844 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



raised last year 61,000 bushels. If we can excel other states in raising 

 this much is it unreasonable to think we could raise much more. It may 

 be necessary to radically change our methods in the production of thia 

 crop. We may have to prepare our soil in a different way and time; drill 

 the seed to a greater depth and sow some protecting crop. If we could 

 make it possible to raise this crop it would increase the value of our 

 lands and bring us great wealth. 



I have mentioned only a few of the principal crops which we are 

 engaged in raising but there are many others which it is possible for u» 

 to raise and for which our county is eminently adapted to produce and 

 which will add greatly to our wealth and prosperity. 



Our pastures are often considered the least productive of our lands 

 and yet it may be possible to make them return more than any other 

 lands of like area. We all know that they can be improved and that we 

 suffer much from mismanagement along this line. Who would think of 

 working a horse until he had scarcely vitality to maintain life, yet 

 we often treat our pastures in this way, feeding them so close that 

 they are bare of covering through the winter. Keep stock off in the 

 spring until the plant is well started. Take them off in the fall and 

 leave some protection for the winter. See that all parts of the pasture 

 are covered with grass and that this grass is adapted to its particular 

 soil and location, that its poorer parts are fertilized and that its 

 wet parts are thoroughly drained. Then we will more nearly come up to 

 our possibilities in the production of grass. 



Dairying has become a leading industry even in our own county. 

 No other part of agriculture has a greater future. We generally con- 

 sider that we are paid for labor and money invested in the business. Yet 

 if we will investigate most of us will find we are standing a loss which 

 would make any ordinary business unprofitable. Year after year we are 

 keeping cows which hardly produce enough to pay for their keep, being 

 a heavy tax upon the more profitable. 



From experiments in one of our states it was shown that while the 

 profit from one cow was $64.32 in one hundred and fifty days, the profit 

 from another consuming nearly the same amount of feed was only 

 $28.06; giving a net profit from the best of $37.65 and only $4.55 from 

 the poorest. Did it ever occur to you it is possible to weed out the poor- 

 est ones and bring up the herd to the standard of the best? If we would 

 here resolve to strive to attain to our possibilities and go home and test 

 our eows, get rid of the poor ones and bring up the herd to the standard 

 of the best, this institute would bring more wealth into the county in 

 a short time then is now derived from the busienss in several years. 



We are feeding many cattle and should feed many more. It Is a 

 business of which we are justly proud. But, have we brought it up to its 

 possibilities? Are we not shipping many poorly bred and half fattened 

 cattle to eastern markets, there to be fed on higher priced land and 

 products, much of the products being shipped from our own state? If 

 this class of cattle can be fed there at a profit what a vast store of 

 wealth there must be for us if we would bring the business up to its 



