414 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 



acres less in corn than in 1921, we got 100 million bushels more of corn 

 from that smaller acreage, which shows what good growing weather 

 means in reference to the output of our crops. 



What is the remedy for the surplus? Somebody says "Burn the corn." 

 I have no objection to burning corn. If I had corn and could not get 

 coal or other fuel for my corn, I would burn corn, but I do not think that 

 enough corn has been burned in the state of Iowa to make the smallest 

 fraction of a cent difference in the value of corn, or any noticeable differ- 

 ence in the amount of corn within the state. 



Somebody else says, "Eat more corn." That would work if there were 

 enough of us and if we each ate enough. Better than to eat corn would 

 be to eat more meat, and the people of this nation will eat more meat 

 when they get the benefit of reduced prices which the farmers of the 

 nation have made possible, but which are so slow in arriving. 



Somebody else says, "Store the corn." I believe in that thoroughly, 

 and I am glad that our federal authorities, and largely through the in- 

 centive of such men as Mr. Howard and Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Hunt, 

 have seen fit to make available more funds that can be loaned to farmers 

 so that they can store corn. And I want to say that some of the banks 

 in this state have come forward nobly in their efforts to assist in this 

 matter, and some other banks have not come forward so nobly. And I 

 hope these latter will see that it is not only to the advantage of the 

 farmers of their communities, but to their own advantage to get busy 

 and get some of that money and make it available. And already the 

 question is being asked very seriously on all sides, "What are we going 

 to do for just such loans when the federal funds are no longer available?" 

 That is a big question, and I hope that the men who are working on it are 

 going to work it out satisfactorily. 



Well, somebody else says, "Export that tremendous surplus." I believe 

 in that. Few people realize how much our exports are increased, and 

 very few people know that our able secretary of agriculture, Mr. Wallace, 

 has his scouts over in Europe now studying the markets for the purpose 

 of finding information that will enable us to hold those markets in as 

 large a measure as possible in succeeding years. But did you know that 

 in 1921 we exported 300 million bushels of wheat — five times the normal 

 exports? That is a pretty good record on export, and that is where a 

 lot of that surplus wheat has been going. And we have exported one 

 and one-half times the normal quantity of flour. Altogether in cereals and 

 flour we exported 28 billion pounds in 1921, as compared with eight billion 

 pounds normally. We exported in 1921 three and one-half times as much 

 cereals and flour as we export normally. It is a great record! I do not 

 know where we would have been if we had not gotten rid of that surplus. 

 Dairy products make a particularly fine showing, and I am glad they do, 

 because they represent a high degree of skill in handling the raw product. 

 They are manufactured products, and in 1921 we exported almost 300 

 million pounds of finished dairy products, or more than eleven times the 

 normal output from this country. Meat exports went up from one and 

 one-half billion pounds to two billion pounds — an increase of nearly one- 

 third. Altogether in 1921 we exported 31 billion pounds of food products, 

 and to bring it right down to something which we will all understand, 



