 seventeen other counties in the United 

 States received this recognition. 



Whiteside county in their mid-Decem- 

 ber membership drive established a new 

 state record for a three-day campaign by 

 signing 256 members in Farm Bureau. 

 Whiteside now has 2590 members. 

 Their active dairy and oil improvement 

 program were considered as the biggest 

 factors in attracting new members. 



JANUARY. 1947 



