174 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



ested in the farm. The success of Iowa depends absolutely upon the 

 success of the farmer. The city of Des Moines could not live were it not 

 for successful farmers surrounding it. I haven't any sympathy for that 

 Class of men who are trying to organize the farmer as a class against the 

 other classes, — he is making a mistake. Any political party that is or- 

 ganized on class lines is bound to fail, and it ought to fail. But we are 

 all interested in the farm, whether we are primarily engaged in that occu- 

 pation or not. As the farmers of this country are successful, the manu- 

 facturers and the commercial interests of the country will be successful. 

 I was interested in finding out what was done during the year 1917-18 by 

 the farmers of Iowa. You will recall that a little better than fifty- 

 thousand boys went from the farms of Iowa into the service of their 

 country. There are 217,000 farms in Iowa; there is one man for about 

 seventy acres of land that is tilled in Iowa. Keeping that thought in 

 mind, that the number of men on the farms was reduced better than .50,- 

 000, I want you to listen to the figures: 



The total average yield production of corn, oats, wheat, barley and 

 rye for the year 1917-18 was 666,482,500 bushels; the total average yield 

 production of the same grains for the ten-year period immediately pre- 

 ceding the war was 522,882,300 bushels, or 144,000,000 bushels more during 

 the period of the war per year than before. That is an increase of 

 twenty-seven per cent in farm produce in the state of Iowa during the 

 period of the year. I challenge any state in the union to do half as well 

 in increase in production as we did here in Iowa. An increase of almost 

 one million hogs, and an increase of 165,000 head of cattle. 



Now, I give you these figures for the purpose of emphasizing the one 

 point I want to make, that I don't need to make with you, but ought to 

 be made with the people of Iowa, and that is that it is organization that 

 accomplishes that wonderful result. It is organization! If we hadn't liad 

 the county and the state fairs; if we hadn't had the farm bureaus; if we 

 hadn't had our extension department; if we hadn't had our agricultural 

 college and the other allied agencies along that line, we would have 

 fallen down on our production rather than making an increase. 



The increase in production during the war period as compared with 

 the ordinary peace times has brought money enough into the state of 

 Iowa to keep these activities in the state of Iowa for the next fifty years. 

 With man-power trained and equipped, as it can be, and the minds of the 

 people in peace times riveted to the question of production, as it has been 

 in war times, there is no end to what we can do in Iowa, and I want to 

 pledge you that in this work we are doing, it is educational, it is bene- 

 •ficial, and it results in dollars and cents in the pockets of the people of 

 the state and the nation, and I congratulate you on the work you are 

 doing. 



Now, I am not going to take more of your time. There are a lot of 

 subjects I would like to talk about. I would like to talk about a policy 

 for Iowa along an agricultural line. We have been thinking about in- 

 creasing the production; we have been thinking about giving the pro- 

 ducer a fair, honest market in which to sell his goods. If I had my way 

 about it, I would absolutely prohibit gambling in any food stuffs of any 



