The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1912-11-08
Increasing Crop Yields in
De Kalb County, Illinois
Farmers Learning Many Improved Methods from their County
Expert-Bg Results Looked for-Rep,iutd from Prairie Farmer

nome over and tell US what to do
ean ur farm said bright looking
1oi nc farmer boy one morning about
!our ,9;ddle of July, as he stepped into
lho aa;ce of the De Kalb County Soil
i..nrovement association.
NJ soil expert turned to his card in
am be out September 16," he
ue "a "I'm sorry l can't come sooner,
but every day between now ana then Is
snoken for" So,
sPO .sWe II be looking for you then, the
answered. "Our soil needs some
HING done to it, and we re ANXIOUS to
and out what it IS.
nn 1o CT winter De Kalb county, Illinois,
.;Ssd 100000 to pay the expense of d
o. exnert for three years. A few far
so .hted men behind the scheme had
s sasam of double crop production-ot
ulesnerity resulting from these bountl-
pr fields that should make De Kalb
aur the best place in the world to
10 in The idea caught the magma
a .;ou of the people of De Kalb county.
,Too+;nos were held, committees aa
so;nted7 and the work was started Wi h
unselfsh enthusiasm that cannot help
ut carry it to a successful conclusion
More than 700 of the county farmers
contributed their cash to the fund-the
amounts varying from 81 to $25. The
eountv supervisors voted $1,000. The
sormers' clubs-and by the way, De
Kalh county has the finest lot of farm
ars, Clubs that can be found in any one
county in the country-got behind the
movement with their organized strength.
The bankers association put substan-
rial shoulder to the wheel. The eigh-
teen editors in the county organized a
nress association and gave literally of
their space to boosting the movement.
The best part of it all was that no
one had an axe to grind. It was unset
scb patriotic work, which accounts fo:
mnch of its success. County demonstra-
tion work that is backed by men whose
chief thought is to sell the farmer some
thing can never attain the fullest meas
ure of success.
Flagging the Expert.
Professor w. G.. Eckhardt, of the Uni
: yersity of Illinois, was hired as the
county expert. He has been on the job
since the first of June. Already the soil
expert in his little runabout has become
familiar sight to the De Kalb county
farmers. They flag him as he is COM
ing down the road, or head him off by
telephone. 1t takes a mighty good
looking crop to satisfy De Kalb coun-
ty farmer nowadays. If the crop ism t
up to standard, the farmer puts in a call
for Eckhardt to find out what the
trouble is.
One of the first things that Prof.
Eekhardt discovered was that about
seventy-fve per cent of the soil in the
county is acid: A soil auger and a
package of litmus paper accompany the
soil expert wherever he goes. you II
have to have limestone, he tells the
farmer after he has sampled the soil.
The farmer lies awake that night won
dering how much money he can raise to
put into limestone. One man has ord
I. cred seven carloads. In another COM
munity ten cars have been ordered as
the result of little neighborhood meet
ing on one Of the farms.
At first, a good many of these neigh
borhood meetings were held, but now
Prof. Eckhardt is rather discouraging
them A farmer will tell his troubles
more freely, and listen to advice more
kindly, if there are not too many of his
neighbors about The man who wants
to have his farm examined notifies the
Office of the association and is given a
date. A week before the appointed
Time, he gets letter reminding him to
& at home, which reminder is later
emphasized by telephone message.
Usually the soil expert spends the
90 ha1f dow,
going over each field and giving advice
as to its management. Then there are
emergency calls to be attended to. One
day it is man whose soy beans have
sueeumbed to a combination of sour
soil, poor incubation and weeds. The
: next day it is man who wants to know
y If it will be necessary to disc alfalfa
ground again and when the seed should
be sown.
The editor spent a day with Prof.
Eckhardt not long ago, being anxious to
find out just what De Kalb county g
crop DOCTOR was doing. One OF the
first stops was at the farm of Geo.
Klein, farmer whose hog-tight fences,
thrifty oats and clean corn made the
services Of a crop doctor seem supertiu-
GUS
''The corn in this field ism t doing as
we'll as it should,' said Mr.. Klein, after
he had been over a good part of the
farm. 81 guess the seed must have
been pretty weak"
The Bugs Did It.
The crop doctor pulled up hill nf
the corn and shook the soil from the
roots. at isn't the seed altogether, -
ne said. "Look at those roots. - They
We're alive with corn root lice, which
mad been sapping the strength of the
pant. "These lice live on the roots OF
almost everything but clover,' he went
on. eff you raise clover once every
Tour years you won It have any trouble
with them. In the meantime, if you
VIII keep your corn ground well stirred
from the time spring opens until plant
ing time, to keep down the weeds and
break up the ants nest, you can pretty
nearly do away with the lice. -
BY gol, you won't see any of those
,nings on my place next year. Mr..
Mem exclaimed, after we had found
t1e lice working in half dozen other
PAGES in the field. I'm stir things up
50 they won't have any chance at all. y
Before the soil expert left he gave
WI Klein a prescription which read
something like this: Limestone, 2
IONS aore 4bic foil or win