46 March 27, 2014 2014 LOGAN COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
University of Illinois Extension
celebrating 100th anniversary
U
niversity of Illinois Extension is celebrating
100 years this year!
Officially, Extension began in 1914 with the Smith-
Lever Act. Many changes and additions have hap-
pened through the years. While starting with agri-
culture, home economics and 4-H soon followed.
The first home adviser began in Kankakee County
in 1915, and the first official 4-H club started in
Macoupin County that same year. That first 4-H
club was a pig club, but soon there were clubs
focused on corn, pigs, canning, sewing, gardening,
strawberries and calves.
Following are some local historical notes for Logan
County:
Logan County Extension was officially chartered
Dec. 1, 2017, as were Sangamon and Menard coun-
ties. The official beginning was February of 1918.
It began with a farm adviser named Elmer Eber-
sol, who began selling county memberships in the
combined Extension and Farm Bureau system that
remained in place until 1954, when the USDA offi-
cially said Extension was solely a USDA program,
thus ending the dual appointments with Extension
and Farm Bureau in the state of Illinois.
Locally, early projects included establishment of
the county Pure Bred Live Stock Breeders’Asso-
ciation, Pure Bred Beef Cattle Breeders’Associa-
tion, Pure Bred Dairy Cattle Breeders’Association
and the Pure Bred Swine Breeders’Association.
Soybeans were a new crop at that time, and their
planting was being encouraged. Of course, soy-
beans were used mainly for hay in their early years.
Spring wheat was the predominant wheat crop of
the time, and there were several thousand acres of
oats. Farm labor was a major concern of the time,
and labor placements were a major focus of Exten-
sion. The first soil survey of the county was also
begun.
The Logan County 4-H program began about 1920,
with the first 4-H clubs focusing on the specific
projects of swine and corn. Later in 1923 there
began a push for home economics-based clubs, and
the push was on to identify volunteer leaders. Eve-
rything old is new again, and we have seen a return
to specialized interest 4-H clubs, with local SPIN
clubs including shooting sports, quilting, geology
and others.
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