REPORT OF IOWA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION 393 



enacted long ago and would have been if the importance had been under- 

 stood then as now. 



We want the men, women, and children of our cities to know how big 

 agriculture is. They generally think of the wheat crop. Many of them 

 today would tell you it is the most important agricultural product in the 

 United States. We want them to know that the corn crop is three to 

 four times as big, and that the dairy products -made in one year in the 

 United States are worth enough to buy three national wheat crops, 

 and that it would require all of the gold produced by all the mines in 

 the United States during the last forty-five years to buy the milk and 

 products of milk that are made in the United States in one year. 



We want the public to know that according to the latest census figures 

 the value of agricultural products of the United States was over twenty- 

 one billion dollars. This is more than the total value of all the auto- 

 mobiles made in the same year, plus all the men's and women's clothing, 

 plus all the cotton goods, plus all the foundry products, plus all the iron 

 and steel manufactured products, plus all the flour mill products, and 

 plus all the slaughtering and meat packing products. When one begins 

 to talk about agriculture in the United States or in Iowa he has to use 

 big figures. 



Agriculture Needs Special Credit System 



One result of public appreciation of the agricultural industry is the 

 enactment of better agricultural credit legislation than we have ever 

 seen. In the past the law makers representing the public have appre- 

 ciated that storekeepers and manufacturers needed credit. A system 

 very nicely adjusted to their requirements was worked out and fixed by 

 the law of the land. Their period of turnover is short and they want 

 loans for sixty to ninety days, and they have been accommodated. 

 Farmers could get loans under provisions of the same laws but the 

 farmer's period of turnover varies from six months to about three years. 

 A three months loan for a breeder of live stock is not much help. We 

 had to wait a long, long time for this to get into the consciousness of the 

 public to the extent that legislation resulted. 



I hope it will not take much more time for the farmers to get the con- 

 sideration they deserve in connection with tariff legislation. Tariff laws 

 are enacted and repealed apparently without regard to the time element 

 required for agricultural adjustments. A merchant or a manufacturer 

 can adjust himself to a new tariff law which will become effective one 

 or two or three months hence, but the farmer is helpless. He can 

 neither make nor destroy a flock of sheep in that short period of time. 

 He should have special consideration. 



Farmers Must Plan Own Remedies 

 The great lesson learned by the farmers of our country from the ex- 

 periences of the past two years is that they must give more attention 

 to looking after their own interests. The Farm Bureau has made a 

 splendid record. Farmers now know they must take the lead in plan- 

 ning and putting remedies into effect. Organization is the first essential. 

 It seems that every interest, large or small, is more or less organized. 



