416 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



governments and our national government have seen fit to provide experi- 

 ment stations where such problems as I have mentioned, and countless 

 others, are worked out. Your experiment station in this state is spending 

 along these, lines a little over $100,000 a year — ahout 50 or 55 cents per 

 average farmer in the state — for the purpose of determining why it is 

 that we must suffer a loss of six to eight million dollars a year from oat 

 smut. That problem has now been worked out; it is not necessary to suf- 

 fer any loss from oat smut. You know, in olden times, when a nation 

 began to get hungry, there was just one remedy, and that was to go out 

 and discover some more land to cultivate for the increasing population. 

 I can imagine the conversation that took place between the queen of Spain 

 and Christopher. Columhus. Her chief steward came in and said: 



"Oh, magnificent queen, our population now has become so great that 

 the people will soon be hungry unless we can provide more food for 

 them." 



"Is that so? Then we will have to get more land to grow more food. 

 Send for Mr. iC'olumbus, my discoverer." 



So the steward sent for Columbus, and he came in before the queen, 

 and she said: 



"Chris, people are going to be hungry pretty soon if we can't get 

 more food for them to eat. I want you to go out and find some more 

 land that no one is using." 



So Mr. Columbus got together his crew and came over here and dis- 

 covered us. 



Now the discoverer has lost his job; there is nothing more to dis- 

 cover in the way of land. Have you thought that civilization started 

 away over there in the far east, and has been extended west through 

 Europe and on across the ocean to this continent, and across this con- 

 tinent, and we have gone on around the world? Oh, here and there is a 

 little plot of land that is not used to its fullest possibilities, but so 

 far as vast areas are concerned, they are all gone; and now when the 

 people become hungry, instead of calling upon the discoverer to help them 

 out, they must call upon the scientists, Avho can tell them how to produce 

 more and save more on the little area than they were doing before. And 

 that is the way we are increasing the size of our state. The good farm- 

 ers of Iowa, putting into practice' the best ideas that are developed, are 

 making one acre produce more than it used to, and in that way we are 

 expanding the borders of our state. 



One time, over in a little city of Austria, there v/as a university 

 built for the German population. In the Austrian cities, people speak 

 different languages; no effort is made there to have one language. 

 This university developed, and proved to be a valuable servant to the 

 people who spoke German. Then the Czechs came along and wanted 

 an institution where their young people could learn, for they were 

 able to see the benefits of that university to the Germans, but they 

 were very ignorant people. After months and years of agitation, one 

 day a mob formed in that city and marched up and down through the 

 streets shouting: 



