412 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Let me tell you that if you line up, single file, a row of beef cattle 

 from Des Moines, Iowa, to Washington, D. C, you will have in that 

 column just about the number representing the decrease in our exports 

 of beef cattle in the last seventeen years. Think what that means. In 

 1900, we were exporting annually an average of 300,000,000 pounds of 

 fresh beef, and just before the war we had fallen to 7,000,000 pounds. 

 And we were exporting then 29,000,000 pounds of fresh pork, and just 

 before the war it was 3,000,000 pounds. And we were exporting 90,000, 00^ 

 bushels of wheat per year, and we had fallen to 30,000,000. And we 

 were exporting 85,000,000 bushels of corn per year, and we had fallen 

 to 40,000,000. And we were exporting then 16,000,000 bushels of oats 

 per year, and that has fallen to 2,000,000. And along with all of those 

 great decreases of exports of our essential food products, there have 

 developed imports, so that we are now bringing potatoes into this coun- 

 try — that is, up to the war — from Europe; and we were bringing back 

 butter from the South Seas, and meat, and even corn, from the Argen- 

 tine; yes, and eggs from over-populated China were coming into the 

 United States. 



That, my friends, represents a tremendous economic change that is 

 taking place, and which has its direct bearing upon the very fundamen- 

 tals of the great industry in which we are interested, and upon the 

 very fundamenta.s of our own great nation. 



Now, along with all this, I have already referred to the fact that 

 we have been allowing our soil fertility to be taken out of our soil 

 and sent away with our crops, absolutely regardless of its value. 

 Along in the nineties, when wheat v/as selling for 52 cents a bushel, 

 every bushel was taking away 25 cents' worth of nitrogen and phos- 

 phoric acid and potash from the soil; and when corn was selling for 

 25 or 20 or 8 cents, every bushel was taking away 10 cents' worth of 

 fertility from the soil, and the oats were taking away their portion; 

 and the only reason that we could stand it was that a generous Provi- 

 dence had put those soil constituents into our soil with a lavish hand. 

 If here in this state we were obliged to farm under the conditions 

 that many peop'e have to deal v/ith in other sections of the country, 

 we would find it necessary to restore these soil constituents at the 

 prices I have named. It is needless to say that no supply of fertility 

 can withstand an indefinite withdrawal in such quantities as ours has 

 been standing it. It reminds me of our reckless disregard of the whole 

 subject of natural resources. If ever there was a profligate people in 

 reference to natural resources, the American people would take the 

 prize. Why, down in West Virginia they had what seemed a bound- 

 less supply of the most ideal fuel that was ever furnished to any 

 people — natural gas. All they had to do Avas to put a hole in the 

 ground, and a pipe, and a valve on the pipe, to make it carry any- 

 where they wanted to, always ready for service; and those people 

 allowed their natural gas to escape — yes, sometimes they lighted the 

 wel!s and the flames burned up to the heavens. Millions and hundreds 

 of millions and billions of cubic feet of natural gas were destroyed 



