SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII. 305 



farmer as a man of real culture. It is a false idea that culture is 

 found only in idleness and amid luxurious surroundings." 



Our natural agricultural resources are equal, if not superior, to any 

 other State in the Union. It is our boasted pride that we make more 

 butter than any other State. I heard one of our leading congressmen 

 make the statement, recently, that the value of our dairy and poultry 

 business was greater annually than all the gold and silver produced in 

 the United States and Alaska, and this statement is true. I think, how- 

 ever, that we get accustomed to hearing these big statements and rest 

 on our laurels, imagining that we have reached the highest pinnacle 

 possible in our line. Why, do you know that in some of the European 

 countries they are dairying successfully on land worth from $400 to 

 $1,000 per acre? The same markets are open to our people that are 

 open to these people and no duty bars the way. The difference is right 

 here; they are dairying intelligently with good cows. Their average is 

 nearly 300 pounds of butter per cow, while ours is about 140 pounds per 

 cow. We need a great awakening among producers of this State 

 along intelligent lines of dairying; just such an awakening as has taken 

 place among the corn producers. 



About five years ago, in this State, you never heard much stir about 

 corn, but today you hear of corn contests all over our State. Even in 

 some of our banks a bunch of yellow corn hangs on the wall. This great 

 awakening has set farmers to thinking and the result is better crops 

 everywhere. Not so much that any new discovery has been made, but 

 that the people have begun to think and act for themselves, and to apply 

 more intelligent methods. 



The Iowa Dairy School is placing one man in the field to do extension 

 work, thus aiding farmers to weed out undesirable cows. Work of this 

 kind, or the "Test Association," was started in Denmark some ten years 

 ago and has spread over European countries. In Germany they have 

 sixty-seven "Test Associations," and their annual milk production is 7,600 

 pounds per cow, or a gain of 1,380 pounds of milk per cow in five years; 

 or a difference in profit of about $14 per cow annually. This Is the result 

 of intelligence. If we had ten or twelve such instructors in the field for 

 a few years, I am satisfied that we would increase the output of dairy 

 products, in this State, at least one-fourth, without costing the producer 

 practically anything. 



It is not so much the question today of keeping more cows as it is of 

 keeping better cows and caring for them intelligently. What is needed 

 today, more than anything else, is a better organization or more co-oper- 

 ation among the dairymen of the State. Take up any of our leading agri- 

 cultural papers and it is seldom, if ever, that you see the picture of a 

 good dairy cow, while invariably on the first page will be the cut of a 

 fine beef animal. This is due to the fact that the beef men are beter 

 organized and advertise their business more extensively. If you ex- 

 amine those papers carefully you may find toward the back a space of a 

 few inches or possibly a column devoted to dairying. The influence 

 of the press cannot be estimated. This was pretty thoroughly demon- 

 strated, to my satisfaction, when I was at the coast states. I found 

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