330 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



It will be a fortunate day for the American farmer when we cease 

 to export grain and by-products in the unfinished state, and that day 

 will come, I believe, when at least we will export to a very much smaller 

 degree than we have been exporting in the past. The changes taking 

 place in western ariculture have made this imperative. Not long ago 

 the lands lying to the west of us were devoted largely to cattle feeding. 

 In the changes that have come about it has been found that it was not 

 profitable to keep a cow the year round for the purpose of developing a 

 beef steer. As the farmer began to take note of his operations he found 

 he did not always get satisfactory returns from the feeding process, and 

 as a result there has taken place the passing of the range country. 

 Farmers have come in and taken possession of the range. The early 

 settler, as a rule, is not a stock man. The supply of stock, therefore, 

 has very largely diminished. While this has been going on our farmers 

 have been cropping year after year. That process can go on for a time, 

 but there must even be a change in that if the permanency of the invest- 

 ment is looked for. 



It is very natural that in a plight of this kind the farmer has turned 

 to the dairy cow, not only as a source of revenue but as a means of 

 conserving the fertility of the soil. 



It is contended by some that it is not necessary to maintain live stock 

 to maintain soil fertility. However that may be and even if the scien- 

 tists and the political economists can develop a system by which we may 

 attain this end, it is certain that there is no system that has ever suc- 

 ceeded in maintaining a permanent and successful agriculture without 

 resorting to live stock. So the dairy cow comes in to fill this place, ana 

 it is high time she has. She will make room for a larger output and 

 more complete utilization of the products of the farm and a correspond- 

 ing increase in other kinds of live stock. 



There is a little town up here in Northeastern Iowa — up in a region 

 where, in the early days, they raised nothing but wheat. They took to 

 the dairy cow and dairying became prominent in that part of the state 

 before it was taken up at all in any other section of the state. That 

 little town prides itself today upon having about $3,000,000 of bank de- 

 posits. This shows what a wealth producer the soil of Iowa is if it is 

 treated right and properly handled. 



The situation in this state has won wide spread interest. Iowa has 

 been looked upon as somewhat slow in progress along dairy lines. It is 

 a state of diversified interests, and naturally our people have been 

 slower than some other states to develop the dairy Interests. But the 

 things now in progress in the way of wide-spread interest and develop- 

 ment of dairy stock is destined to be of far reaching effect. It is bound 

 to put this state in the foremost rank, and I predict that the time will 

 come when Iowa will not only stand abreast with other states in dairy- 

 ing but it is bound to forge ahead. 



The dairy organization, the dairy work done by this association, its 

 dairymen, its buttermakers, its dairy stock men and the manufacturers 

 that has been prompted by our friend Marsh in developing a greater in- 

 terest — all of this will tend to conspire to the one object, and the one re- 



