390 IOWA EEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



eries. It is recommended that future legislation should authorize 

 the employment of a certain number of inspectors, all to be paid 

 from the same fund and to perform any of the duties of the depart- 

 ment. The food law was passed at a time when the situation in 

 the state was particularly bad as regards the foods then on the 

 market and it was certain that an enormous amount of work was 

 necessary at once. Inspectors were appointed in exact accordance 

 with the letter of the law and devote themselves exclusively to the 

 enforcement of the food law. including the statute relating to oleo- 

 margarine. Later the other laws mentioned above were added to 

 the duties already imposed. The commissioner has preferred to act 

 in exact accord with the statute and leave it to future sessions of 

 the legislature to change the statutes if such change is deemed wise, 

 and not to try to change them by a strained construction placed 

 upon them. 



In the report of a year ago attention was called to the desirability 

 of additional help for the dairy work in this state but by reason 

 of the efforts of the State Dairy Association to get an appropria- 

 tion it was not thought advisable to press such recommendation to 

 the attention of the general assembly. 



The law passed appropriating money to a board of seven, of 

 which the executive officers of the State Dairy Association make 

 four, and the director of the Experiment Station, the Professor of 

 Dairying and the State Dair.y Commissioner the others, is given 

 elsewhere in this report. The laws under which the assistant dairy 

 commissioners were appointed were intended to affect mainly the 

 creameries and then indirectly their patrons. The new law is evi- 

 dently intended to touch the producer of milk and cream and the 

 board has responded to this idea by selecting for the work Mr. 

 H. G. Van Pelt, a dairy expert rather than a creamery expert. This 

 work ought to have the warm support of every dairyman in the 

 state and of course every creamerymen as well. 



The one marked feature of dairy development during the last 

 twelve months is the fact that there is an immense increase in the 

 interest in dairy bred cattle. While for years the dual purpose 

 cow has been the choice of most Iowa dairymen, there is now a 

 considerable change of sentiment and an increasing interest in the 

 securing of better cows of whatever breed, and a real increase also 

 of the desire for special purpose dairy cows. It is not too much to 

 foresee that that interest will increase and that it will make for a 

 very considerable permanent addition to the dairy industry of the 



