ANNUAL MEETING OHIO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 11 



The increase of wealth in our cities insures markets at the highest price 

 here at home for milk products of fine quality, such as can only be produced 

 with the help of modern science. As Director Thcrne of the Ohio Agricultural 

 Experiment Station testifies, "The dairyman who can furnish evidence that his 

 cattle are free from disease, and whose product shows that strict attention has 

 been paid to every essential of cleanliness in production, is able to command 

 very remunerative prices." 



Similar co-operative societies market the eggs, bacon, and lambs of the 

 Danish farmers. There are two poultrymen's associations, one with four thou- 

 sand, and the other with six thousand members. Each has some forty centres 

 for experimentation and distribution of pure-bred stock. Each week the associa- 

 tion's collector gathers the eggs, which must be marked with the producer's name, 

 and pays on the spot the market price for them. The man who delivers stale 

 eggs is severely punished. After selection and careful examination, the egg is 

 then stamped with the association's stamp. This simple guarantee has raised the 

 price of hen's eggs in the English markets until the industry now brings Denmark 

 ten millions of dollars a year. Eggs are now (January 10, 1912) in demand in 

 Cincinnati and Cleveland at 40 cents at retail, and Director Thome tells me 

 that the Ohio station is selling eggs by the case in Pittsburg at 45 cents a dozen, 

 and hot house lamb at 35 cents per pound dressed. He says : "The demand for 

 such products is steadily increasing, as is also our knowledge of the methods 

 by which they may be produced." Is there not a larger business to be found 

 here ? 



Other market products are handled by co-operative creameries of Denmark 

 in a similar manner. The Danes no longer send their live hogs abroad, but kill, 

 cure, and manufacture every scrap at home, with the result that pigs which 

 brought Denmark only $7,500,000 a few years ago, now bring 25,000,000. The 

 Dane believes in manufacturing the farm products to the highest degree before 

 he lets them leave his farm or co-operative factory. He sells the finished 

 product and not the raw material, for he believes that the nation which sends 

 away its raw material for a more skilled people to finish is ruined. The factory 

 farm and these co-operative methods are needed in Ohio. 



Another lesson we can learn from the Danes is intensive farming of smaller 

 areas. We are still trying in Ohio to cover too many acres with our poor 

 culture. . We should farm only as many acres as we can cultivate in the best 

 way, and no more. There is, as we know, scarcely a limit to the value each acre 

 of ground may be made to produce. Scientific methods and intensive agriculture 

 are these days within the reach of the poorest farmer, whether they include the 

 study of the soils, the testing of seeds, the rotation of crops, or the raising of 

 live stock. Intelligent fertilizing with chemical manures, or by growing leguminous 

 plants, the use of improved grains and fancy stock such methods are today 

 w r ithin the reach of all. These methods increase the interest in farming, as well 

 as make room for new population, whose presence and added product increase 

 the opportunities for co-operation and all forms of social improvement. The 

 fruit farmer, the dairy farmer, the poultryman, and every cultivator who has 

 specialized in his work have already learned these principles. Our problem is to 

 find a way to teach them to the half million or more farmers in Ohio still 

 engaged in general agriculture. Take . corn culture in Ohio as an illustration. 

 Corn is still our greatest crop, but it does not pay very well to produce it at 

 the rate of 38 bushels per acre. The Experiment Station has shown that if we 

 used tested seed only and so secured a better stand, we might increase this yield 

 to an average of at least 76 bushels per acre, while a perfect stand of plants, 

 each yielding a one-pound ear of corn, would produce 152 bushels per acre. 

 A little South Carolina bov raised over 200 bushels of corn on one acre. Can 



