INTRODUCTORY 
A perusal of the contents of the Ninth Annual Iowa Year Book 
of Agriculture for the year 1908 will be interesting, and we trust 
instructive. It contains sixteen subdivisions. Preceding Part I is 
a condensed statistical table showing briefly why Iowa stands out 
pre-eminently as the greatest agricultural state in the Union. These 
tables were prepared in the office of the Iowa Department of Agri- 
culture and will be continued yearly. 
The Thirty-third General Assembly did not see fit to provide addi- 
tional funds for })roadening the scope of the work in this Depart- 
ment. This action is much to be regretted and we think future 
general assemblies will deal more liberally with the Department. 
An amendment to the manner of filing reports by the farmers' 
institutes was passed whereby all future reports are made direct to 
the secretary of the Iowa State Board of Agriculture instead of to 
the county auditor. This will keep the Department in closer touch 
with the institutes and provides a way of gathering more accurate 
information relative to the institutes. 
As recommended in our last report, the Thirty-third General As- 
sembly repealed and re-enacted that section of the code with refer- 
ence to the collection of agricultural statistics. As it now stands, 
greater latitude is given the Department as to what data may be 
required. It not only requires assessors to list the acreage and yield 
of farm crops, but also to obtain such data on live stock, poultry, 
eggs, etc., as may be asked for by the Department ; prior to the 
enactment of this law the Department had no authority to require 
such data. The law now conforms to similar laws of the various 
states and will be valuable in disseminating Iowa's agricultural and 
live stock resources. 
Again I desire to call to the attention of the legislative bodies of 
Iowa the urgent need of granting authority to the Department to 
issue bulletins from time to time containing such information or 
data as would be of interest and value to the public. Thousands of 
letters are annually received by the Department asking for litera- 
ture on various subjects pertaining to Iowa agriculture which can- 
not be supplied unless authority is given by the general assembly 
