PROCEEDINGS STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 125 



try hall, and added to the interest shown. The show held good quality, 

 but was not as large a show as the year before. The young folks deserve 

 a great deal of credit for the way their interest in poultry has held up. 

 They are doing good work in the way of study and practice in poultry 

 keeping, and what is more, they are making their parents step lively to 

 get as good returns from the farm flock as the boy or the girl is getting 

 from the club flock. 



FARM BUREAU DAY 



Farm Bureau Day at the fair every year is becoming a more impor- 

 tant affair. The big tent this year was filled to overflowing, with men 

 standing up around the outside. Governor Preus, of Minnesota, gave an 

 eminently common sense talk on co-operative marketing. He cited both 

 Minnesota and Wisconsin as outstanding examples of what can be done 

 in that line. Reviewing co-operative marketing in his own state he went 

 back in the days when farm butter sold for 5 cents a pound — and he was 

 inclined to think that was about all the most of it was worth — compar- 

 ing conditions of that day with the present, when, as every well-informed 

 person knows, Minnesota creamery butter enjoys a nation-wide reputa- 

 tion for excellence and tops the market at the selling end. 



He told what co-operative marketing had done for the potato growers 

 of the state, and in the field of live stock marketing declared that not 

 less than 65 per cent of all stock marketed in Minnesota this year is going 

 through co-operative channels in the form of co-operative live stock com- 

 mission firms recently established. 



The governor was generous. He was ready to concede that Iowa is a 

 great state, second to his own state in agriculture and other things that 

 make life worth while, but he declared the farmers had not yet come 

 to appreciate the advantages of co-operative effort in disposing of their 

 farm products, and he urged them to occupy that field as soon as 

 possible. 



Referring to the plan of state ownership of industries, as promoted 

 and practised to some extent in North Dakota, he was of the opinion 

 that it would prove impractical, first, because it is human nature for men 

 to look out for their own interests, and second, because it was certain 

 to become badly involved in partisan politics. 



The morning session was opened by a half-hour concert by the Page 

 County Farmers Band, an aggregation of young farmer-musicians under 

 the leadership of the veteran band master, Major Landers. The efforts 

 of the band were thoroughly appreciated, and the musicians were en- 

 couraged by liberal applause and many encores. 



President Hunt spoke briefly at the beginning of the session. His 

 remarks took an optimistic turn. He reminded the big audience of the 

 many legislative accomplishments, both national and state, in behalf of 

 farming interests, and voiced the opinion that a solution of some of the 

 farmers' most vexing problems of finance and marketing are not very 

 far away. 



Ed Cunningham, secretary of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, was 

 eagerly greeted. Everyone was anxious to hear what the new president 



