394 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 



The farmers' organizations should correspond with the importance of 

 their industry. These organizations should not exhaust any of their 

 strength by working against each other. They should agree on great 

 principles and work together for them. 



Problems requiring the best thought and the concentrated energy of 

 the farmers of the country include taxes, railroad rates, high costs of 

 commodities, credits, tariff, high costs of marketing and low prices of 

 farm products. The chief problem and the one which embraces most 

 of the others is the narrow margin between cost of production and sell- 

 ing price. In too many cases there is no margin or it is negative. 



Education Pays Large Dividends I 



While legislation and co-operation are vital to agricultural success, I 

 believe that the largest benefit may come from individual effort. It is 

 this that explains the difference in the success between two men. One 

 grocer succeeds, another fails, though they start with equal capital and 

 equal opportunity. One farmer goes ahead while another stands still 

 or loses ground, though they had the same advantages in starting. It 

 is so in every activity in life. The greatest need of the less successful 

 person is the use of better methods. This means more knowledge or 

 more ambition or both. The remedy is largely through education. 



Education pays large dividends to the individual and the state. A 

 farmer plants clover and it will not grow. He knows that clover collects 

 nitrogen from the air and he needs nitrogen and it is expensive when 

 purchased in sacks. But his clover would not grow. Again he tries and 

 again he loses his seed. Finally a neighbor comes to his rescue and tells 

 him to use lime. What is this knowledge worth? He has lost two seed- 

 ings and two years of time and the benefits which should come to other 

 crops for two years. 



Two farmers discuss the cost of raising pigs. They cannot agree and 

 they decide to keep careful records of all expenses. At the end of the 

 season they compare notes and find that the average cost on one farm 

 was seven cents per pound and on the other ten cents, and the market 

 was nine cents. They compare notes. The first one tells the other 

 how he feeds and cares for his stock. The second farmer uses this 

 knowledge the next year and gets his cost of production two cents below 

 the sale price. How much is that knowledge worth to the second man? 



Carelessness and Poor Methods Mean Loss 

 The cash value of knowledge to the farmers of any state is simply 

 above estimation. There are thousands of exhibits among the better 

 farmers of Iowa to prove this statement to the satisfaction of anyone. 

 But some people think that knowledge which increases production is 

 detrimental because the increase of production tends to reduce prices. 

 There is enough truth in this to give it currency but not enough to 

 entitle it to credence. If the farmers of Iowa can, by the use of better 

 methods, increase their corn crop 10 per cent without increase of costs 

 of production, then they have decreased the cost of producing one 

 bushel of corn about 10 per cent. Does anyone think that a 10 per cent 

 increase of the corn crop of Iowa would materially affect the price of 



