EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII. 309 



registered dairy sires. Don't you think it has paid these Jefferson county 

 farmers to read, think and act, especially on dairy lines? I have no ob- 

 jection to beef farming. All I claim is that if the farmer is subjecting 

 himself to the expense of a creamery patron he should have the most 

 profitable cow he can get and be himself as intelligent in his administra- 

 tion of a dairy farm as he can be. Farmers do not read and reason 

 enough on this question. They hold to worn out ideas of management: 

 they waste an enormous amount of labor and time in methods that no 

 well posted dairy farmer in the country would use. It would pay the 

 creamery patrons of Iowa wonderfully well to visit the town of Lake 

 Mills, Wis., and see how those German dairy farmers manage. There 

 every farmer, I believe, but five, has a silo. Every bit of the corn crop 

 is saved when at its highest feeding value. Compare that with the thou- 

 of dairy intelligence; larger dairy profit to stop these fearful leaks, 

 sands of acres of wasted corn fodder in Iowa and Illinois. It is the part 

 resolutely lay hold of two points; the improvement of their cows by the 

 What a dairy state Iowa could become if her creamery patrons would 

 infusion of dairy blood, and the improvement of their minds and judg- 

 ments concerning dairy problems. The average farmer does not allow 

 itpn^s pj^eq ui sivdA. 8Ag :^u^ds pBti i -jbaisub Jjaqi s-bav „89s puB ^ibai. hiai 

 himself to learn much in any other way than by what he sees. 



When I first began my campaign for alfalfa eight years ago I could not 

 make a single one of my neighbors believe what I said about it. "We 

 of the plant on city lots, trying to find out a method whereby I could 

 make it survive in the severe climate of Wisconsin. Then I planted ten 

 acres on my farm. It was two years before the farmers would consent 

 to try it in half acre and acre patches. Now there are hundreds of acres 

 of this most valuable forage plant growing in that county. The past 

 season I harvested in three crops from 30 acres what I could have sold 

 for $2,700. The farmer must become a better student of the business of 

 farming. More than that, he must demand that the elements of agriculture 

 shall be taught in all the country schools so that when his sons come to 

 the years of understanding they can understand better than he does what 

 is taught in books and papers. Hundreds of farmers have said to me in 

 effect, "I would like to read these things, but I cannot understand the 

 terms that are used, and what is the use?" If they had been taught 

 the meaning of these terms in the country school as they were the terms 

 of arithmetic they would not be hampered as they are now. Every 

 farmer owes it to his son that he escape that bondage. Make the country 

 school a great lever to lift up agriculture and your children "will rise 

 up and call you blessed " 



The ChxUrman: Gentlemen, I am sure you have all enjoyed 

 this splendid address and it is a talk that we have much need of in 

 our state and that was one of the reasons that your Executive com- 

 mittee asked Governor Hoard to be with us to-day. We have just 

 a little more time for discussion of this matter if there is anyone 

 here that would like to ask the governor any questions. 



