532 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Up to the time of the Civil war a very large proportion of our people 

 lived on farms. They had very little to sell and bought less. Many of 

 us recall the days when a little sugar, tea, coffee and spices, was about 

 all that we bought of the grocer or at that time the general store. There 

 were practically no eatables offered for sale in cans or cartons, as many 

 of the products that the housewife depends upon her grocer for now, 

 were then prepared on the farm or in the home. The farmer raised 

 his own grains taking them to the local mill to be ground, the miller 

 taking his share in the shape of toll for the grinding, the farmer 

 taking what was left, if there was any. Even in those days protection 

 by the enactment of a just law would have been helpful. The farmer 

 raised his own meats. Cattle, hogs and sheep were killed on the farm. 

 The packer was practically unknown as the farmer cured his supply of 

 meat during the winter for the ensuing year. Creameries had not been 

 thought of, as all butter v/as made on the farm. We had no reason for 

 the enactment of an "oleo" law as this product was not known. 



Conditions have changed in the last half century and we have little 

 idea of the man who raises our grains or grinds our flour, or who our 

 butcher is, or who furnishes us with our butter, eggs, and poultry. The 

 man who produces it to sell has little knowledge of who will consume 

 it. This is a commercial age and naturally the man who has any kind 

 of a product for sale desires to get out of it all that he possibly can. 

 The larger percentage of the people engaged in the business are selling 

 dairy and food products without misrepresentation or adulteration. 

 There are people who for the sake of profit are unscrupulous enough to 

 adulterate and misrepresent these products. Therefore, the necessity of 

 enacting laws and the appointment of officers, whose duty it is to see 

 that these laws are enforced as a matter of protection to the people. 

 HELPFUL ACTS OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 



The last legislature did much to strengthen the dairy and food laws 

 as well as making possible the enforcement of all laws by giving the 

 commissioner power to withhold or revoke licenses of the operators of 

 the Babcock test or that of a milk dealer. Great discretion should, and 

 has been, used in this work and only in extreme cases have we felt 

 obliged to revoke these licenses. The great good that results from this 

 kind of a law is that it may be used as a "Big Stick" in obliging offenders 

 to comply with the law or discontinue business. 



INCREASED REVENUE FROM LICENSES. 



Two thousand, six hundred sixty-nine licenses to operate the Babcock 

 test were issued the first year ending June 1, 1912. As a source of 

 revenue this measure brought to the state treasury $6,682.50. The amount 

 will undoubtedly reach $7,000.00 this year. The increased revenue of 

 $744.00 from milk licenses (the law having been changed so as to apply 

 to all municipal corporations instead of to cities of 10,000 or more 

 people) should be added to the above, making a net increase of $7,426.50. 

 This would pay the salary and expenses of three extra men. 



The addition of two Assistant Dairy Commissioners in the depart- 

 ment by the Thirty-fourth General Assembly has enabled us to care for 



