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PilSS '49 MEIUIIERSHIP GOAL 



6IUIWTH 



< 0EC3l^ i9» . .'. . AFIUL 1 , 1949 

 lAA-fARM BUREAU 



I« ARM BUREAU membership in II- 

 ,' linois already has rolled past its 

 I goal of 165,000 members by Sept. 

 30, 1949. Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation-Farm Bureau membership 

 on April l was 165,250 — up 1,900 

 since March 1, according to figures 

 compiled by O. D. Brissenden, lAA 

 director of organization. 



Since Sept. 30, 1948, when member- 

 ship was 155,793 lAA-Farm Bureau 

 has made a net gain of 9,457 members. 



As results of annual spring member- 

 ship drives poured in from throughout 

 the state, county after county reported 

 phenomenal gains. For the first time 

 in Farm Bureau history a substantial 

 number of the counties (19) now have as 

 many or more Farm Bureau members 

 than farms with $400 or more gross 

 income, according to the 1940 U. S. 

 census. 



The following have as many or more 

 farmers in Farm Bureau than there are 

 farms in the counties: Cook, 131 per 

 cent; Kendall, 121; Macon, 118.9; 

 Piatt, 118.4; Sangamon, 114.6; DuPage, 

 113; Will, 112; DeKalb, 111; Kane, 

 109; Whiteside, 108.7; Winnebago, 

 108.6; Wabash, 108; Menard, 107; De- 

 Witt, 105; Champaign, 103; Jersey, 

 102.5; Logan, 101; Peoria, 100.4; and 

 LaSalle, 100. In addition all of these 

 counties have a substantial number of 

 non-farmers with associate memberships 

 in Farm Bureau. 



The five counties with the highest 

 total Farm Bureau membership in the 

 state are (1) Cook, 4,188; (2) McLean, 



4,055; (3) La Salle, 4,040; (4) Cham- 

 paign, 3,760; and (5) Will, 3,233. 



Counties within 100 members of the 

 goal of a farmer member for every 

 farm in the county are: Cass, 12 mem- 

 bers short of goal; Ford, 17; Grundy, 

 35; Marshall-Putnam, 37; Woodford, 

 49; McLean, 53; Lee, 77; and Tazewell, 

 90. 



Among the most notable successes in 

 the current membership drives was the 

 accomplishment of Wabash county, the 



only county in the southern Illinois 

 area with more than one Farm Bureau 

 member for each farm in the county. 

 Wabash has 108 per cent of the total 

 number of its farms organized. Totals 

 go over 100 per cent because some 

 farms have more than one membership. 

 The steady rise in Farm Bureau mem- 

 bership over the past several years is 

 a great tribute to an organization which 

 more and more is enabled to speak for 

 all the farmers of Illinois with one 

 strong voice. The fact that Farm Bu- 

 reau membership has doubled in the 

 past seven years is proof enough that 

 Illinois farmers have come to accept 

 their organization as a necessary tool in 

 their farming operations. 



Assistant Organization Director 

 Charles Mayfield pointed out what 

 might be a notable trend and a favor- 

 able sign for Farm Bureau's future 

 when he said he noticed that young 

 farmers starting out waste very little 

 time taking out Farm Bureau member- 

 ship. If Dad is a Farm Bureau mem- 

 ber, Mayfield said, there is no argu- 

 ment about it, the young farmer just 

 naturally believes that to be a success- 

 ful farmer you must belong to Farm 

 Bureau. 



The men who so believe in Farm Bu- 

 reau make the best organization drive 

 workers, according to Brissenden. 

 When they are solidly sold on the or- 



{Continued on page 17) 



IF you have traveled near the Illinois River 

 in the past 14 years you have seen these 

 silvery cantilever bridges dazzling in the 

 bright sunlight. Like this one at Spring 

 Valley in Bureau county most of them 

 were built as federal public works "make 

 work" projects during the depression years of 

 the early thirties and because the old bridges 

 did not provide sufficient clearance for the 

 fakes-to-the-gulf waterway which was being 

 developed at that time. 



When it was opened in 1935 the engineers 

 predicted that if all went well with business 



the Illinois waterway would carry 10,000,000 



n 



tons of freight in 1953. The tonnage carried 

 in 1948 was 11,250,000. The waterway 

 helped ease the transportation bottleneck dur- 

 ing the war. This is the 23rd in our series of 

 covers illustrating historic and picturesque 

 Illinois. 



L A. A. RECORD 



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