140 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Heie is where we are mistaken; he has given us natural resources but 

 we must exploit them. We must give the state the publicity that we 

 may maintain our logical position in comparison with other states. This 

 is why we need a publicity bureau, and why we are going to ask the legis 

 lature to establish one." 



There are individual successes In Iowa cciual to those to be found in 

 any other state where large returns are annually received. During the 

 past fall we have learned of several instances where the net profits of 

 from one hundred to five hundred dollars per acre have been received 

 from orchards, twenty to twenty-five dollars net for wheat, the same for 

 corn, four to five hundred dollars per acre from the growing of celery and 

 onions; and I have no doubt but there are hundreds and thousands of 

 similar instances if a systematic canvass of the state was made. After 

 such data is gathered it should be spread broadcast throughout the state 

 and nation, and in foreign countries as well, by newspaper and magazine 

 articles, leaflets, etc. This is the work of a well organized publicity 

 bureau and is a legitimate and proper expense to be borne by the state, 

 as all classes are benefited equally. It should not be left to a few pub- 

 lic spirited men to raise a fund for this purpose by popular subscription. 

 Our state is provided with an experiment station that conducts experi- 

 ments along certain lines, but we lack a method for gathering and dis- 

 seminating individual results. Nor are we alone lacking in making public 

 individual successes from soil product. We have not yet awakened to the 

 great possibilities in industrial manufactures. It has so long been a 

 common expression, "Iowa is not a manufacturing state" that many have 

 come to believe it never can be. Iowa is the largest purchaser of all 

 kinds of farm implements and machinery, more than 90 per cent of which 

 is manufactured outside the state. There are those who will say that 

 the conditions and location are not right for Iowa to ever make much 

 progress in manufactured articles. Do you know of a factory in Iowa 

 backed by push, brains and energy that has not been successful? We have 

 factories in Iowa today that are paying as large dividends as any to be 

 found in any other state. This also is the field for work for a pub- 

 licity bureau. 



A great deal has been said about what can be done to keep the young 

 people on the farm. In my judgment, if we will collect data and prove 

 to these young people the financial gains to be had by following a sys- 

 tem of more intensified soil culture, you will about have solved this 

 perplexing question. For after all, success or failure is measured at the 

 close of the year by net profits in dollars and cents, and if he can be 

 shown conclusively that more dollars are to be had by staying on the 

 farm, in most instances there is where he is going to stay. If the young 

 man will not stay on the farm, lot him come to the city, but stop him 

 inside the state boundaries. This can only be done by increasing our fac- 

 tories. What we want and need is to let as few of them as possible get 

 outside the state. We must not only make an effort to keep our own 

 people at home, but induce others to come in, for we cannot build up our 

 cities and reduce the size of our farms within our own limits. 



