Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-04-11
Iowa.

The Cincinnati Chronicle has Il
correspondent journeying through
Iowa, who seems to view the oener-
al features Of our State with clear
and philosophic eye. lie says:
Iowa is, considering its area and
newness, Il remarkably evenly popu-
lated State. In the matter Of pol,u-
lation hardly any one section has a
right to boast over any other. This
fact speaks well for the general
richness and attractiveness of the
State, and is an earnest of her future
greatness. In accordance with this
truth is the fact that Iowa has no
State Metropolis In this respect
she is almost singular among her
sister States. While Illinois has
her Chicago, Ohio her Cincinnati,
Missouri her St. Louis, and nearly
every other State in the Union has
its one city, which in wealth and
population oyershadows all rivals
as to give it u right to claim State
metropolis dignity, Iowa has moth.
ing Of the sort. Nor does it appear
that the case will be otherwise
Iowa seems to be growing accord
ing to the modern theory of frog
rcss-deccntralization, SO to speak
Of intelligence, distribution of
knowledge and wealth, and division
Of labor. Here this principle seems
to obtain even in the matter ofpopu
lation. While immigration is con
stantly flowing in, it quietly distri-
butes itself throughout the State,
filling up the country evenly and
rapidly, and giving the cities and
villages only their due and proper
tionate increase. Whether, under
an older civilization, mans grcga,
robustness will again assert itself
and society tend to centralize in
larger cities and towns rs is shown
to be the case in the east by the
last ceusu. lis matter tor the future
to decide. While the State possess.
es no great city which can be com
pared for moment with those !
have named (and is probably the
better for iD she yet has many
thriving cities and villages, but
which seem, generally speaking, to
be growing evenly though rapidly,
and there are no instances Of cx-
traordinary local increase ofpopu,
lation.
Let the New England farmer,
whose hands are sore from picking
up cobble stones, or whose back
aches from swinging his scythe
a uong the powders or hoeing his
three acres of corn, ride: as he may,
upon swiftly running train through
this country, where the soil is I'M
cxccllcd for depth and richness,
where nine out of every ten acres
are susceptible of cultivation, where
the corn fields stretch out u every
direction as far as the eye can reach,
and as the hours go by, seem almost
illimitablc to him who remembers Il
ten acre cornfield as the Ian gest he
ever saw, and to his excited mag
nation the land seems like an agri-
cultural paradisc-thc place where
good farmers go. But his enthusi-
assn is somewhat dampened when
the Iowa farmer sadly explains to
him that these immense fields of
corn are worth but little more to
him than the Eastern farmers ten
acres are to him, and that it takes
five bushels of it to get one to mar
kct. And when he adds that he has
difficulty in selling it at ten and fif-
teen cents per bushe!, and that it is
mostly used for fuel, your Yankee
is almost as much Mortified as
though he had said he used his ba-
bies for food.