TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 475 



They deal also with the occupation of the land. With practically all of 

 the tillable land fit for agricultural purposes under production, there are 

 no more vast, uncultivated areas, barring the million or so acres that 

 could be made to produce only at a great price. About a million acres can 

 be reclaimed at a cost of $300 an acre for drainage. 



This problem of production is a very serious one to the country. 

 It is more serious to the man in the city than to the farmer, but in the 

 final analysis it is serious to the farmers. We must recognize our 

 dependence upon the other fellow in commercial lines. If we produced 

 only what is needed for ourselves and our families, the problem would be 

 simple. But the problem of our surplus is a problem that is always with 

 us. It is the surplus produced upon the farms that loads railroad trains. 

 It is the surplus that turns the wheels of the factories and creates labor for 

 the millions of working men in the various industries of the country. It is 

 the surplus which goes upon the shelves of our stores, and which we, 

 as farmers, buy back at a price greatly in excess of what we got when 

 it left our farms. 



Now, that surplus is absolutely necessary for the welfare of this 

 country. If we allow it to decrease by voluntary reduced production — I 

 mean that beyond the legitimate needs of the country — we can have a 

 lessened production and it perhaps would not hurt any more than an over- 

 production; but what I mean is, if production of crops is below the normal 

 demand the reaction will come back upon us, because there will not be 

 the labor employed, the trains will cease to operate — or a part of them — 

 business will become stagnant, prices will go down and it will react, soon 

 or later, upon the farmer. So the problem of maintaining adequate 

 production is not only a problem vitally important to the city man, but is 

 a problem which concerns the farmer in the final analysis. 



Another thing which led to this organization movement is the market 

 situation. It has been demonstrated in a number of states that farmers' 

 co-operative enterprises are a very great help in the solution of the 

 marketing problem. You know that is true for we have co-operative 

 creameries, co-operative elevators, co-operative livestock shipping associ- 

 ations in our own state, while some states have gone even farther in co- 

 operative marketing than has Iowa. 



Referring again to New York, where the problems are principally 

 problems connected with dairying, let me tell you how deep I got into it. 

 I was in five of six counties where there was practically no other interest 

 of importance save dairying. I told them that Iowa was not a dairy 

 state, and that I did not know very much about the dairy business. I 

 suggested that I might talk about corn and hogs and beef, but when it 

 came to milk products I could only refer to it in general terms. 



When I got home I was looking up the production of various com- 

 modities in the different states and found, to my great surprise, that 

 great as was the State of New York, second in the United States in dairy 

 matters, that every time the New York farmers got a check for ^15 for 

 dairy products Iowa got a check for 14! Yet it is only a side line here. 



I was also surprised in looking up the citrus fruit business in the 

 western states to discover that the old hen in the poultry yards of Iowa 



