476 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 



— on the range. While I do not think that the range possibly 

 is going to disappear and that place will vanish as a source of 

 supply for feeding cattle for many years, yet I think that the 

 farmers have not kept pace in the improvement of their stock — 

 beef stock, I refer to especially, with the range breeders, and a 

 great many of our cattle that are going to market sell at a low 

 price because they have the inherent handicap of inferior blood. 



You men as feeders can exercise a marked influence in your 

 communities if you will impress that upon the mind of the com- 

 mon farmer who keeps a few beef cows or grade cows and raises 

 a few steers that he sells to you or somebody else to feed out, or 

 if he feeds thems out himself, as a good many do, in single car- 

 load lots or less. I say that there is a place where there is room 

 for a very great improvement. We have heard a great deal 

 about the high cost of transportation and a great deal of com- 

 plaint about it and the injustice of it. It puts a certain handi- 

 cap upon farming operations. We are going to be under a seri- 

 ous handicap until we get some relief. But here is a place where 

 a handicap far greater is put upon the farmer's operations by 

 lack of good sires, good live stock. We are paying a bigger over- 

 head expense through the lack of good blood on the farms than 

 we are paying even at the increased cost of transportation at the 

 present time. The remedy for that is in our own hands, and 

 we can get results probably quicker than we can in securing 

 lower transportation, although we ought to have results in both 

 ways. 



I mention that to you in connection with these other subjects 

 because I believe that that is something that goes home to every 

 one of us, something in which we need concerted effort and in- 

 telligent action in Iowa today more than ever before in the his- 

 tory of the state. 



Mr. Ames : You spoke of soy beans. Is there any trouble 

 keeping them? How about storage? 



Dean Curtiss : I don't think there will be much trouble, pos- 

 sibly a little trouble. We have not ground it or handled it in 

 large enough quantities to be absolutely sure of that; but our 

 experience does not indicate that we are likely to have any seri- 

 ous trouble. 



A Member: Do they have to be ground? 



Dean Curtiss: It ought to be ground for cattle or for hogs, 

 but not for sheep. It may be fed to cattle or hogs. 



A Member: How about the plant, can it be ground? 



