

Watching Alson Myers dust his peach trees. 



Farmer's Friend 



IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE 



OVER AGAIN I WOULD BE 



EITHER A FARMER OR 



A FARM ADVISER' 



Tallcing Farm Bureau with Organization Director E. L, Delay. 



t4. 



. A 



This is a tribute to the men who, over the past 35 years, 

 have added to the esteem of their profession and to the bet- 

 terment of Illinois agriculture. We take the career of the 

 oldest farm adviser as fairly typical of the work these men 

 have done. 



MTEXT October, F. J. Blackburn will start his 30th year 



■ as a farm adviser for the Marion County Farm Bureau. 



■ Blackburn's career covers most of the 35 years Illinois 

 W has had farm advisers and extends across the period 



over which agriculture has made greater progress than 

 in all the previous century. 



As the oldest in point of service of Illinois' 99 county 

 farm advisers, Blackburn has had a front row seat at this 

 moving drama in Illinois agriculture. And like most farm 

 advisers, when he hasn't been a spectator, he has been one 

 of the principal actors. 



"If I had my life to live over again," Marion county's 

 first and only farm adviser said, "I would be either a farmer 

 or a farm adviser." For Blackburn believes that the farm 

 adviser has grown in stature over the years to a station where 

 he is respected for what he has done for the agriculture of 

 his community. 



But the farm adviser's lot hasn't always been so pleas- 

 ant to contemplate. Farm advisers still work pretty hard. 

 But life isn't so rough as it was in the "good old days" de- 

 scribed by Farm Adviser Blackburn. 



Imagine the days of no paved highways and bottom- 

 less, impassable country roads; and the weary hours of travel- 

 ing by horse and buggy and later the crank-it-yourself, none- 

 too-dependable automobile. Those were the days, too, of 

 no tractors and little farm machinery and almost no elec- 

 tricity. Often the farm adviser had to travel by train then 

 plod through the mud from the station to the farm house 

 where he stayed overnight. 



The farm adviser also has seen a great change in the 

 attitude of the folks in his county. "When I started work," 

 Blackburn said, "many resented being told they could do 

 better. Now they know that only the well-informed farmer 

 can be a success." 



That is particularly true in fruit farming which is a 

 major activity in Marion county. When Blackburn started 

 as farm adviser fruit production consisted chiefly of apples 

 and pears. Since then peaches have become more important 

 than apples or pears. 



And today a fruit farmer is a highly trained specialist 

 in skills and equipment that have come into common use 

 during the later years Farm Adviser Blackburn has served. 

 Fine fruit now depends on good soil, climate, cover crops, 

 fertilizers, spray and dusting equipment, insect, disease, and 

 erosion control. 



The farm adviser won't claim the credit for the many 

 innovations in agriculture which have meant money in the 

 pocket for the average farmer, but much of it is his just 

 the same. 



Blackburn recalls using movies to preach the gospel 

 of sound agriculture when the flickers were an oddity to 90 

 per cent of the people in Marion county. 



Like many devices used by farm advisers, the movies 

 to Blackburn were a means to an end; the end being the 

 realization of a healthy, diverse, and stable agriculture. Many 

 of his fondest hopes have been realized and many are in the 

 process of realization. His experience has been duplicated in 

 numerous Illinois County Farm Bureaus. 



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