194 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



A. conference committee was appointed to meet a similar com- 

 mittee! from the Short-Horn Association, to define a breeding 

 animal. The following named gentlemen were appointed on such 

 conference committee : Flynn Donahev, Forrest and Parsons. 



THE FARMERS' INSTITUTE. 



F. F. Failor, Xewton, Iowa. 

 The County Farmers' Inscitute is the preliminary school to all agri- 

 cultural advancement and improvements, and provides the opportunity 

 for study and the attainments of knowledge in all the various branches 

 pertaining thereto; with the advancing prices in land and higher priced 

 labor, it becomes necessary to raise less stock and better ones, to be- 

 come skilled in the art of breeding and feeding, and to understand the 

 relative value of different kinds of feed, both as to cost and feeding 

 value. 



No branch of business in the world today is receiving so much atten- 

 tion from outside sources as is given to agriculture. First, the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture which adds prestige and dignity to the industry, 

 second, the agricultural colleges and experiment stations where the fu- 

 ture farmer can gain a thorough knowledge of all the little details, 

 where experiments are carried on and a careful record of the result > 

 given as a guide for future operations. 



In the improved methods of farming we have the same source of 

 knowledge as in the improvement of live stock, viz., through the experi- 

 ment stations at our agricultural colleges. 



Our government is sending men all over the world in the search 

 of grains, grasses and live stock suitable to the varied climates and soils 

 of this great country, such as the reindeer from the far north, macaroni 

 wheat for the great wheat belts of the northwest, and many varieties of 

 grasses from tne arid district of the West, in fact, when you come to con- 

 sider what this government is doing for the farmer, it is astonishing. 

 Government inspection for meats, tariff legislation for the protection of 

 infant industries, especially sugar, duties on live stock that we can pro- 

 duce, and free entry of improved stock for the betterment and building 

 up of our herds. 



It might be no more than fair to look at the other side a momenr. 

 What the farmer is doing or has done for the government. When he 

 tide of emigration took its westward course, this westward country was 

 but a howling wilderness, and but for the hardy pioneer who braved 

 the hardships and privations of frontier life, we would not have a schooi- 

 house on every hill, and a meeting house close by. 



As the country became more settled, capital was interested, in build- 

 ing the great railroads that gird the country from east to west, and the 



