364 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



e^rn oil cake meal, one would not need to feed so much corn. Of 

 course, the relative proportions of all of these feeds may be subject 

 somewhat to change, depending upon economical considerations, but, 

 generally speaking, the young gilt's ration in the dry lot, as well as that 

 of the old sow, should contain at least a third of a pound of tankage — 

 better a half pound, or five to seven and one-half pounds of milk at 

 the minimum, or at least a pound of alfalfa hay. 



Most assuredly, to get strong, healthy pigs at birth, one must insist 

 first and above all upon the right kind of gilts — strong, robust, healthy 

 ones. They must then be fed right upon the right kind of feeds, with 

 plenty of protein, mineral elements, vitamines, and so on, to balance 

 the corn or other ration. Then the sow must not be too fat nor be 

 kept too lean. The sow must be exercised. She must be provided 

 with a fairly warm, ventilated bed, in a sheltered house, with plenty 

 of bedding. The lice must be kept away. The worms should be attended 

 to. Constipation should be avoided. And then it is well to practice 

 gentleness with your brood sows; speak to them kindly. They are ani- 

 mals, just as we are, and respond gallantly to good treatment, and good 

 treatment of them on our part bespeaks contentment on their part, with 

 its corresponding profits to us. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The first address of the afternoon was by Frank G. Odell, sec- 

 retary of the Federal Land Bank at Omaha. Mr. Odell said : 



THE FEDERAL LAND BANKS. 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Association: Altho the fed- 

 eral land bank in the eighth district, with which I am connected, has 

 its office in the city of Omaha, it is very much an Iowa institution. 

 That is evidenced by the fact that new business is coming to our bank 

 now from your state at the rate of over a million dollars a week. It 

 is an almost incredible sum, and it is going to be a pretty big task to 

 handle it; but we are handling it very nicely. To those of you who 

 have no adequate idea as to the amount of money which is represented 

 by mortgages on Iowa farms, it might occur to you, perhaps, that in 

 the course of a few weeks, at the rate of a million dollars a week, we 

 would get all the business in Iowa. Well, if we were to continue to get 

 it at that rate, it would take us 650 weeks to get all the farm mortgage 

 business there is in Iowa now, and 650 weeks is quite a spell, as they 

 say down in Kentucky. For the farm mortgage debt of Iowa at this 

 time is, in round numbers, about $650,000,000, which represents the 

 largest volume of mortgage debt upon farms of the same size upon the 

 face of this earth. To finance your future operations as breeders and 

 maintain the agricultural standard of which this state is justly proud, 

 and for which, it is famous, it will be necessary for you Iowa men to 

 look pretty carefully to your financing in the future. 



