168 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



this morning at least up to the present time. I have done a great deal 

 of talking, as you v/ill recognize by the condition of my voice this 

 evening, and I feel it would be almost an imposition upon myself, in 

 face of the fact that we have got a man present here who can preside 

 so perfectly at a banquet of this character, that I am just simply 

 going to play flunky the rest of the evening and introduce to you our 

 worthy secretary, H. C. Wallace, who will now act as toastmaster for 

 the rest of the evening. 



Mr. V/alhi.ce: Mr. Ingham suggests I continue the description on 

 dow^n through. I will not undertake that. This is an unusual meeting 

 of our association in some respects. It is the largest gathering we 

 have had around the table, larger than any that have preceded it. 

 There are more young men here than at any other meeting, which 

 gives us a lot of hope for the future, because those who first started 

 this work are getting older as the years go by, and the young men 

 must com.e on and take it up. It is unusual for another thing, for 

 some of those Vvho were the wheel horses in the earlier days are not 

 here. We miss them. Some of them have dropped by the way, and we 

 mourn for them. Some of them have not been able to reach here for 

 one reason or another. 



It has been our custom in the past, and I see no reason why we 

 should depart from it now, that we first rather renew the old ties and 

 call upon some of the men who were the powerful forces that started 

 this machine in motion, and I am going to open my part of it by call- 

 ing upon Mr. Ames, our first president, for a few words. 



Senator A. L. Ames: Mr. Toastmaster, Friends of the Association — I 

 don't know what I have done to the toastmaster or to the members of 

 the association that I should be put off here in the corner and given no 

 idea that I was to be called upon to say anything at all tonight. Your 

 president has made the excuse that he has been a very busy man all day. 

 I might say that I have been a very busy man for the past five weeks. I 

 have not been thinking very much about the association. We have been 

 considering highways and other things not connected with highways, that 

 you have heard about more or less, and I have not been considering what 

 you might want to do in regard to the association meeting. I was not 

 able to be here this afternoon and listen to the different talks along the 

 different subjects, the various subjects which interest the farmers and 

 feeders of the state. I wish I could have been. The speakers no doubt 

 gave you lots of information that I would liked to have listened to. We 

 have been very busily engaged here in a corner by ourselves figuring out 

 some problems of feeding and discussing other things of interest. 



I want to say that as a member of the association I never have been 

 sorry for a moment that I helped in any way to organize this association. 

 I believe we have accomplished considerable good. W^e haven't made very 

 much fuss about it. We have gone along and attempted to point out 

 some of the things that should be remedied, and tried to show the rem- 

 edy. I think I can see, and Uncle Henry has mentioned some of the 

 things that are going to be of vital interest to the feeders of this great 

 state and of this nation, and I don't believe there is another question, any 



