364 • IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



thoughts or truths that are serious to me in relation to this industry and I 

 am going to ask he priviledge of consuming a little more time than men 

 called on in a case of this kind should consume. 



We are thinking today in world thoughts. We come nearer having a 

 world vision today than we ever have before. Ideals are growing, individ- 

 ual right is asserting itself against autocratic selfishness and autocracy 

 and the time has come for the dairy industry to take on a larger vision real- 

 izing the important relations to our nation and realizing its importance 

 to everyone engaged in it. 



The Mayor of this city spoke of the fact that we are now in the midst 

 of the Mississippi Valley, the greatest Valley in the world, barring none, ex- 

 tending from the Canadian border on the North to the Gulf of Mexico, rest- 

 ing its Western side at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and its Eastern side 

 on the sloping Western side of the Allegheny Mountains ; a valley, in fact, 

 more blessed with climate than any other spot in the world, a valley in 

 which there are 15,000 miles of navigable rivers, in the soil of which there 

 is about seventy per cent of the entire mineral products of resources of 

 this country and a very large per cent of the world; a valley in which grew 

 or was produced last year seventy two per cent of the total food consumed 

 in this country and a good share of that supplied to those living on the 

 other side with whom we are now allied. 



Why should we take a world vision of this industry? I wish to sketch 

 very briefly just what this industry we are in means to the world. We 

 have in the United States today in round number 23,000,000 head of dairy 

 cows. Do you realize that that is almost as many dairy cows as there are 

 in England, France, Italy, Serbia, Belgium and Holland? We are the great- 

 est dairy nation in the world, the greatest dairy nation the world has ever 

 known and yet we don't realize it. There has been a decrease in the pro- 

 ductive power of the dairy industry of those various countries I have just 

 named ranging from twenty to seventy eight per cent according to the best 

 figures available. I don't mean by that, that there have been that many 

 dairy cattle disposed of or lost, but loss because of the decrease of power 

 is represented by those figures. Today England is on a ration of two ounces 

 of butter per week. Think of it! Canada has just begun on the ration of 

 two pounds per month and the Government has taken over the entire out- 

 put of the daijT industry commencing the 30th of September. There is 

 this fact, without dairy products and milk, it is impossible to raise child- 

 ren and it is also impossible without dairy products to have physically 

 and mentally efficient men and women because without the vital ele- 

 ment contained in the milk or butterfat, we cannot only raise children 

 but we can't have efficient men and women. 



I think that the splendid, continuous, marvelous courage of the boys who 

 have gone from this country over there, in the past sixty or ninety days 

 have done what they have in the advance, is due to the fact that they are 

 boys of a nation where milk and dairy products are used freely. There- 

 fore, I say that it is well for us to view this great industry with a world 

 vision such as we have never done before. 



Now coming back to you on conditions in the countries above named. 

 In Prance today it is impossible for a glass of milk to be had for an • 



