l6 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



among the leading corn states of the Union showing a greater average 

 yield per acre, during the last four years, is Illinois ; but while this com 

 parison is very favorable to Missouri farmers, we, as their representa- 

 tives for improved agriculture, should not be satisfied until every acre 

 in the State is made to yield a maximum crop. By applying well-es- 

 tablished scientific methods, the average yield of corn in this State ought 

 to be raised to at least forty bushels per acre — many farmers in the dif- 

 ferent counties produce a much larger yield 



State Farmers' Conventions. — One means through which this de- 

 partment has been able to accomplish much good is through the State 

 conventions that have been held annually for the past several years under 

 the auspices of the Board of Agriculture. It has been thought wise to 

 establish these State conventions in a permanent home; so, for the last 

 two years they have been held in the Agricultural College. 



State Corn Growers' Association. — The second annual meeting of 

 the Missouri Corn Growers' Association, which convened in this build- 

 ing January 12, 1905, has resulted in creating widespread interest in 

 the possibilities of corn improvement in Missouri. Through this con- 

 vention, and by means of the work that has been done in the regular 

 Farmers' Institutes, hundreds of farmers throughout the State are mak- 

 ing a scientific study of corn breeding and a practical application of the 

 scientific methods of tillage and the use of fertilizers. The Board of 

 Agriculture costs the State of Missouri about $20,000 annually, and yet, 

 if the work we are doing in corn improvement will add but two kernels to 

 each ear, we will have added to the wealth of the State for this year 

 alone $177,000 — a sufficient sum to maintain the entire work of the 

 Board for several years. 



The next, or third annual meeting of this Association, will con- 

 vene in the Agricultural building, January 9, and promises to be the 

 most successful of any meeting yet held. The officers of this Association 

 should be commended for their patriotic spirit; they are giving their 

 time and of their means without any remuneration whatever. 



Improved Live Stock Breeders' Association. — The eighth annual 

 meeting of the Improved Live Stock Breeders' Association was held 

 under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture in the Agricultural Col- 

 lege, January 12, 13, 1905, at which time a splendid program was ren- 

 dered, copy of which was published in the thirty-seventh annual report. 

 Missouri has the soil, the climate, the water, the great variety of nutri- 

 tious grasses and other feeds, and the intelligent class of farmers neces- 

 sary to make her the greatest live stock country of the world — a position 

 she is approaching very fast. One object of the Improved Live Stock 

 Breeders' Association is to eliminate the scrub-bred animal from the 



