410 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Agriculture is the motlier of trade; it makes it. A very little computa- 

 tion will show you that the average acre of land that is now under cul- 

 tivation raises just one more hushel of produce in this year than it did 

 in last. It would take 12,800 freight trains of fifty cars each to carry 

 that extra one hushel to the markets. Think of how many men that 

 would employ, the cars and the engines and the trarlv. In a very true 

 sense, agriculture is fundamental to our prosperity. 



Over in England, on a tavern in a little town, there is a sign-board, 

 beautifully lettered, bearing these words: 



"I rule for all. — The King. 

 I fight for all.— The Soldier. 

 I pray for all.— The Bishop." 



One night, some wag came along and wrote in chalk underneath: 



"I pay for all. — The Farmer." 



iWe like to get in touch with l)ig things. There is an old German 

 saying which originated, I think, with the poet Goethe, something like 

 this: "Be a whole, or join a whole." In different language, we might 

 express it this way: "Have a big idea, or attach yourself to one." 

 And so tonight, for a few minutes, I want to be attached to a great, big 

 idea, if I may, and then I Want to express that as well as I can to you. 

 Many of you doubtless have been thinking of that same idea more or 

 less. And I might name as the topic for my remarks: "The Future of 

 Agriculture." 



One would say, perhaps: "How absurd! Agriculture can take care 

 of itself." And that remark was made by a congressman in 1861, when. 

 in the darkest days in the history of this country, the great Morley 

 land grant, bill to establish an agricultural college in every state, was 

 under consideration. He objected to it on the ground that the people 

 engaged in agriculture were amply able to look out for their own wel- 

 fare, and they would neither ask nor welcome any help from the gov- 

 ernment. 



"Well, very briefly, we know some few things that we can mention 

 and leave behind us. This country has long been a well-fed country, 

 and we have been cheaply fed, and until quite recently the farmers 

 notoriously were not being well paid for their work; and, far worse 

 than that, if they had taken into consideration what they had a right 

 to in considering their pay, namely, the value of the soil fertility con- 

 stituents that were going away from their farms in the products that 

 they were selling. But they did not take that into consideration, and 

 leaving it out, they were able, after a fashion, to make both ends meet. 

 But have you realized that in the last thirty years the agricultural pop- 

 ulation of our country has not been increasing, and in some of our 

 sections it is actually less now than it was that long time ago? And 

 sometimes, even in quite recent years, it has been easy to show that 

 our crops have been too large to provide a fair return for us; that it 

 actually would have been money in the pockets of the farmers, if, by 



