TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 447 



when twenty-one counties were canvassed, with about 350 picked men in 

 the field calling on the farmers wherever they could go. For the roads 

 that week were almost impassible. One of the most severe storms that 

 ever struck the state came on about December 1 and continued during the 

 month. In spite of it all, the field men went on with the work and built 

 up the membership we now have. 



I want to give you some statistics. Statistics, I know, are dry things. 

 I think it was Lord Beaconsfield of England who Said that there were 

 three kinds of lies; that there were lies, damn lies and statistics. But 

 these are facts, so far as we can get them, that I am going to give you. I 

 haven't even reduced them to writing, because I didn't want to impose 

 upon you in that respect. 



Since February, 1918 there have been 100 county farm bureaus or- 

 ganized in Iowa. The total membership in the farm bureaus on January 

 1, 1920, according to the figures that we have in our office, is 104,388. 

 Since that time about twenty counties have put on what we call a clean-up 

 campaign, going into the townships that were missed during the first 

 canvass, either because of the bad roads that made it impossible to get 

 over the territory, or because of Inability to get sufficient canvassers for 

 the work. 



I don't have an accurate check on what has been done by these men 

 that have been secured the last two weeks, but I believe it would bring 

 the total farm bureau membership in the state up to 110,000. We expect 

 to carry that clean-up work into every county in the state, and we 

 expect to have by the first of March not less than 125,000 farm bureau 

 members in Iowa. 



Now, the average number of members to the county at the present 

 time is 1044. The number of counties that have 1000 or more members is 

 53. Six months ago only one county could boast 1000 members. Accord- 

 ing to my records there is one county that has more than 2000 members, 

 but since coming to this convention I understand that two other counties 

 have gone above the two-thousand mark. Benton county was the first to 

 reach it, and, !lO far as I know it is still at the top. I understand that 

 both Kossuth and Webster counties are crowding the leader for first 

 place. 



The number of counties in the state having less than 500 members is 

 only three. Six months ago there were 90 such counties. The total 

 number of members July 1, 1919, as I have given you, was 30,600. The 

 increase due to this drive is 70,988 members, an increase of 242 per cent 

 in thirteen weeks. Of course when one gets to rambling round among 

 figures he can do a lot of things. I began estimating about how many 

 days work had been done. As I estimated there were about 52 working 

 days during which these canvassers were on the job; and if that be true 

 there have been added to the farm bureaus of this state every working 

 day since this drive started 1432 members — not a bad day's work. 



There are a number of other interesting deductions that might be 

 made. A good many counties have asked questions like this: "Since v/e 

 cannot be first in membership what can we be first in?" And I have 

 always said, "There is not limit on contributions to the Federation fun J." 



