THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



43 



HOLDEN LEAVES IOWA. 



The "Corn Man" Joins the I. H. C. Service Bureau 



to Help Push Forward a Work of 



Endless Worth. 



This marks the beginning of a new and greater 

 business service. It is a co-operative movement 

 for larger crops, better roads, happier homes, more 

 prosperous people, and a richer and better nation. 

 That is to say, the I. H. C. Service Bureau proposes 

 to help do for all the states and for Canada what 

 Holden has done for Iowa. 



After considering many offers, and after an in- 

 vestigation of the company and its work, Professor 

 Perry G. Holden has entered the service of the 1. 

 H. C. Service Bureau, at Chicago. 



Professor Holden is known wherever real ag- 

 riculture is known. His whole life is one of ser- 

 vice. He originated the idea of carrying informa- 

 tion direct to farmers. He is the father of the 

 demonstration train, short school courses, the corn 

 show, county demonstration farms, and the Na- 

 tional Corn Exposition. As head of the extension 

 department of Iowa State College of Agriculture 

 he did a work, which, Senator Cummins says, up 

 to the present time has increased the wealth of 

 Iowa $30,000,000. 



A little more than two years ago the Interna- 

 tional Harvester Company of America established 

 the I. H. C. Service Bureau. Already it has done 

 much work of real value. But, better still, it has 

 made careful preparations for a work, which, it 

 would seem, is of far greater service to humanity 

 in general than anything ever before undertaken 

 by a business organization. 



The object of the bureau is the promotion of 

 agricultural education, and a co-operation which 

 will tend to raise the whole tone of commercial, 

 industrial and farm life. Since agriculture is the 

 basis of prosperity and progress, naturally farm 

 problems claim first attention. The aim is higher 

 efficiency, both on and off the farm. And this is 

 to be brought about through an improvement of 

 material, social, intellectual and moral conditions. 



To do a big work a big organization is neces- 

 sary. Not alone the bigness, but the perfectness of 

 the International organization as well appealed to 

 Professor Holden. In its well-oiled machinery he 

 saw the means for accomplishing an end. The en- 

 tire organization is to be enlisted in the service 

 work. The big general agencies, scattered all over 

 the United States and Canada; the salesmen, tra- 

 velers, and expert machine men ; the 40,000 dealers 

 every one, so far as possible, is to be made an 

 apostle of better farming. 



For years the Harvester Company has realized 

 the importance of service. It has spent millions 

 of dollars in the perfection of labor-saving ma- 

 chines, and it has sent men out into the fields to 

 show farmers how to operate these machines. It 

 has loaned machines to schools and colleges,. and 

 it has distributed tons of literature, packed with the 

 latest and best farm information. And last, though 

 first, the invention of the reaper, which founded 

 modern agricultural greatness, also founded this 



company. Agriculture and the International Com- 

 pany have grown up together, and together they 

 have prospered. But heretofore the service ren- 

 dered was more or less indirect. Now the company 

 is going in for direct service direct to the farmers, 

 and direct to the farmers' children, that the men 

 and women of tomorrow may be more capable and 

 so more prosperous than the men and women of 

 today. 



It is no longer a theory that if we are to get 

 the most out of life we must raise more per acre. 

 "Intensive farming" is in the air. It is the battle 

 cry of peace and plenty. But raising more is the 

 result of mind, not muscle. We must know. And 

 not only that, we must know we know, and know 

 why we know. We must know good seed from bad, 



Professor Perry G. Holden. 



right cultivation from wrong, and the whys and 

 wherefores of climates, soils, fruits, cattle, horses, 

 poultry, and so forth. All this will add to the 

 wealth of the farmers. Wealthy farmers make 

 prosperous communities, and a nation is but an 

 association of communities. At the heels of pros- 

 perity follow education, conveniences, social inter- 

 course everything that makes life more worth the 

 living. These things were growing up in the mind 

 of Professor Holden at the time he was helping to 

 grow an average of three more bushels of corn to 

 the acre in Iowa. And these are the ideals of the 

 I. H. C. Service Bureau. For these things the bu- 

 reau was established. But the bureau and Profes- 

 sor Holden see more than an average increase of 

 three bushels. They see a time coming when farm- 

 ers will raise twice as many bushels of corn, wheat 

 (Continued on Page 49.) 



