REPORT OF IOWA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION 395 



corn in the United States? Would forty-five million additional bushels 

 of corn in Iowa materially affect the price of a crop aggregating three 

 billion bushels? 



The main thought is this, that in other states and in other countries 

 extensive efforts are being made to devise and extend better methods of 

 production, thus tending to reduce costs. If by chance unusually good 

 weather prevails, which is the chief factor leading to over-production, and 

 crops are increased to the extent that prices are severely reduced, then 

 who suffers most and who suffers last? That farmer or that community 

 or that state or nation that did not use the best and most economical 

 methods of production will be the chief sufferer, and some of them will 

 quit the business. That farmer or community or state or nation that did 

 produce at least cost will suffer the least. The fear of extending educa- 

 tion because it will increase production and reduce prices is a scarecrow. 

 Be not deceived. The farmer who produces at least cost because of his 

 superior knowledge and ability is the farmer who is in best condition, 

 whether prices are high or low. Knowledge is one commodity of whicn 

 we are not afraid of having too much in Iowa. If we are to maintain 

 good prices of our lands and make good profits, our methods in agricul- 

 ture must be superior to others. 



Autos Cost More Than Schools 



Besides paying dividends in cash, education has other large values. 

 If it is the right kind of education it helps us to know ourselves better 

 and to better understand our neighbors, and it helps us to be better citi- 

 zens. The splendid school system that is being built in this state is 

 evidence of what Iowa people think of education. We have invested in 

 school buildings in Iowa less than half as much as the value of our 

 automobiles. The schools are getting better but even yet there are 

 thousands of farm- communities where the same little one room school- 

 house is serving that has served for a dozen years. 



Consolidated schools afford an opportunity for great improvement. They 

 may make it possible for the country child to secure as good a common 

 school education as the city child. But care should be taken not to es- 

 tablish these schools until they are justified and then to see that their 

 influence is not detrimental to farm life. The best assurance for the 

 right kind of influence in a rural school is a right attitude toward agri- 

 culture on the part of the teachers. This comes from experience on the 

 farm, and it means sympathy for farm people, a liking for country life, 

 appreciation of the importance of agriculture and realization of the pos- 

 sibilities of developing in the country the principles of right living and 

 sound citizenship. In every consolidated school such leadership should 

 be ielt. 



Some persons even yet, with all the development of agricultural science 

 and its wide applications, think that agricultural education is an inferior 

 sort of training and that it is not as worthy or as dignified as education 

 in medicine, liberal arts, engineering, or law. The person who is edu- 

 cated in agriculture must have a wide variety of knowledge, especially 

 concerning the laws of Nature, — the laws that are made by the allwise 

 Creator. He must know the laws that govern the growth and control 

 of harmful and helpful bacteria, and a hundred ocher such things. 



