T 11 K P E R C II E R 0 N REVIEW 
7 
PROBLEMS IN AGRICULTURE 
AND THE HORSE BUSINESS 
Address delivered at Annual Meeting by Vice- 
President, U. L. BURDICK, Williston, N. Dak. 
Memhers of The Percheron Society of America, Ladies, and 
Gentlemen: 
I have never made it a business of speaking from maiiuscri]>t 
and I do not propose to do it now. Tlie only occasion I shall 
have to refer to this paper will be to quote from some of the 
statistics that I have prepared upon the question of the draft 
horse. I want to say at the beginning that it is with a feeling 
of pleasure and disappointment that I rise at this time to 
address the members of the Percheron Society of America ; of 
pleasure, because I have never been in any organization in my 
life where I have taken as much pleasure out of it as I have 
since being a member of the Percheron Society of America. 
I am always glad to speak to those who are members, or to 
anyone any^vhere in this country who is interested in the per- 
petuation of the draft horse; of disappointment, because of the 
fact that our worthy president is detained at home on account 
of sickness; of disappointment again, in that he has delegated 
this important work to me. I am sure that he could have 
made a better survey of the draft horse business than I can. 
We have listened year after year with great interest to his 
addresses. 
TROUBLE DAYS IN SOCIETY 
I have had some little experience in speaking at Percheron 
meetings before, but the surroundings now are entirely dif- 
ferent. There is no great contest on the policy of the Percheron 
Society. We have a Board that is working together in harmony, 
trying to do as nearly right as they know how. Many great 
problems have come up before this Board during the past few 
years, and we have steered the Percheron "ship" through some 
mighty troubled waters. Those difficulties have been mostly 
forgotten, and I believe that the name, the purpose, and the 
aim of the Percheron Society has been held just as high during 
the past few years as it is humanly possible to do. ( Applause. ) 
Enemies of clean pedigrees have harangued, cajoled, and 
even in some instances dragged us into court, but we have felt 
that justice and truthfulness will prevail, and we have met 
those issues. The courts of this state have decreed that our 
stand was right. I am guilty of no exaggeration when I say 
to you, toniglit, that the integrity and the honor of the Per- 
cheron Society of America stands unimpeached. (Applause.) 
FINANCIAL CONDITION OF OUR COUNTRY 
There perhaps will never come a time within the memory 
of the directors now living when the financial condition of our 
country will be at a lower ebb than it is now. A great many 
causes have contributed to that condition, the greatest of which 
was the World War. During those times laborers were scarce. 
Food stuffs always mount to high levels during a period of 
that kind. That has been true in every war and in every 
country. The first days of peace are always met by financial 
difficulties. 
The opinion seems to prevail everywhere that the high cost 
of living must be reduced. Under our present system of agri- 
culture, of which the draft horse is an integral member, the 
very first place that we start to reduce the cost of living is on 
the farm. There is no institution in the world that can run 
year after year at a loss, except a farm, and this condition of 
American agriculture, in some degree, is our own fault. 
We have had no instrumentality, or agency, to tell you and 
me what it costs a man to raise a bushel of wheat, or a steer, 
or a draft horse. We had no one in Congress for the last 
fifty years, or out of Congress for that matter, who could tell 
the American people the facts. 
I have every confidence that the American people, in any 
capacity, whether it be in Congress, in the legislatures, in 
bodies of this kind, or in juries, generally want to do the right 
thing; but I want to state to you a fact that Congress has not 
done the right thing for the past fifty years in agriculture, and 
it has been in part, as I say, our own fault. 
When the farmers of this nation today see their product 
sold for less than the cost of production, in every line of agri- 
cultural activity, it is not any wonder that we are not enthusi- 
astic about draft horses; and that condition, when corrected, 
will bring back to the agricultural people of this country the 
same enthusiasm in the draft horses as there is in any other 
kind of agricultural products. 
The man who makes a wool shirt is protected in his hours 
of labor, and the wage he can demand for his work. The man 
who operates a factory is protected in that line and he will 
not operate his plant unless he can do it at a profit. The man 
who raises the wool does so at his peril, for wool can be 
raised cheaper in the Argentine, in South America, and the 
grower of wool in America knows he has to compete with other 
products upon the market. The same thing is true of wheat. 
The same thing is true of every agricultural product in the 
United States of America. That is very apparent and the 
reason why that has existed is because the people generally do 
not know what it costs the farmer to do business. That infor- 
mation should be gathered and sent broadcast over this country, 
so that the work of agriculture may be elevated to a higher 
plane. It will demand the best brains of this land. When 
that is done no one in the factory, or out of the factory, in the 
towns, or out of the towns, will ever expect a farmer to sell a 
bushel of wheat for less than the cost of production; they will 
never expect him to sell a draft horse, a steer, a pig, or a 
lamb, for less than the cost of production. 
AN ORGANIZATION TO HELP THE FARMER 
During the past two years a great movement has been going 
on in America to right this condition. It has made agriculture 
everywhere apathetic. In my opinion, this is the only light 
held out to the American farmer. This effort resulted about 
two years ago in the organization in Chicago of the National 
Farm Bureau Federation. It has a million and a half members 
now. 
Each state in this Union is organizing a farm bureau. 
Every county in every state is organizing a county farm bu- 
reau. The purpose and object, primarily, of that institution is 
to bring the facts of the cost of agriculture before the people 
of the various states and before the people of this great nation. 
When we can crystallize public opinion, by jmtting better in- 
formation in the minds of one hundred ten million people, as 
to the costs, and the high calling of agriculture, there will not 
be any disregarding of the efforts of the American farmer. 
HOW THIS MOVEMENT WILL HELP 
This great movement that is on foot now will encourage 
agriculture. It will encourage the draft horse business on the 
farms in Illinois, in North Dakota, or anywhere you go. The 
farmers all over this nation are interested in the draft horse. 
The farmer of today knows that the very foundation of his 
farm is being undermined by people who do not know his needs. 
Many things are shedding light on agriculture. 
It has been said tliat the price of wheat and grain is fixed 
by the law of supply and demand. When wheat went down 
eleven cents one day and up eight cents the following day, do 
you think for one moment that we are guided by the law of 
supply and demand? There is just as much wheat now as 
there was yesterday and the day before. 
It is the province of this farm bureau to reach out its hand 
and to provide conditions in accord with the best interests of 
American agriculture. We hear a great deal of grumbling 
about people who are not satisfied, people who join this move- 
ment and people who join that movement and we are some- 
times called "un-American," but I want to say to you, that 
these interests burn themselves out. Every man who is not 
concerned in wholesome, enthusiastic agriculture is more re- 
sponsible for the whims and caprices and the failing of this 
class of men than any other agency in this country. We must 
