164 IO\YA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



"The marvel of it all is that such a thing could be at all. It shows the 

 breadth of the commercial spirit in this country, the generosity of live 

 stock men, and the readiness of the American farmer to respond to 

 modern methods and conditions. What should be said of the man who 

 does not go? That he is blind to his own best interests is certain; that 

 he will get behind in the race and be lost in the shuffle is no less true; 

 that the young man who will come in after him will ultimately possess 

 his herds and lands, goes without saying. This is the age when every 

 business must be studied, and farming is no exception; indeed, it looks 

 more and more as if farming were coming to be one of the most compli- 

 cated professions and that the more is learned of it, the more complicated 

 it becomes. 



"Let the 'International' live long and prosper. This certainly will be 

 true. The only uncertainty is how much good will individuals get out of 

 it. This rests entirely upon them and depends upon whether they attend 

 the exposition or whether they stay at home and find fault with what they 

 have not helped to accomplish. May they and others go." 



Iowa is especially favored in its School of Agriculture and Experiment 

 Station at Ames, which has done so much in the past in the dissemination 

 of practical, scientific knowledge among the Iowa farmers. The campaign 

 of this school for the improvement of corn alone has resulted in additional 

 untold wealth to your citizenship and is commanding the admiration of the 

 whole country. That a state which was the borderland of the great Ameri- 

 can desert at the time of the Civil War should now consistently occupy 

 the coveted position of the first or second corn-producing state in the 

 union, is a fact which should cause every Iowa bosom to swell with pride. 

 Another branch of the work done by your fam'ous school of agriculture 

 is the attention it has called to your citizenship, of the necessity of better 

 live stock to consume the high priced products of your farms. That this 

 teaching has not been in vain is evidenced by the hundreds of fine, peli- 

 greed herds, scattered all over this commonwealth, a practical demonstra- 

 tion of which was seen at the last Iowa state fair, during which it was 

 my pleasure to visit the wonderful exhibits of Shorthorns, Herefords, 

 Aberdeen Angus, Galloways, Red Polled, Polled Durhams, fat cattle and, 

 last but not of the least importance, the fine Jerseys, Guernseys, Holsteina 

 and other dairy cattle which are contributing their share of prosperity 

 to your people. 



A careful study of this great department of your state fair will con- 

 vince the most skeptical that some great power of educational value is at 

 work in the farming communities of your state. The finished products in 

 the animals there exhibited show experienced judgment and skill, made 

 possible only after long, experimental tests, which is the great province 

 of the school of which you are so justly proud. It has also been my ex- 

 perience to notice that when a boy has been privileged to attend a school 

 of agriculture that it completely changes his rough handling of stock to 

 kind, gentle, considerate treatment, which materially pays from a financial 

 as well as a humanitarian standpoint, and commands the admiration of 

 eye-witnesses. 



