

approaching a bus from the front? 



Hughes: There must be more pub- 

 licity regarding this. 



Black: Statistics show that more cars 

 strike a child when approaching from the 

 front than from the rear because children 

 run behind a bus, directly in frdnt of any 

 approaching car. 



Mary Endres, McHenry county: If the 

 driver does not put the "Stop" arm out, 

 it is still the state law that an approaching 

 driver stop when a school bus is stopped. 

 The laws should be coordinated so that 

 each state has the same laws. 



Clyde Collinson, Knox county: In 

 Knox County, several arrests were made 

 because bus drivers were to take the num- 

 bers of any car passing a stopped school 

 bus. The community put an end to that 

 because there" was a great deal of em- 

 barrassment to a good many people. 



Mr. Lyman, Shelby county: One of 

 the requirements is that when the child is 

 let off the bus, he must wait till the bus is 

 400 feet down the road before crossing. 

 Is it a good thing to let the child get 

 across the road alone, perhaps in the 

 midst of heavy traffic ? 



Black: It is my personal opinion that 

 it might be better for the bus driver to 

 remain stopped until the child gets across 

 the road.' (There seemed to be general 

 approval of this point of view.) 

 \ Lyman: That was the practice in 

 Shelby county because such a small child 

 d6« not know when the bus is 400 feet 

 dowff the road, and it seemed better to 

 have the child cross the road while the 

 traffic was stopped. In some counties an 

 older child accompanies the child across 

 the road in the evening. Also, in the 

 morning an older child meets them. 



Thurman Wright, Macon county farm 

 adviser, suggested some kind of a flasher 

 signal in addition to the "Stop" arm on a 

 school bus so that a car behind another 

 car can see it if he cannot see the arm. 



]ohn Scott, Ford county: If a bond 

 issue has been passed after the formation 

 of a district, can a part of the district 

 petition out and relieve itself of the new 

 bonded debt.' 



Black: No, they must assume their 

 share of the bonded indebtedness, but the 

 district into which they go usually assumes 

 that responsibility. The amount taken 

 out would be spread over the entire dis- 

 trict into which the petitioned district 

 went. 



Following this discussion, Hughes in- 

 troduced John K. Cox, lAA director of 

 rural school relations. Cox then intro- 

 duced Roy Fetherston, field secretary of 

 the Illinois Association of School Boards, 

 who showed some slides on school con- 

 struction and costs. In a few preliminary 

 remarks he suggested that it would be a 

 good idea to begin no^ to plan for any 



(Continued on page 43) 



Speaking from a wMa varlafjr of •xporloncoi, fhas* three farm advisor* offer some 

 tip* on toll (ovlng of the soil consonratlon conference of the tAA ammmal meeting, left 

 to right: Charles Yala, lee; frank Shuman, Whiteside; and W. C. Mwmmert, DeKolb. 



Plant Foods 



Farm Advisers Warn Against Handling 

 Commercial Fertilizers On a Hit or Miss Basis 



Too often when we buy fertilizers, 

 we buy blindly. First, let's take 

 an inventory of the soil. 

 This was tfae advice of Charles 

 E. Yale, Lee county farm adviser, 

 during a panel discussion by farm ad- 

 visers on soil testing laboratories at the 

 soil conference held during the con- 

 vention of the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation. 



"When we buy a manufacturing 

 plant, we make a careful inventory. 

 We should do the same before spread- 

 ing expensive commercial fertilizers," 

 Yale said. 



The growth of soil laboratories in Il- 

 linois shows that farmers appreciate the 

 need for accurate testing, Yale indi- 

 cated. 



These cost from $250 to $1,000 each. 

 About 75 per cent of them are on a 

 pay-as-you-go basis, A nominal test- 

 ing charge, Yale said, would be $3-85 

 for testing 40 acres. 



During the panel talks on the county 

 soil labs, three other farm advisers ex- 

 plained programs for their counties. 

 These men were Frank Shuman, White-^ 

 side, W. C. Mummert, De Kalb, and 

 George Trull, La Salle county assistant 

 farm adviser. 



The importance of accurate soil tests 

 and scientific research was emphasized 

 by George D. Scarseth, director of the 

 American Farm Research Association, 

 an organization of the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation. 



"Through research in improving soil, 

 corn yields have increased in the South 

 from 12-20 bushels to 65-100 bushels 

 an acre, and in the North from 40-50 

 bushel averages to 100-150 bushels," he 

 said. . - ■ • 



"Farmers," he said, "must continue 

 to use plant food to replace what has 

 been taken from the. soil. Illinois soils 

 are low in the element phosphorous. 

 And potash exhaustion is more serious 

 than many realize." 



So far the nation's farmers are doing 

 their share to feed the increase in pop- 

 ulation. This was pointed out by F. 

 M. Atchley, director of research for the 

 lAA. 



"We are producing about a third 

 more than in the years before the war," 

 Atchley said. "And our production is 

 stitt upward." 



To get the most out of your fer- 

 tilizer dollar, Atcljley suggested a four 

 point program: test your soil, fertilize 

 according to test, buy high-test straight 

 materials when possible, and, .follow the 

 recommendations of the state experi- 

 ment station and your fafm adviser. 



The demands for food during and 

 following the war, coupled with the 

 establishment of soil testing labora- 

 tories have sky-rocketed" the use of 

 plant food in this state 



Atchley said there was an average 

 of 33,600 tons of fertilizer used in- Il- 

 linois each year during 1935-39- This 

 increased by 12 times to 417,000 tons 

 in 1947-48, more than 2 tons for every 

 Illinois farm. ; :. 



Roger Gish, IAA director of soil con- 

 servation activities, outlined some , of 

 the projects he plans for the coming 

 year. This department was reactivated 

 this year. 



He plans to continue the depart- 

 ment's inspection of limestone quarries 

 and will spot check samples for fine- 

 ness of grinding and calcium carbonate 

 equivalent. . . . . ■ . » . 



lANUARY. 1949 



