The Advocate and news., 1899-02-01
THE FARMER AND THE FARM
ERS' PAPER.
A Paper Read by Henry stivers, OF
LacelIe, Iowa, Before the Iowa
state Agricultural Society,
at Des MOlnos, January
10, 1900.

The farmers OF the west are not the
Jays" and "Reubens" and the Uncle
JOshes" such as comic and sometimes
serious literature of few years ago
painted the tillers OF the soil. The rude
swain" Of whom William Cullen Bryant
sang, has passed away, or, IL he lives, II
is only to serve as a menial on our broad
fertile and liberalizing prairies.
Something Of the magnitude OF the
farming interests Of Iowa and the char
acter Of the men and women engaged In
agricultural pursuits may be ConJectured
from a hasty review of the results at
tanned We look away to the gold mines
OF Alaska or Of South Africa, or to the
diamond mines Of Brazil, and we are
dazzled by the brilliant prospect they
offer Of fabulous wealth. But 1t would
require all the annual gold product OF
the world to buy what the 100000 farms
Of Iowa yield in the way Of crops in one
single year. In 1897 the grain produced
in Iowa, suitable for making bread, II
divided, would have given to every man,
woman, and child in the State 5b tons.
In addition each inhabitant Of this State,
adult and infant, might have had the
full carcasses Of beef and three fat
hogs. There was butter enough to butter
both sides OF their bread, and cheese
enough to pave the highways OF the
State. Millions of bushels Of fruit fell
into the laps Of the people, OF quality
50 delicious that we have ceased to re-
gret the closing of the gates to the Gar
den of Eden; and actually, not fgura-
lively, the land flowed with milk and
honey. The crops and live stock on Iowa
farms In 1898, added to the farmers cash
on deposit in the banks OF the State,
give us a grand total OF $500, 900 600 for
last year, and we have our farms and
homes, our great cities and industries,
our railroads and our goods and mer-
chandise left with which to go right on
doing business. In view of this record
what do we care for the little dose Of
soothing sirup in the shape of $40 1000, 900
which our government Is about to ad-
minister to Spain? l refer to these facts
simply to show the immensity Of the
business In which we are engaged, and to
direct attention to the character Of our
farmers and the magnitude Of the re-
sources Of our State. Men who can ac-
oomplish these great results are not to
be caricatured or derided.
1t Is true that not all of our farmers
have attained to that high degree Of
classical culture reached by the Iowa
swine breeder Of whom 1t is related how
he spent night in a pen watching
the narrowing of favorlte Duroc-J Jersey
sow, and to while away the tedious hours
OF that chilly March night read Homer's
Had, In the original Greek, by the pre-
carious light of smoky coal oil lantern.
Not all Of us have yet reached that soph-
omeric height, and most of us are con-
tent to take our Homer second hand,
from Bryant or Pope or Brooks or
Charles Lamb. Yet we are proud 10 re-
call this incident as an illustration that
in agriculture, or swine breeding, at
least, there Is nothing antagonistic with
the highest literary attainments.
But, leaving Greek, Hebrew and the
other dead languages to those who have
a taste for them, we are glad to know
that we have in the United States and
Iowa a number Of agricultural journals
devoted to farmers interests, printed in
vigorous Anglo-Saxon, In good, terse
English, that all may understand, which
are entitled to take high place among the
current literature of the period. That
they are widely circulated and read In
this State speaks for the thoughtfulness,
the intelligence, and the thrift OF Iowa
farmers. In no avOcation is high and
thoughtful intelligence more a requisite
than in that Of farming Only a century
ago a celebrated English philosopher
startled the world with the astonishing
theory that population was increasing
out of proportion to the means of sub
sistence, that mouths were multiplying
very much more rapidly than was the
food with which these mouths were to
be tilled, and he proved pretty conclu-
sively from the standpoint of his times
that 1t would be necessary to go to
strangling babies, like unwelcome kit
tens or starvation would stare the en-
tire human race in the face. He regard