REPORT OF IOWA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION 385 



and it is up to us, folks, to change these conditions, to make agriculture 

 really profitable so that it can take its place at the head of Big Busi- 

 ness where it belongs. 



For years we have gone on trying to make a living under handicaps 

 that might just as well have been removed, only there was no one to 

 do it for us. We have as a nation built up our manufacturing indus- 

 tries, subsidized our railroads, fostered most everything except agricul- 

 ture. We took the course of least resistance to keep peace. 



Have Three Important Lines of Work 



Conditions have changed. Our free lands of the West are gone. We 

 have robbed our soil unmercifully, and now we face the task of making 

 a living where we are, right on this soil that we have been robbing year 

 after year. Not only that but our children must live on it. We didnt 

 like the deflation. We haven't believed that it was an unavoidable result 

 of the war, but the fact remains that we took it. We have met thei 

 emergency. We have liquidated until it hurts, and we say never again 

 will we trust our business entirely to the other fellow. 



Legislation, finance and marketing are our three big lines of work. 

 We are not so foolish as to believe that we can legislate wealth, but 

 we do believe that legislation can distribute wealth, and in order that 

 we may have a square deal — we don't ask for anything else — we have 

 our representatives working for us in legislative halls, both here and 

 in Washington. They have already done a lot of things for us, and 

 are in a position to do more. For one thing never before have we had 

 the data to work with that our representatives have now. Then, too, 

 we now have men working for us who really understand farm condi- 

 tions, who know our problems and can speak for us with intelligence. 



Better Methods Coming Into Favor 



We want a different credit system. I am no banker. Maybe I don't 

 know much about credit, but I do know that we can't raise cattle on 

 thirty-day paper. In Iowa we do real farming. We need a longer credit 

 system, and I don't believe we are going to stop until we get it. If 

 we have to build it ourselves, why, we will just remember that we are 

 the biggest business in the United States, and gathering new confidence 

 and strength from the thought we will keep at it until we have it built. 

 It may take time; it may take courage to stand by the thing when it 

 looks hard; we may suffer while we are waiting for it, but back of the 

 system we will stand until we have a financial system that fits our need. 



Traditions are being shattered. Old farming methods are being thrown 

 upon the scrap heap and better methods substituted. Use of the pencil 

 and record book are helping to bring these changes. We don't like to 

 bother with figures after we have already done a big day's work, but we 

 must come to it. In every locality there are at least a half dozen men 

 who will tell you that they are raising the best type of corn in that 

 locality. A test plot with records names the winner, and immediately 

 all of the half dozen, and others, begin raising the best kind of corn. 



