Chatting together during Form and Home Week are AFBF President Allan B. Kline, lAA President Charles B. Shuman, Dean H. P. Rusk, 

 and Fred Meers, president of the Champaign County Farm Bureau. Right: A natural gas-burning tractor attracted large crowds dur- 

 ing Farm and Home Week, 



FARMERS 



ir 



URGED 



iiiiiiii 





FARMI-RS were advised by Allan 

 B. Kline, president of the Ameri- 

 can Farm Bureau Federation, to 

 "act as it tarm prices were goin^ 

 down further. " Kline's warning, 

 spoken at Farm and Home Week at 

 the University of Illinois last month, 

 came as grain prices tumbled the legal 

 limit several successive days. 



Kline advised farmers that "now is 

 the time to reduce inventories to the 

 limit without drastic cuts in crop pro- 

 duction in 19i8, and don't" he said, 

 "borrow money now with the intention 

 of paying it back in 1956." 



Farm economists on the program 

 were unanimous in pointing out that 

 going heavily into debt now is ex- 

 tremely hazardous and an invitation to 

 disaster. 



About 5,000 persons attended the 



Walter E. Gamble, University butcher, 



shows farmers how meat ought to be cut 



during Farm and Home Week. 



Illll 



hiiiin mil 



week-long sessions of the College of 

 Agriculture's 47th annual Farm and 

 Home Vi'eek and heard a wide variety 

 of talks on all phases of farm living 

 and farm operation. 



L. J. Norton, professor of agricul- 

 tural economics at the university, 

 pointed out that the harvesting of grain 

 next fall will make greater amounts of 

 food available all over the world. With 

 this situation in prospect, he said, prices 

 are likely to be lower even before the 

 crops are harvested. 



"If we have normal grain crops next 

 year," Norton said, "livestock feeding 

 ratios will be more favorable in the 

 winter of 19-^8-49 than they are this 

 winter. It is a question whether Illinois 

 farmers are show^ing good judgment in 

 reducing their sows to farrow in the 

 spring of 1918 hy 1.^ per cent as they 

 are reported to be planning." 



Farmers were much concerned about 

 the steady price drop during Farm and 

 Home Week and were constantly in- 

 c]uiring about the market situation. 

 Asked if the slump in prices would 

 atfect their I'arming operations, most 

 said it would scarcely affect them at all. 

 .Most of those asked said they planned 

 to plant large crop acreages as in the 

 past several years. 



Said George Huffman. Cass county: 

 "I don't quite know what to expect. 

 But I can't see that I'll change anything 

 in '4sr 



Elmer Olson, 'Vermilion county: 

 "No change. I'll stay with it. Last 

 year I lost $3,000 by selling corn too 

 soon. Now I've lost $3,000 by not 



selling soon enough." 



Joe Christensen, Kankakee county: 

 "We're cutting down on bean acreage, 

 increasing corn acreage. We would 

 have done so with or without a price 

 drop." 



John Gaspardo, Livingston county: 

 "No changed planned right now but 

 may before I get into the fields. If they 

 start to lay men off in the factories 

 prices will slip badly." 



C. J. Kuster, GI farm instructor, Mc- 

 Lean county; "Farmers in McLean 

 county may sell out sooner on their 

 cattle. It won't change their hog plans. 

 Most are sitting tight." 



Commenting on the price drop. Dean 

 H. P. Rusk of the College of Agricul- 

 ture said: "This would have happened 

 long ago were it not for our heavy food 

 exports to Europe." 



H. C. M. Case, head of the university 

 department of agricultural economics: 

 "There is little to discourage good 

 prices for farm products for the bal- 

 ance of 1948." 



Roy Edwards, Champaign county 

 cattle feeder: "The honeymoon is over. 

 We are in for lower prices." 



"The Place of Farm Organizations in 

 the Development of Agricultural Pol- 

 icy" was discussed at an agricultural 

 policy meeting by Vice President F. E. 

 Morris of the Illi- 

 nois Agricultural 

 Association. 



Farmer organiza- 

 tions, Morris said, 

 are beginning to 

 plan and formulate 

 agricultural policy 

 as well as help 

 carry it out. We 

 feel that the gen- 

 eral economic pic- 

 ture is more im- 

 portant than any 

 specific program farmers could advo- 

 cate. This, Morris said, is an abrupt 

 departure from policies advocated by 

 farmers in the past. 



F. E. Morris 



12 



I. A. A. RECORD 



