280 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



in 1899 was $365,411,528, nearly twenty millions more than any other 

 state produced. Of these products, which include the value of the ani- 

 mals sold, you fed grain and hay to the value of nearly one-third of the 

 whole, and of all the farm products fed to live stock in the United States 

 during the year mentioned, nearly one-ninth was fed in Iowa. The per- 

 centage of products not fed to the total value of farm property for the 

 entire country was 18.3; that for Iowa was 14.4, Wisconsin and Pennsyl- 

 vania having a percentage of 14.3, Illinois 13.2, and the District of Colum- 

 bia, where conditions are anomalous, 7.3. On the other hand in those 

 states whose percentage of products not fed to live stock runs from 30 

 to 45, the conditions are reversed; the total output is much smaller, the 

 expenditures for commercial fertilizers are large, and the value of farm 

 property proportionately less. More than 60 per cent of the farms of 

 Iowa derive their principal income from live stock and dairying, and we 

 can prove our statement in yet another way by showing that the rich- 

 est and most productive states are those, the largest percentage of whose 

 farms are in this class, and that, generally speaking, those whose princi- 

 pal income is not live stock, are the poorest in actual agricultural wealth 

 and produce the least value in the aggregate. The scope of this paper 

 will not permit an exhaustive treatment of tnis phase of the subject, and 

 I touch upon it only as a digression. After all, the main problem be- 

 fore us is the maintenance of the fertility of the soil. It is doubtful 

 whether this can be done by the use of commercial fertilizers alone; 

 aside from the profits of the business, live stock must be raised on every 

 farm to make possible the growing of grain and fibre for human needs. 



The corn and hog crops of Iowa go hand in hand. More than one- 

 seventh of the value of the animals reported by the twelfth census in 

 Iowa was represented by the hogs. There were more than four hogs for 

 every man, woman and child in the state, 175 for each square mile of 

 land surface, and 180 for each square mile of farm area; no other state 

 approaches yours in these respects. Out of a total live stock valuation 

 of $271,844,034 in Iowa, hogs comprised $44,000,000 in round numbers, 

 but when one considers that the average sow raises at least five pigs a 

 year, the actual earning capacity of this capital far exceeds the princi- 

 pal. Many flings are thrown at Iowa on account of her hogs; the state 

 is often called "the land of corn and hogs"; this phrase expresses the 

 truth, but it is not one to be ashamed of. Corn and hogs have paid 

 mortgages, built schools and churches, and educated children. A man 

 getting a start in farming in Iowa relies on this combination to put him 

 on his feet. 



The use of corn in hog feeding must, however, be tempered with 

 judgment. It is not only a very palatable feed, but it is rich and exces- 

 sive feeding, on it alone animals lose appetite and it may seriously 

 affect the health of the herd. In the case of breeding animals, exclu- 

 sive corn feeding may cause diminished fertility if not actual sterility 

 and barrenness. This is particularly true of hogs, and it is also proba- 

 bly true that heavy corn feeding, especially early in the fall, lessens 

 vitality and renders hogs more susceptible to disease. Furthermore, 



