344 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



association of the state of Iowa. It is a pleasure to be here because of a 

 natural liking for association with dairymen wherever found and it is a 

 source of pride because I feel honored to be thought worthy of filling so 

 important a position as speaker before such an intelligent audience. Nor 

 do I use the word intelligent in a flattering sense, for dairymen, wherever 

 found, and those who attend such meetings as these in particular, stand 

 head and shoulders above those who are content to work, irrespective of 

 what progress is going on about them, irrespective of any interest other 

 than petty interests which come within their own narrow horizon. 



You are a force in progressive dairying. You represent as individuals, 

 and collectively as members of this association, what might be termed the 

 forward movement or vanguard in everything which makes for improve- 

 ment. To a large extent the future of dairying lies in your hands. As 

 an association you mould opinion, influence in no small degree the char- 

 acter of legislation respecting things vital in dairying, create sentiment 

 either for or against the industry whose foundation is that queen among 

 animals, the dairy cow. 



It is right then that we, as members of this association, should have 

 a keen appreciation of our position, should have such standards of thought 

 and action that they with whom we come in contact, moved by our ideas, 

 enthused with our enthusiasm, will place dairying where it ought to be, in 

 forefront of agricultural thought and agricultural endeavor in this most 

 productive of all states, the state of Iowa. Instead of being considered a 

 side issue, a tail end, tacked to other industries, or linked in unfortunate 

 alliance with anV other industry, dairying should stand out pre-eminently 

 the chief of all, the most profitable of all industries, providing for its pa- 

 trons not only hire for their labor, but something of the better things, 

 the comforts and blessings of life. Self-sufficiency should be then one of 

 the leading standards held before the dairymen of this country. If we 

 as dairymen are content to count dairying as of secondary importance in- 

 stead of that position that it should hold as an industry of primal im- 

 portance because of fundamental economic principles involved, how much 

 more will others, not interested in dairying, be willing to consider it as 

 a side issue of no value except as a minor factor in other schemes of 

 agriculture. We must be willing to stand on our own feet, fight our own 

 battles, unmoved by any interests except those that will place dairying 

 in its proper position among the activities of agriculture in this state. 



To do this it is essential that dairying should have as its creed two 

 outstanding features, the purity of its products and honesty and integrity 

 of purpose of its partisans. It should have as its advocates men of under- 

 standing, men impelled to work in its behalf because of a consciousness 

 of its possibility, not only as affecting their further prosperity, but as 

 affecting the prosperity of their fellow men and this state to which we 

 are proud to belong, and where else can such men be found if not among 

 those here before me? Yet you know and I know that there are many 

 among us who are not alive to the best interest of dairying, who are will- 

 ing to sacrifice the good of the industry and with it their own best interest 

 for immediate private gains? 



We, who are familiar with conditions as they exist throughout our 

 state, are aware that at least purity of our products is not always the 



