380 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



sarily had to go direct to the transportation heads and to every 

 authority in order to make the work effective. In Iowa nearly all 

 railroads center in Des Moines, and the offices of the Railroad 

 Commissioners are also at the capital. In order to make our 

 efforts effective it was necessary to make an untold number of 

 trips from Ames to Des Moines in order to be in personal contact 

 with those in authority. The results of our efforts were to secure 

 the distribution of cars running into the thousands for Iowa 

 shippers, and we are deeply grateful for the valuable assistance 

 and uniformly kind and courteous treatment accorded to us by 

 the Iowa Railroad Commissioners and the railroad authorities 

 with whom we came in contact. 



4th. The committee further recommended that the promiscu- 

 ous investment in promotion schemes should be discouraged. 

 The Secretary's office adopted a plan whereby all promotion com- 

 panies should be required to file a complete report of their pro- 

 positions with the County Agent in every county where they 

 sought to operate, on a blank provided by the Secretary. This 

 blank was very exhaustive in its requests. For those whose 

 enterprise could not stand the closest scrutiny it incurred a 

 most hazardous liability. Needless to say that there were many 

 who could not sign and accept the responsibility of a later inves- 

 tigation. The selling of promotion stocks in Iowa was practi- 

 cally stopped by this plan, and for those who still persisted the 

 plan of deflation that struck the country completely finished the 

 job. 



COST OF PRODUCTION COMMITTEE 



This committee recommended that the work of ascertaining 

 facts on cost of production should be ascertained by co-operating 

 with the Iowa State College. INIr. Munger of the Farm Manage- 

 ment Department of the College, who was chairman, gave per- 

 sonal attention to the details of this work, and Mr. Warwick was 

 employed as field man. A block of thirty farms in Marshall 

 County was selected and a set of books opened with each farm. 

 The work of keeping these records complete has been the con- 

 stant effort of Mr. Warwick. The books were closed for the year 

 on January 1st, but a complete audit will not be available for 

 some time. In addition to this cost account system on this block 

 of farms the Federation has sent out through the County Agents 

 approximately thirty thousand cost blanks with a request from 



