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Show LIVESTOCK SITUATION The transcontinental railroads have and always will play an important part in the building up of the great West. and Southwest. There is still a big undeveloped area that we see in riding from the Missouri river to the West coast ; and looking back, we marvel at the courage and hope of the pioneers who sponsored the building of the railroads through the desolate country, from the Missouri river to the Pacific coast, keeping in mind also that not so very long ago Red Oak, Iowa, was in the so-called great American desert. The building of the Pacific railroads rail-roads was subsidized to some extent by the Federal Government, largely :n land grants and it looked like the more land they had, the poorer they were; although in recent years some of the roads have been greatly enriched en-riched through their holdings of original or-iginal grants. The promise of financial finan-cial returns at the outset depended on tying together the populated and productive East with the rapidly crowing Pacific Slope country. The discovery of gold in California had its influence in railroad building and in populating that section. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Paci-fic formed the first connecting link between the East and the West and in discussions and deliberations concerning concern-ing the construction of what we now know as the Union Pacific, reference was made to the Union of the Pacific. With construction completed, a definite defin-ite and active campaign was started by the railroads to develope the vast land area traversed. To record the trials and tribulations of the early settler would take too much time and space but the transcontinental railroads were actually behind every effort to colonize and to assist the locator in making a living out of the soil and it was good business to do so. Especially low rates and fares were made, seed grain supplied and in many other ways aid was given to the pioneers by the railroad. The surface had hardly been scratched so to speak as to the development de-velopment of an enormous land area most of which depends upon the availability of water for agricultural purposes but even in the sections that are regarded as highly developed and prosperous, there are still many problems prob-lems of the soil where water is abundant ab-undant lies in adequate replenishment replenish-ment to maintain soil fertility because be-cause we can no more continue to take out of the soil without replen-dishing replen-dishing than we can continue to draw on our bank account without depositing. Impoverished soil soon., shows its ffect on decreased volume and qualify quali-fy of production, limiting the distribution distri-bution and. amount to be distributed and transported. We recognize this when we consider that the superior quality has the greatest distributing possibilities. So far as history records, live stock has been the chief means of farm fertilization. It is not only the most available but the most practical and economical. Besides, live stock furnishes a means of diversification and a convenient and definite way of getting cash as needed. Ability to find ready sale, especially with the small live stock producer was not always the case but since open markets mar-kets have been established at Ogden, Salt Lake, Spokane, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, all producers pro-ducers have an open forum for the ready marketing of their production. Coming back to the railroads, the Western railroads should and doubtless doubt-less will, with the proper understanding, understand-ing, lend their support to the building build-ing up of production because it means additional tonnage. It seems especially especi-ally desirable that they should assist not only our agricultural schools but exhibitions of agricultural products and live stock because these events are so inspiring and encouraging to better production and our transportation transporta-tion agencies should also sponsor the junior effort in live stock production and judging. Successful agriculture never has and, based upon the past, never will succeed without live stock association. It was good business for the railroads rail-roads to build West and it is good business for them to continue to XL-take XL-take a leading part in building np and stabilizing every agricultural endeavor. |