PROCEEDINGS STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 111 



about four times as many pounds of fresh buttermilk as the basal dry- 

 mash and produced 100.7 eggs per hen in the nine months. This test 

 will be continued till a full year has been completed, but so far it has 

 taught a most valuable lesson concerning the necessity of furnishing a 

 certain amount of animal protein in the hen's ration if a high egg yield 

 is desired. 



The agricultural economics department presented some striking results 

 taken from 26 Marshall county farms operated by their owners in the 

 usual way. The figures showed that the cost of producing grain, beef 

 and pork varies to an astonishing extent. These variations are due to 

 soil conditions, varieties of grain grown, methods of feeding employed 

 and general management particularly in the utilization of horse and man 

 labor to best advantage. 



Manufacturers and distributors of farm implements and machinery 

 were out in full force this year and they seemed to be confident that the 

 farmer's purchasing power will soon be a great deal larger than it has 

 been during the last two years or so. In other words they view the 

 future with confidence. This is good news for the farmers who still 

 look with more or less suspicion upon prices of farm products during 

 1923. Live stock producers as a class, however, are just as hopeful 

 about the future as are the farm machinery men. They are not worry- 

 ing about prices half so much as about the present scarcity of money. 

 Could they obtain the necessary financial support to buy cattle and hogs 

 they could put their big supply of feed to excellent use and make good 

 profits. The same is true of those who want to buy good breeding stock 

 while price conditions are favorable. 



It was a real pleasure to walk through the acres and acres of machinery 

 exhibits and see some of the hundreds of improvements that have been 

 made in recent years and to note the new things that are being put on 

 the market. The standard makes of machinery were to be seen every- 

 where and each exhibitor, it seemed, had something new to which to call 

 the attention of the public. Progress, wonderful progress was to be seen 

 on every hand. The American farmer owes much of his efficiency and 

 his ability in reducing production costs to the farm machinery manu- 

 facturer and the latter, in turn, owes just as much to the progressive 

 attitude of the farmer to seize upon worth while improvements and make 

 use of them. 



It is impossible to discuss the immense exhibits in detail, but it may 

 be said in passing that there were a lot of labor-saving conveniences in 

 evidence in which farm women were intensely interested. Electric light- 

 ing outfits and accessories that can be used with them were seen on 

 every hand. Milking machines also attracted a great deal of attention 

 and manufacturers stated that the demand for them has grown consider- 

 ably in the last thirteen months on account of so many farmers turning 

 to the dairy cow to augment the daily income of each. 



In the dairy line a two-gallon churn attracted a great deal of atten- 

 tion. This is turned by hand and churns butter in one minute; in fact 



