Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield
Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield
Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield
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who knrn. sonrething ahuut agrirulture. He. . . . can't recall his name anymore. liut those<br />
men were familiar nith rural areas and ahout farming.<br />
Q: )Th<strong>at</strong> ahout soil conserv<strong>at</strong>ion.' Did th<strong>at</strong> come up:'<br />
:I: Nnt too much ihen. Th<strong>at</strong>'s taking place more in the last ten years. They've hren wry<br />
:irti\-e no\\-. 1 advoc<strong>at</strong>e11 thal a long long time ago because on slime <strong>of</strong> in!. farms I vould<br />
sre wh<strong>at</strong> was happeninx \\,hen the:- hertime er<strong>at</strong>iir<strong>at</strong>ed, especially hills .And \ve used to have<br />
a lot or orchards. And rve grew a cover crop and ue didn't have an! \vast1 <strong>at</strong> th<strong>at</strong> pal.ticular<br />
tirnr. But after you'd slart cultiv<strong>at</strong>ing and done :livay with ihe npjlle trees and a lot <strong>of</strong><br />
- just havr these heavy rains and it would n~ash the soil all drin.n the rivrr. rIncl they've<br />
herome quite active now and they shoulcl too. They'rc advoc<strong>at</strong>ing this nu-till (leal<br />
non.. .And 1 think someday 5-ot1'11 proh<strong>at</strong>~ly see a lot <strong>of</strong> th<strong>at</strong> done because they're getting<br />
ahout as good <strong>of</strong> results crop\rise as they do by plowing the ground up and cultiv<strong>at</strong>ing it<br />
and getting it just like the garden \%-hen the:- 1)11,1v it.<br />
Q: Did they h;iie any particul;ir prohlems with feed luts'l You knon they've had su much<br />
trouble l<strong>at</strong>ely, contamin<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> soil and so on.<br />
A: Yes. Well \ve didn't have loo murh <strong>of</strong> th<strong>at</strong> then. Your feeti lt~ts lveren't cornpart as<br />
they are now You diiln't put them - like your hogs, \ve didn't have ;in!- <strong>of</strong> th<strong>at</strong><br />
pruhlem. You didn't knon wh<strong>at</strong> confinement feedin2 n-as then. The last years they've<br />
started. E\-vr!. county arou~~rl th<strong>at</strong> I'm familiar 11-ith, they all have it non-. And th<strong>at</strong>'s<br />
going to tit, a prohleni, 1 ran tell th<strong>at</strong>. You're going to see a lot <strong>of</strong> coniplaints. You drive<br />
along the highwah- and you can smell th' odor and years ago they raised just as many lulgs<br />
in the same county and you never knrx a hog existrd. Yo\v they ])roh;lhl\ don't have any<br />
more hug.; but they'le gut them in rnore closer lnts and in th<strong>at</strong> jiarti(.ular area it just fouls<br />
the air and I imagine the puhlic is going to do a lot 01' rotnplaining.<br />
Q: \Vh<strong>at</strong> ahout this Livestork Shipment and Sale (:omrnirsiun th<strong>at</strong> you servcti on in l!,aT<br />
arid 1!158Y Do you recall the objective <strong>of</strong> th<strong>at</strong> cc~m~nissionl<br />
A: Well. thc sales harn, th<strong>at</strong>'s another thing we kind <strong>of</strong> put hark on the feet. Rep<strong>at</strong>ilir<br />
peoplc 11311 some ronlidenre years ago. Why, only thing you'd go to a sales t~arn to pick<br />
uy) was sumehody who had an old ilisrased animal or wasn't al~lr to walk or rno!dn't ship<br />
it on the other 1n:irkrt. the>-'d put it on a sale harn and th<strong>at</strong>'s \\h<strong>at</strong> you'd exprrt to gel<br />
thrre. So they (:lttaned th<strong>at</strong> up pretty well.<br />
And they came up with solnr rules governing the type <strong>of</strong> structure <strong>of</strong> tht, s;rlr har11. You<br />
ha0 to haw them rovered so it wasn't ;I manure lot. :Ind made them kwp tlirni srruhhed<br />
up and cleaned iout. And n<strong>at</strong>urally jtru had to have ;i veterinary then to\\-ards thost, last<br />
years to, when you wrnt in, to see it \v;is varcin<strong>at</strong>ed, either when it came in or n.hrri it<br />
went out.<br />
Then also 11-e hail sorncxthing lo (11, with interst:itr sliipmenl. I know we rrsed to cluestion<br />
~vhy \re \\-oai~l\\-ant to he more particular than the st<strong>at</strong>e or Missouri. Wr ost~l to have ;i<br />
nran te.jting r<strong>at</strong>tle. If somehody'(l hring thcnl over to an lllinoi.; sale harn. lvhy, we'd havr<br />
son~ehody on the hurderlinr to check th~~sr uttle. I al\v:~ys tht~ught th<strong>at</strong> line st<strong>at</strong>e \vil~~lcl<br />
Ilr just as murh interes~rd as the other stale. And so I argued th<strong>at</strong> enough th<strong>at</strong> the! tinall\<br />
dcci(lei1 to le! the federal take it over and let them handle it better than let the st:ites handle<br />
it indiiidually. :I lot <strong>of</strong> these la\\--:i kind <strong>of</strong> conflirtrd \vith earh other. \Vhen somehuci\- from<br />
Rlissouri cuul(1n't hring in a load nC c<strong>at</strong>tle in Missouri, yuu hari to have thetl~ checker1 out<br />
or vice versa. I ihink Missouri tonk them and \\r 11-ouiiln't take them fin. a long tirnr. Ilut<br />
I just tigured oncts th<strong>at</strong> tvr should he just ns n1u1.h inlerestetl in ~irople here in our Ileait11<br />
as hlissouri pcol~le shor~lti hc in the health <strong>of</strong> their people. But the>- all rot it ~~nrkeii out<br />
nun s(, it's uniform so . . .<br />
Carl Wittmond Memoir -- <strong>Archives</strong>/<strong>Special</strong> <strong>Collections</strong>, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Illinois</strong> <strong>at</strong> <strong>Springfield</strong>
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