i 



, 



^ 



137 an acre at current prices. 



After the terraces have been built 

 this fall, the work land will be planted 

 to wheat and seeded to sweet clover. 

 Later the sweet clover will be plowed 

 under as a green manure crop and the 

 fields planted back to wheat. 



This wheat, sweet clover, wheat, 

 sweet clover, and later a pasture mix- 

 ture, will bring the soil back quicker 

 than any other way we know. Gene 

 Steely, district soil conservation expert, 

 explained during the spring tree plant- 

 ing project. 



He estimates that the land should 

 be turning out bumper corn crops after 

 about 10 years, depending somewhat 

 on how often the legume seedings 

 catch. 



After this year the project will be 

 continued by the farm operator, John 

 Issak, who will farm the land along 

 with the farm he is now on, both 

 owned by Oscar Neirmann, of Cen- 

 tralia. 



The fertilizer will be applied when 

 possible as straight stuff and in heavy 

 doses as needed. And it will be about 

 the first the old Cooper farm has ever 

 seen — at least in doses that will help 

 restore its fertility. 



Matt Diekemper, 59, a Clinton coun- 

 ty farmer and member of the soil con- 

 servation board, was reared on a farm 

 adjacent to the Cooper place. 



His memory carries him back 50 

 years ago when he used to play and 

 hunt over the ground now so deeply 

 gullied. 



"There were no ditches here then," 

 he recalled. "The neighbors used to 

 farm straight through the place where 

 this guUey now stands. 



"But even when I was a kid it was 

 rented and owned by folks who lived 

 away from here — St. Louis, I believe. 

 The ditches must have started about 

 40 years ago." 



Diekemper says the soil on the old 

 Cooper place was rich in its virgin 

 state. "When my father threshed here 

 45 years ago this was the farm that 

 always broke the record for a day's run. 



Last year the corn crop was a complete 

 failure. Only nubbins grew, the size 

 of a man's thumb. 



But neighbors have faith that the 

 farm can be brought back. Sam Sid- 

 dell's place lies across the highway 

 and his contoured fields are as produc- 

 tive and well-cared as a garden. 



Sam helped to plant the trees this 

 spring. He'll help with the terracing 

 this fall. From his own experience Sam 

 knows what modern soil saving prac- 

 tices can do. He has faith that galleys 

 ^ill heal and old Cooper farm will 

 bloom again. 



I 



MAY. 1948 



GOUGLER RECEIVES FIRST lAA 



Retirement dertificate 



By GEORGE E. METZGER, Secretary 



Organization and Information 



FIRST certificate to draw benefits un- 

 der the Illinois Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation employees' retirement plan 

 went to Frank A. Gougler of the 

 marketing department. Gougler was 

 automatically retired as of March 31. 

 His first retirement check was attached 

 to the certificate. 



Throughout his life Mr. Gougler has 

 been a hardworking man. He worked 

 his way through school from the very 

 beginning and wound up with a doctor's 

 degree from the University of Illinois. 



He has been employed by the Illinois 

 Agricultural Association for 24 years. 

 He first gained recognition in Illinois 

 through some outstanding work as county 

 agricultural agent in Missouri. When 

 Adams county, Illinois, needed a new 

 agent, they went over to Missouri and 

 hired Gougler. He was Farm Adviser 

 in Adams county for four years. 



At the end of that time, Gougler had 

 an inborn desire for a higher education 

 and went to the University of Illinois 

 where he worked on his doctor of phi- 

 losophy degree. During his studies at 

 the University of Illinois, he did part- 

 time work for the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association on produce marketing. When 

 he had completed his studies he came to 

 work full-time for the lAA. 



His first activity was an effort to study 

 and improve, if possible, the marketing 

 of farm produce, chiefly butterfat and 

 eggs. Farm leaders used to say of Goug- 

 ler that he could go out in the state, hold 

 a meeting in some county seat, and raise 

 the price of eggs and butterfat two to 

 three cents a pound the next morning. 



Gougler became actively identified in 

 the organization of cream pools. His 

 program was to approach a group of 

 butterfat producers through the Farm 

 Bureau and set up a cream pool for the 

 assembling and marketing of butterfat. 



He used to tell the farmers that an or- 

 ganization covering about 600 cows, with 

 a few dollars worth of equipment, was 

 about all that was necessary to enter the 

 cream and butterfat marketing project. 

 At one time, approximately three mil- 

 lion pounds of butterfat were under 

 contract and were being marketed 

 through these cream pools. 



Franic Geuglor (loft), votoran of 24 yoon 

 of marketing work witli tho lAA, Is bW 

 goodbye on his retirement by George E. 

 Metzger, lAA field secretary. Metzger is 

 presenting Gougler with a camera given by 

 his fellow employees and the first pension 

 certificate under the lAA's new •mpleyee 

 retirement plan. 



The philosophy back of the early cream 

 pool program was that the farmers could 

 assemble the cream more cheaply than 

 could the processors and could carry on 

 a better educational program for quality 

 improvement. This was rather clearly 

 demonstrated through the activities of the 

 cream pools. 



The butterfat assembled in these 

 cream pools was sold to processors then 

 in existence by a marketing committee. 

 It worked well for a couple of years. 

 Finally the large processors all began to 

 bid the same price. 



An effort was then made to sell the 

 , processors the product at a given price, 

 and a contract was written under which 

 the cream producers would share in the 

 profits of the butter made from pooled 

 cream on a 50-50 basis. This did not 

 work long, because most of the larger 

 creameries insisted they had no profits. A 

 few of the smaller ones did divide some 

 profits. 



Soon it became apparent that if butter- 

 fat producers in Illinois were going to get 

 the most out of their butterfat, they 

 would have to own their own processing 

 plants. The result was the 10 creamery 

 chain now owned by butterfat producers 

 in Illinois. The average increase in price 

 received by the butterfat producers was 

 about five cents per pound over the old 

 methods. 



{Continued on page J4) 



