NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 307 
the past two years have purchased pure bred sires and are now breed- 
ing up dairy herds that you will hear from later on. 
So much for the dairy cattle end of the business. 
Two years ago there were in Blackhawk county, if my census is correct, 
two, or possible three, silos. Tonight there are close to seventy-five. I 
could take you out and show you twenty-five in a single township. Seventy- 
five silos aren't a drop in the bucket compared with the number there 
should be and eventually will be in Black Hawk county, but this rapid in- 
crease shows that our farmers are seeking economy in feed and adopting 
methods that will bring the biggest returns. I mention my home county 
because I am more familiar with it, but the same thing is going on all 
over this state, and the time is rapidly nearing when the silo will be as 
common as the corn crib in Iowa. 
I want to give you all fair warning. This dairy spirit is catching. 
It's spreading and will continue to spread all over this state. The little 
fires of enthusiasm that have been kindled here and there by the per- 
sistent, faithful pioneer friends of dairying — especially if fanned by the 
gentle breeze of a state appropriation — will burst into flames that by way 
of the dairy cow will sweep the whole state with an era of prosperity 
such as she has never known. 
I grant you that Iowa to-day is twenty years behind where she should 
be as a dairy section, and, yet, Iowa has done remarkably well to have 
achieved so much without a single dollar's help from the state. 
It is gratifying to be able to say that Iowa has 1,500,000 dairy cows. 
But it is not so gratifying to be compelled also to say that the average 
production of these cows is only about 140 pounds of butter fat per year. 
In Europe dairy cows average 300 pounds per year. In Iowa and other 
western states there are scattered herds doing as well, but the cows of 
our neighboring states will average twenty to thirty pounds better than 
ours. It is an actual fact that Iowa dairymen are losing every year $20,- 
000,000 to $30,000,000 because of poor cows and poor methods. 
That's the one big thing that's ailing Iowa. And until it's corrected, 
until farmers are led to see the loss in keeping poor cows; till they are 
shown methods of dinging out which are the poor cows and helped to put 
these methods into practice; till the cow that gives the butter-fat sup- 
plants the cow that doesn't — ^I care not what the breed may be — Iowa is 
not going to prosper as she should. 
To do this will take money. The loyal friends of dairying in Iowa have 
for thirty years put their shoulders to the wheel and their hands into their 
pocketbooks and gladly and generously contributed the money that has 
given dairying a start. It is now the duty of this state to see that this, 
the most neglected industry in Iowa, is given such support as shall make 
up for past neglect. A liberal appropriation for carrying this educational 
work to all corners of the state will prove the best investment Iowa can 
make, and go a long ways toward putting us at the head of the dairy 
states, where we properly belong. 
But there's something else that's wrong with Iowa. 
For ten years her farm population has been steadily decreasing. We 
