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Champion Plowman 



With His Pretty Wife As His Helper, Hillis Swanson 

 captured first place in State Contour Plowing Contest 



By LEW REISNER, Field Editor, IAA Record 



HILLIS SWANSON, 28, ex-navy 

 pilot, driving a battered 13-year- 

 old tractor, won the state contour 

 plowing contest held in September 

 on the rolling, 400-acre Dewey 

 Johnson farm near Ohio in Bureau 

 county. 



Swanson and a partner rent a 400- 

 acre dairy farm near Caledonia in Boone 

 county. His pretty wife, Frances, acted 

 as his stakeman in the contest. 



This meant, they said, that both could 

 claim shares in the $100 first place award 

 given the winner by the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association. 



The plowing contest was the featured 

 event of the day-long conservation dem- 

 onstration. The program included ter- 

 race and pond building, an FFA staking 

 contest, machinery exhibits, and a wind- 

 break and landscaping demonstration. 



The field day was the farmer's an- 

 swer to the problem of saving the soil. 

 For the most part, the men who ran the 

 show were farmers, members of soil 

 conservation boards. 



"It's bringing home the lesson of soil- 

 saving to men who will do tlie most 

 about it," Halsey Miles. Bureau county 

 farm adviser, said. The crowd, esti- 

 mated at 3,000, was made up almost en- 

 tirely of farmers. They gave the new- 

 techniques in soil saving a long, long 

 look. 



The field day was sponsored by the Bu- 



reau County Farm Bureau, the Illinois 

 State Soil Consenation district board, the 

 Bureau County Soil Conservation Dis- 

 trict, the College of Agriculture Exten- 

 sion Service, and the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association. 



During the day a large pond w'as ex- 

 cavated on the farm. It had a pond 

 area of one and one-half acres and a 

 drainage area of about 10 acres. Three 

 large earth moving machines were used 

 to build it. The dam normally would 

 cost about SI ^00 to construct. 



On one of the fields a terrace was 

 built with a new terracing machine, a 

 large auger mounted on a single bottom 

 plow. The auger threw dirt on a ridge 

 to make the terrace. The machine sells 

 for about S450. 



The Johnson farm, where the field day 

 was held, has been operated on a soil 

 conservation program for the past three 

 years. 



To save his soil Johnson keeps one- 

 third of his farm in legumes, utilized by 

 beef cattle and hogs. All his corn is 

 planted on the contour, and terraces 

 eventually will be built on all the crop 

 fields. 



Contouring and contour plowing are 

 gaining in favor throughout the state. 

 John and William Kaufmann, brothers 

 who were entered in the contest, said 

 they had been contouring for five years 

 on their 31? acre farm. 



•J^ib 



r'^^?*^- 



Hllllt Swanten, Boone county, holds IAA 



check for $100 for winning state plowing 



contest OS wife, Frances, his stakemon, 



gives him a great big smile. 



This year's plowmg contest is the sei- 

 ond official Illinois state contour contest 

 Last year the contest was held near Sib- 

 ley in Ford county. Nineteen contest- 

 ants, most of them winners of county con- 

 tests, entered the plowing content this 

 year. All contestants reteivtd a cash 

 award from the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation. 



The placings of the first nine were: 

 1st, Hillis Swanson, Boone; 2nd, Jerry 

 Habcrkorn. Lningston; 3rd, Fred Al- 

 sene. McLean: 4tli, John Hood. Bureau; 

 3th. Duke Dail. Whiteside: 5th (tie^. 

 John Wire, Ogle; 7th, Richard Green. 

 Kankakee; 8th, Austin Peterson, Mar- 

 shall-Putnam: 9th, Lloyd, Shafer. Liv- 

 ingston. 



Left — top: New terracing machine used during field day is pulled by 2-bottom trac- 

 tor. Bottom: Dirt-throwing auger on terracer is pointed out by Dennis Manning. 

 Grundy county. Bottom: Roger Gish, IAA soil conservation department director, (left) 

 presents $100 IAA check to Hillis Swanson, Boone county, winner of state contour 

 plowing contest. Center is Fred Alsene, McLean, third place winner, and Jerry Haber- 

 korn, Livingston, second. Hidden by microphone is Glenn Shoner, secretary-treasurer 

 of tlia Bureau county conservation district. 



