lOO 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



home." That has made a Yankee content to stay at home and 

 develop the place for himself, and where he can work for 

 himself. Those men out there were astonished to understand 

 that from twelve or fifteen hens on a New England hill we 

 could make more profit, if fed their grain, than one of their 

 big steers would bring. I think they believed it finally. One 

 man out there said I should think from what you say that you 

 people in the east are trying to develop much from Httle 

 while our people in the west are trying to get little from 

 much. And he went on to say that a fool can get little from 

 much, but that it took a wise man to get much from little. 

 And there is one thing where pur friends, the hen, comes in 

 and teaches us a great big lesson, if we would only heed it. 

 I bought a ton of hay for my farm last fall. I got that ton of 

 baled hay and it cost me $19.75. It was mixed clover and 

 timothy hay. I had some curiosity to know what the man who 

 baled it out in southeastern Iowa got for it, and the best 

 information I could find was that he got $5.80. When I was 

 out there this time I tried to find out. And in talking with 

 one of them, and in speaking of the incident, I said they gave 

 you eighty cents more than the market price. Why, he said, 

 if we get five dollars for a good ton of hay we think we are 

 getting a good price. They were getting $5.80 for that ton 

 of hay, and they were paying $13.75 to the handlers and the 

 carriers, who stood between them and the consumers. And 

 when that man understood that you people on the hills here 

 in New England could buy hay and grain at those prices, and 

 make more than they could feeding steers, they were certainly 

 astonished. One man said to me that the ignorance of the 

 western man about the true condition of the east is only 

 equaled by one thing, and that is probably the ignorance of the 

 eastern man regarding conditions in the west. Now here is 

 where our friend, the hen, comes in. My own hens came 

 and told me just as plainly as any man could that they thought 

 it was a shame for me to pay such tremendous bills for grain. 

 I thought it did not pay myself. The figures seem to show 

 it. The price of grain kept growing, kept going up and up 

 last year, and as a result of it I started in and plowed up a 

 piece of pasture land and grew between three and four hundred 

 bushels of corn. You have no idea what a difference it made. 



