116 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



ground, but those who are unwilling or afraid to break new ground 

 or travel where no human foot has traveled before, never get very 

 far. It is the pioneer who gets results, and this organization must 

 do some pioneering. These problems that present themselves must be 

 met, and you cannot wait for years to complete your task. You have got 

 to win now, and your actioh will he approved, because the heart-beat, the 

 calm heart-beat of the people of Iowa is back of this war for victory. 

 And when you have the heart-beat of the people of Iowa back of you, you 

 can take long strides in a very short time. So assume leadership and 

 victory will come to our cause. 



The Chairman : We have with us today a gentleman whose early 

 education in fair work was developed in Iowa, and who was called 

 East to show those Eastern people how to conduct a fair. I v/ant 

 to present to you your old friend, John C. Simpson, of Spring- 

 field, Massachusetts. 



THE EAST AND THE WEST. 



JOHN C. SIMPSON. 



Mr. President and friends of Iowa: As I came down on the train this 

 morning it seemed to me that Iowa land and Iowa cattle and Iowa hogs 

 had never looked so good to me as they did then. Down in New England 

 where I make my home at the present time, they have wonderful oppor- 

 tunities for agriculture, but they forgot the art many years ago. There 

 thousands upon thousands of acres of land there now that is grown up 

 in young timber and brush that once produced abundant crops, and Mr. 

 Escher and Mr. Curtiss, or any other cattle men, will tell you that that 

 country used to be the home of beef cattle. I think the first Hereford 

 cattle raised in this country were raised in New England. I have been 

 pretty busy ever since the middle of last March in getting my work lined 

 up. I believe it was the second Sunday in March that I loaded my family 

 into my automobile for our first drive, and I don't think that we missed 

 a single Sunday all summer in driving on those beautiful roads that 

 radiate out from Springfield. And the thing that grew on me more and 

 more was the absence of the hog. 



I was on the train at one time coming home from the northwest coast 

 and an old gentleman and I got to talking. He seemed to be quite lone- 

 some and in our talk he mentioned that he was from the state of Wash- 

 ington. He said he was farming out there and he used to farm in Indiana. 

 I remarked that Washington was a wonderful country to grow wheat 

 and livestock, and all such things, and he agreed with me, but evidently 

 he was wanting to get back to his old home and talk about things farther 

 back East. Finally he turned to me and said, "Young man, let me lell 

 you something about this farming business. I was raised in Indiana and 

 I know all about Indiana and Illinois and Iowa, and I have lived out 

 here and have been farming twenty-five years; but let me tell you, 

 young man, when you want to farm, never go so far away from home that 

 you can't hear a pig squeal." 



