FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 41 



of the country. The fact is I expect you all know this — you 

 have in this state a man for whom I have the highest admiration 

 and that is Professor Hopkins of your University. He has 

 preached to you people day in and day out, year in and year out, 

 that you must go to taking care of this Illinois soil, and that lies 

 at the very base of success in all kinds of agriculture. The fact 

 is when you sell a ton of oats you sell some $ii worth of your 

 land; when you sell a ton of com you sell $6.50 worth of your 

 land; when you sell a ton of clover hay you sell about $7 worth 

 of your land ; when you sell a ton of timothy hay you sell about 

 $6 worth of your land. I mean this : That in a ton of corn, for 

 example, there is $6.50 worth of nitrogen, phosphorous and 

 potassium, the three main fertilizing elements of soil, and if you 

 keep on you will eventually sell your farm out piecemeal. I know 

 the soil in this state and I know this is a beautiful and rich 

 country, but it has been richer than it is now, they have sold a 

 good deal of it already. A man said to me on the train today, 

 ^*Do you know, my friend Quarton, that many men have gotten 

 poor raising corn, oats and hay?" But he said: "I never knew a 

 man who had anything like good judgment that got poor raising 

 cows and selling milk and cream." Now that is true too. Let 

 me give you a little history of the conditions forty years ago in 

 my friend's state — Wisconsin. At that time Wisconsin was one of 

 the greatest grain producing states in the Union, they raised corn 

 and oats and wheat and tobacco on that land until it would not 

 actually pay the expense of tilling it and harvesting the crops, 

 and they finally had to do something else or go out of business. 

 Now, that land is a little different from your Illinois land, thci 

 soil in Wisconsin is lighter than in Illinois and Iowa. I havti 

 been over considerable of this globe, but I have never seen the 

 soil yet that could not be exhausted — I don't believe that it is on 

 the face of the earth. So, in Wisconsin they had to do some- 

 thing, and they went to dairying, and that reminds me of you 

 people. The trouble with you, and us in Iowa, is that we can 

 make money too easy. I want to tell you a little story about a 

 Dane that came to America to see if he could take back some- 

 thing that would be of profit to them along dairy lines. His 

 custom was to go to the agricultural colleges of Pennsylvania, 

 Ohio, Illinois, and finally he got out to Iowa at Ames, and he 



