338 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



duct sold from the farms of our whole country. It amounts, in round 

 numbers, at the present time to nearly seven hundred millions of dol- 

 lars. I believe that Iowa has the privilege of supplying somewhere 

 between ten and fifteen percent of the total amount. 



The great dairy industry of the country is confined to but few states 

 in the country, but those states have done some remarkably good work 

 and yet, when we take the average that has been done by the dairy 

 cow on our farms in this country, it is surprisingly small and sur- 

 prisingly little. 



It seems to me we do not know all there is about dairying yet, even 

 though it brings in more income than any other one thing on the 

 farm. In fact there is no other industry that is so dead sure to the 

 farmers as dairying. If he has a herd of cows on his farm, whether 

 good or bad, he has an income and sure living. That is not true in 

 any other line of agriculture. If he has a crop of wheat and it fails, 

 he has nothing; if he has a crop of corn and it fails, he has nothing, 

 but the cow goes right on and brings him some kind of income which 

 will clothe his children and feed his family, be the times hard or good. 

 There is no business, no branch of agriculture today that has 

 received ag much attention from various sources to help in raising 

 the industry, as has dairying. Our state agricultural colleges and 

 experiment stations have spent more time investigating problems of 

 dairying than any other phase of farm industry. They have done some 

 remarkably good work and yet I want to show you that they have not 

 done all they should. 



The dairy division of our department has been remarkably active 

 in developing the work of these stations and distributing the infor- 

 mation gathered by their representatives all over the country as they 

 passed from farm to farm, town to town and factory to factory and 

 put this matter in readable form so that everyone may read and under- 

 stand if he will, and yet the dairy division is not reaching anywhere 

 near all the milking cows in the country. They are doing what they 

 can, but tb*^ division needs help, it needs more sympathy from the men 

 directly connected with the business; it needs the encouragement, the 

 appreciation of this kind. 



Perhaps next to the dairy division are the dairy schools, and yet 

 few states have successful dairy schools today. I believe your state, 

 and I can call it mine because I was partially educated in this state, 

 has one. I believe you are in a fair way in getting at that school aid 

 in bettering the production of the milk that goes to the butter fac- 

 tories in your state, something that has been neglected in this state and 

 something needed perhaps more than anything today in Iowa is good 

 hard work along the line of production. The various dairy schools are 

 helping along this line; they are sending out young men who come 

 into the schools and with a comparatively short course are ready to 

 go out and take responsible positions on dairy farms, in creameries 

 and cheese factories and other institutions connected with dairying. 

 This little gathering here tonight is one of the great events in 



