NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 505 
world. All meat which is unfit for food is condemned, but now some 
of our European customers are insisting that the department certify 
that there were no traces of tuberculosis in any part of the animal. 
This means trouble. Secretary Wilson said it was tim^e for the Ameri- 
can farmer to eradicate this disease. He can do it if he wants to. The 
tuberculin test will enable him to locate it in the cattle and get rid of 
the diseased ones. If the disease is stamped out in the cattle there 
will be no bother with the hogs. 
Referring to agricultural education, he said that there was a greater 
demand for our young men v/ho understood agricultural matters than 
in any other profession or business. The trouble is in finding the 
young men who can do things and then keeping them at home. One 
of the greatest difficulties he met with in his department was to keep 
the bright young men; as soon as they demonstrated their ability 
some of the foreign governments or large land holders offer them 
more money than the department will pay and take them away. The 
demand from the agricultural colleges for qualified men is far in 
excess of the supply. 
Secretary Wilson urged Iowa farmers to tile all the wet land. He 
said he thought the yield could be increased 25 per cent by proper 
tiling where needed. He had in mind not only lands which are now 
too wet to farm at all but lands which are under cultivation but cold, 
in the spring, making it necessary to defer planting until late in the 
season. Tiling will warm the soil, make it easier to work and hasten 
the maturity of the crop. Iowa farmers who have money to invest 
can invest it to no better purpose than in tiling such fields as would 
be benefited by it. 
Speaking of the fair, the secretary said that he had but one word of 
criticism to offer. It excelled all other fairs of this sort in the United 
States, and that meant in the entire world. But he suggested that there 
was one department which was not receiving the attention it deserved. 
The poultry industry is greater than the wheat industry or than the 
cotton industry. It was not right that there should be such a light 
display of poultry. The directors of the fair were men who knew their 
business, and he felt sure that all that was necessary was to direct 
their attention to this fact and to suggest that instead of offering $2 
as first premiums for the exhibits in the poultry department they iai- 
crease it to $10, or even $25, and thus encourage a display in keeping 
with the importance of the industry. The poultry exhibit at the Iowa 
State Fair ought to be as great in its field as the cattle exhibit or the 
horse exhibit or the hog exhibit 
The secretary concluded his address with an appeal to the farmers 
of Iowa to continue the good work of agricultural education; to instill 
in their boys a desire for real agricultural knowledge; to study nature 
