18 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The seed corn gospel having been so efficiently preached we are firmly 

 of the belief that the next step should be with regard to the better care 

 of our soil and the necessity of crop rotation as above indicated be given 

 special attention. As with all other se'ctions of the country, persistent 

 cropping has already impaired the fertility of millions of acres of Iowa 

 land and there is no more pressing or patriotic duty ihiposed upon the 

 farmers of the state than to at once arrest the degrading agricultural 

 policy so long pursued and restore to Iowa's broad acres the pristine fer- 

 tility which was the state's ancient birthright, when it may be so easily 

 and readily done. Let the motto be "450,000,000 bushels of corn from 

 Iowa's 9,000,000 acres of corn land." An average crop of 50 bushels per 

 acre instead of 33. 



The President: The next subject we shall take up will be 

 "Good Roads Without Money," by Hon. D. Ward King, Mait- 

 land, Mo., who will now address you. 



GOOD ROADS WITHOUT MONEY. 



D. WARD KING, MAITLAND, MO. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: I now desire to talk with you a little about 

 "Good Roads Without Money." It is fitting that I should be at this place 

 at this time, because it was at such a meeting as this, four years and I wo 

 days ago, that the topic had its first public hearing, at Chillicothe, Miss- 

 ouri, at a meeting similar to this, held by the Missouri State Board of 

 Agriculture, and I wish I could always remembei*. before every audience 

 which I address, to give credit to the State Board of Agriculture for 

 pushing this method and the push and vim that is in the Missouri State 

 Board of Agriculture-; this movement has its inception in that Board. 

 And before I forget it, I also want to say, that while what reputation I may 

 have, has been made almost entirely as an advocate of the dirt road, I am 

 a very strong advocate, in the proper place, at the proper time and under 

 proper conditions, of macadamized roads. 



I am afraid we farmers are swinging to the extreme in our position as 

 to macadamized roads. It is true, we have not been well treated; it is 

 true that the average advocate of the stone road does not know much 

 about the farmer's standpoint; but it is also true, that the average com- 

 munity, where land is worth $100 an acre, ought to have some kind of hard 

 material on its main travelled roads. That is all I care to say on that 

 point; I want to put myself on record. 



Now, I don't feel safe unless I have this grip beside me, because I 

 never know at what moment a question is going to be sprung which will 

 make it necessary for me to open it. Iowa is not alone in her seeking 

 after emancipation from the mire of impassable mud roads, and it is well 

 for us to remember that we are mistaken, we western farmers, we are 

 mistaken in the idea that we are the only people who have to travel 



