Extension celebrates 100
years of extending knowledge
URBANA -- Illinois might have
been known for growing clover
and cranberries rather than corn
and soybeans if farmers in the
early 1900s hadn’t followed rec-
ommendations from University of
Illinois Extension agents to apply
lime to the state’s highly acidic
soil. Demonstrations at agricultural
experiment stations and on farm-
ers’ fields across the state showing
the benefits of using lime as a soil
additive convinced farmers to use
lime to balance the pH, making it
possible to produce abundant crops
of corn, soybeans, alfalfa and other
pH-sensitive plants.
“Lime is made of calcium carbon-
ate, which is also an ingredient in
cement, so farmers feared using it.
They thought it would make the
soil hard,” said Robert Hoeft, U of
I Extension director in the College
of Agricultural, Consumer and
Environmental Sciences.
According to Hoeft, the use of
lime is just one example from the
past 100 years of the value of Ex-
tension, whose mission is to bring
research-based information to the
public. Hybrid corn was another
example.
“The process to produce hybrid
corn was created by university sci-
entists and passed on to companies
to grow and market the seed to
farmers. Extension played a large
part in getting farmers to adopt the
use of hybrid seed by establishing
demonstration plots in farmers’
fields. Planting these demonstra-
tion plots near well-traveled roads
gave farmers the opportunity to
visit them to observe the difference
in disease pressure and ultimately
yield between open-pollinated and
hybrid corn,” Hoeft said.
In the mid-1930s, many farm
families, unlike their city neigh-
bors, did not have access to elec-
tricity. The combined effort of
county Extension staff and local
citizens to create rural electric co-
operatives eventually brought elec-
tricity to all of rural America. In
later years, Extension also assisted
local leadership in organizing rural
water systems. Today Extension
staff members are working with
companies to expand high-speed
Internet systems to rural areas.
Although Extension’s roots are in
the rural agricultural community,
Hoeft said it has spread to urban
areas of the state.
their time in 4-H. The office wants
photos from all time periods.
If folks have pictures of them-
selves as kids in 4-H, their kids
or grandkids in 4-H doing a 4-H
activity, the Extension would like
to have a digital copy of those
photos. Apkore said folks can
email them to the Extension office
if they are able, or they can bring
the photos to the office and Exten-
sion staff will scan them into their
computers.
Apkore said folks are also wel-
come to bring in photos of memen-
tos from 4-H, such as 4-H shirts,
ribbons, whatever.
The University of Illinois Ex-
tension program currently has a
website devoted to its 100th year.
There you will find photos of the
program’s history as well as a digi-
tal scrapbook, a link to a Pinterest
page and a trivia quiz. To find all
this, visit http://web.extension.il-
linois.edu/100yrs/index.cfm.
To learn more about the Logan
County Extension office, visit
http://web.extension.illinois.edu/
lms/.
And to learn more about Logan
County 4-H, visit http://web.exten-
sion.illinois.edu/lms/logan4h/.
[By NILA SMITH]
2013 LOGAN COUNTY FAIR. A special editon of LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com July 30, 2013 page 7
