Increases in state aid will further assist 

 in distributing the costs more widely. 



7. There have been too many mistakes 

 made under the reorganization legislation 

 provided. No one will argue that mis- 

 takes have not been made. However, 

 no advance planning can keep people 

 from making mistakes. Nor can we 

 legislate mistakes out of the picture. 



8. The state should have done the job 

 in the first place and thereby avoided 

 the mistakes made by local people and 

 the difficulties encountered in some areas. 

 No widespread progress is made without 

 some difficulties, doubts and high blood 

 pressures. No approach to school re- 

 organization would be popular with all 

 the people. The local approach has a 

 very definite value in that it is more 

 ■democratic and allows local people to 

 •do their own planning, hold their own 

 discussion meetings, and vote for or 

 against the district that is eventually 

 proposed. Also it has been good for the 

 school program to arouse so many people 

 to a revaluation of the purpose of the 

 schools in the community and the 

 school's needs. 



9. Illinois should have done the job 

 more gradually and by stages. There is 

 some virtue in that argument. However, 

 in general, it seems foolish to take the 

 long road if the other road is better. 

 Indiana several years ago reorganized on 

 a township basis. It worked out all right 

 for her grade schools but most of her 

 high schools are too small. Now she 

 has the job of again uprooting es- 

 tablished systems, beliefs, and traditions 

 to improve her high schools. They say 

 they cannot now afford the luxury of a 

 ■decentralized school system. It is ad- 

 mittedly a painful process to make the 

 necessary steps; but if Illinois can set 

 up districts for both grade and high 

 schools that are large enough to provide 

 a good program at reasonable cost, it 

 may save us the pains of transition later. 



10. The lAA should support efforts 

 to loner state requirements to favor a 

 feu scattered small districts, mainly high 

 school districts. State standards are al- 

 ready too low in the opinion of many 

 people who are interested in districts 

 of adequate size. To cut those standards 

 down further would establish a false 

 minimum that no studies or surveys by 

 people qualified to make such could 

 endorse. Also it would penalize those 

 people who had already acted in good 

 faith and in accordance with the laws 

 in establishing the larger districts. 



It is fortunate for Illinois' school 

 systems of the future that the school 

 policy of the lAA was sufficiently broad 

 and farsighted to point in the direction 

 of the type of school districts that the 

 future, it is confidently hoped, will prove 

 to be the best. 



JUNE, 1949 



Two Qerman farm 

 ipecfo/isf s ttudying 

 farm organizations in 

 the Unltod States vie 

 Ited the IlllnoU Agrl- 

 €ultural Auotlatlon 

 and counfy farm Bu- 

 reau* In May. left to 

 right are Otto von 

 teury, Munich; Hans 

 Burbath, frankfurt, 

 and lAA President 

 Charles B. Shuman. 



lAA Host To German Farmers 



Farm Leaders Visit America To Study 



Free Farmer Organizations, Agricultural Methods 



AGRICULTURE is making a recovery 

 in the Western zone of Germany, 

 but it always will be necessary to 

 import food for that section. 

 This point was made by two Ger- 

 man agricultural specialists who visited 

 the Illinois Agricultural Association and 

 four county Farm Bureaus during May. 

 The German agriculturists made the 

 visit at the invitation of the American 

 Military Government with the coopera- 

 tion of the American Farm Bureau Fed- 

 eration and state Farm Bureaus. After 

 leaving Illinois, the specialists were to 

 visit Iowa, Kansas, and other state Farm 

 Bureaus. 



The two men were Otto von Feury, 

 42, of near Munich, head of the state 

 committee for research and extension in 

 Bavaria and Hans Burbach, 48, of Frank- 

 furt, adviser on fertilizers in the state 

 of Hesse. 



Burbach pointed out that the eastern 

 zone of Germany which is under Russian 

 control contains the country's chief farm- 

 ing area, and that the Western zone used 

 to get considerable of its food from that 

 area. Since the Russians have shut off 

 this exchange of food, there has been an 

 effort to increase agricultural production 

 to the utmost in the Western zone. In 

 addition to increasing agricultural pro- 

 duction, they hope to develop industries 

 and exports in order to get dollars to 

 buy essential foods they cannot produce. 

 In visiting the McLean County Farm 

 Bureau, the German visitors told of vil- 

 lage and county contests they sponsor 

 in their area for the best manure pile. 

 Prizes range from 100 marks for first 

 place down to a diploma for the farmer 

 who can build the best manure pile. 



Fertility is a big problem for the 

 German farmer and he has always used 

 considerable commercial fertilizer in ad- 

 dition to manure. Last year, von Feury 

 said, was the first time since the war that 



sufficient fertilizers were available. Too 

 many small farm units of one to two 

 acres each make it impossible in some of 

 the areas to utilize modern machine 

 farming methods. 



The purpose of the visit of the Ger- 

 man farm leaders to the United States 

 was primarily to study "free farm organi- 

 zations" such as Farm Bureau and to 

 examine educational and production 

 methods of our agricultural system. 



County Farm Bureaus visited were 

 Champaign, McLean, La Salle, and De- 

 Kalb. 



Expect Bumper 

 Illinois Peach Crop 



ILLINOIS peaches will be plentiful this 

 year according to a prediction based on 

 present conditions made by R. S. Mc- 

 Bride, manager of the Illinois Fruit 

 Growers' Exchange. 



The Exchange is the largest marketer 

 of fruits produced in southern Illinois 

 and is affiliated with the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association. 



McBride estimated that Illinois would 

 harvest a 2,150,000 bushel peach crop 

 compared with a 1,500,000 bushel crop 

 last year or 43 per cent higher than in 

 1948. 



"Constant emphasis on quality will 

 make the Illinois peach crop one of the 

 best ever marketed," McBride said. 



Illinois peach growers expect good 

 prices because the normal 6,000,000 

 bushel South Carolina crop which comes 

 in just ahead of the Illinois crop was cut 

 80 per cent by hea%'y frost damage. 



Illinois ranks third in amount of cash 

 farm income, being exceeded only by Iowa 

 and California. 



