TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 155 



Second District E. T. Davis, Iowa City 



Third District E. M. Reeves, Waverly 



Fourth District E. J. Curtin, Decorah 



Fifth District Cyrus A. Tow, Norway 



Sixth District T. C. Legoe, What Cheer 



Seventh District C. F. Curtiss, Ames 



Eighth District F. E. Sheldon, Mt. Ayr 



Ninth District Chas. Escher, Jr., Botna 



Tenth District Sears McHenry, Denison 



Eleventh District H. L. Pike, Whiting 



E. J. CURTIN, 

 G. H. WHITE, 

 J. C. BECKNER, 

 Committee on Credentials. 



Mr. Curtin : I move you that the report "of the committee on 

 credentials be accepted and the committee continued until the ad- 

 journment of this meeting so if any members come in we may cor- 

 rect the report. 



Motion was seconded and unanimously adopted. 



The Chairman: Our next subject on the program is one that I 

 know you are all. personally interested in, and the gentleman who 

 is going to present this to you is a man who started in the early his- 

 tory of the work. When he first started in the work it was certainly 

 uphill work, but today he has the proud satisfaction of knowing 

 that he has placed a county agent in every county in the state of 

 Iowa. I take pleasure in presenting to you this afternoon, Mr. Johr 

 W. Coverdale, secretary of the State Federation of Farm Bureaus. 



Gentlemen: 



I have sat through the conference of fair managers at the Savery yes- 

 terday, and through the meeting here this morning, while you were going 

 over the various problems which confront the various fairs in this state, 

 and I want to say to you that I believe that this is the most successful 

 meeting from the standpoint of an organization that is building up the 

 rural community which I have ever attended, for the simple reason that 

 you people are getting to the fundamental facts of community building. 



The subject that I want to present to you this afternoon briefly is that 

 of the farm bureau activities from a county, from a state, and from a 

 national standpoint, because we have that organization today extended 

 into a national organization. Back in 1912, in the month of June, when 

 the first county in this state organized its farm bureau, known at that 

 time as the Crop Improvement Association, down in Benton county, and 

 the next month or so in Scott county, we had little idea of what the work 

 was going to be. We didn't have the vision of what was going to be 

 the growth of that farm bureau, but from the time that first organization 



