340 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Longued hot air artists guaranteed 30% on the investment, about 

 all the people have left in most cases, is an old building that stands 

 as a monument to their folly. 



You ask what this has to do with the cost of milk in Des Moines 

 at this time. It has much to do with it, as it retarded the growth 

 of the dairy industry to such an extent that it is only within the 

 last four or five years that it has received any attention worth 

 while. 



I recall the fact that during the winter of 1910 and '11, the 

 Dairy and Food Commission was interested in the passage of some 

 legislation that seemed to us was much to the advantage of the 

 farmer dairymen of Iowa. During this session, it was hard to find 

 a senator or representative from south of the main line of the C. 

 R. I. & P. Ry. that would give these measures any consideration. 

 Tlieir answer was, "There is no dairying in our county." Many 

 of them did not appear to realize that they represented a section 

 of the state that was in every way better suited to this industry 

 than some of the northern counties that have become wealthy, 

 largely on account of their activities in this industry. It is most 

 gratifying to know that many of the members of the legislature 

 from Southern Iowa have come to know some of the advantages 

 that may accrue to their section by fostering the industry and have 

 in later sessions given it splendid support. They realize that in 

 many sections, the fertility of the soil has been exhausted and that 

 there is no better way to bring it back than by the use of the dairy 

 cow. 



It is not at all strange that Iowa has been a little slow in doing 

 the things that will enable us to produce milk and dairy products 

 at a reasonably low cost. "With a rich productive soil on which 

 can be grown at a profit most of the cereals, less attention has been 

 paid to dairying, than would have been the case had our soil been 

 lees fertile. The growing of beef cattle, with hogs as a side line, 

 makes less work than the handling of the dairy cow with hogs. 



Now that the demand for milk and dairy products has increased 

 somewhere in proportion to the increased population, we cannot 

 expect to go among our farmers who have been breeding beef cattle 

 and buy profitable dairy cows, neither can these farmers expect to 

 produce milk at a profit from cows bred for another purpose. 



We are frequently asked why the dairymen surrounding Min- 

 neapolis, St. Paul and Milwaukee, produce milk at a less price 

 than those in Central Iowa. My answer is, that in the last 15 or 



