PART III. 



Proceedings of the State Farmers' Institute 

 and Agricultural Convention 



Held in the Kooms of the 



Department of Agriculture 



Des Moines, Iowa, 



Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 11-12, 1906. 



December 11, 1906, 9.30 a. m. 



The President : The meeting will please come to order. The 

 first upon our program will be the address of welcome, by Hon. 

 Henry Wallace, of Des Moines. 



Mr. Wallace: Members of the State Farmers' Institute: It is cer- 

 tainly a great pleasure to me to have the opportunity of welcoming you 

 to Des Moines. We are building a city here. They say we have 100,000 

 population now. I don't believe it. They say we will have 200,000. We 

 may, and we may not. We have been taking stock of our resources. We 

 have an abundance of coal all around us; but the unfortunate thing is, 

 that for every ton of coal we take out, there is that much less; there is 

 no more made. We have shale; but when we dig a ton of shale, there is 

 that much less. We have stone, to enable us to manufacture cement out 

 of the shale, which we hope to do by and by; but that is liable to the 

 same objection. We have the capitol here, and that is something, a good 

 thing to have the representatives of the State come around and watch the 

 officers and see that they do right. We have schools and colleges; a good 

 many elements of growth and greatness. But as we come to look into 

 the matter closely, these, after all, are not much, except as backed up 

 and sustained by the farmers of Iowa. We think we have in the farms 

 of Iowa an asset of permanent value, provided they are properly handled. 

 You know, I don't believe the Almighty has spent millions of ages, per- 

 haps, in fitting Iowa as a home for man, and then expected it to be worn 



(59) 



