The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-02-28
THE FA|REST LAND.
Gov. Shaw's Address Before the
Farmers Congress at Vicksburg.
IT'S IOWA! IT'S IOWA!
A Splendid Presentation of Iowa's Great
Resources Wealth and Her
People.

A Splendid Presentation of Iowa's Great |
Resources-HerW Wealth and Her
People.
Mr.. Chairman, Citizens of Vicksburg.
Ladies, and Gentlemen:
'.Youask what land love the best?
Ills Iowa! Ills Iowa!
The farest land of all the west,
Is Iowa Is Iowa!'
1t is not every day, nor often, that
one is permitted to speak in praise of
his home or to extol his own people
without doing violence to the proprie-
ties of the hour. wish L might in ten
minutes paint for you Iowa as she is
and her people as they are. The pic
ture would place before you $4,000
square miles, 36,Ooo,O0O acres of farm
land, per cent waste; 80 per cent pro-
ductive. 1t would exhibit railroads
sufficient to surround it and then divide
it into squares, so that no mans gran
airy should be more than nine miles
from the track
Underneath much of this is Il deposit
of coal, sufficient tn supply the world
for century. | can take you to
county, every foot of which is coal as
we'll as farm land. and where in twenty
years. the several mines III operation
have, l am told, exhausted but 100
acres. AT that rate the coal of that
one county will last 2,O0O years, and
| whole congressional districts can be
carved from lands underlaid with coal.
The soil of this fair land can be best
Judged by what it has actually done
In the Year last past Iowa produced 5
bushels of rye: 6 bushels of barley; 10
bushels of wheat: 60 bushels OF oats,
and l25 bushels of corn per capita OF
food cereals 1T garnered and tbreshed
six tons in weight for every man, wo-
man and child in the state. In addl-
ton it also produced bushel of flax. 9
tons OF hay and 5.5 bushels of potatoes
per capita. The census of 1890 credits
Iowa with LOCO 900 bushels of timothy
and clover seed. Whether this item
has Increased or diminished since then
l can not say, but l can give the name
aud address OF one merchant who has
received from the farmers of his locality
and shipped forty Car loads of grass
seed in single year of this decade
Shall speak of horticulture? Only
to observe that at one Iowa town there
has been barreled and sent to the state
OF New York an entire train load of APP
pies at single sh pment.
But iowa does more than to produce
crops. would like to tell the story of
the Iowa steer. asked a friend few
years since which he preferred for cat.
tie feeding, ground Oil cake or cotton
seed meal? He replied: s'At present
prices lprefer ground oil cake ask.
ed the price aud he told me what he
had paid for the first 300 tons lie had
fed that year, but added that the mar
ket had advanced somewhat during tue
winter. He was feeding corn chiefly
but used little ground oil cake as an
appetizer.
would like to tell you also of the
Iowa COW. can take you to county
where the banks have paid out in a
single year to the farmers on checks
for milk delivered to the creameries of
that county a clean half million dollars.
recently appointed a dairy commits
sloner for Iowa who, in the last twenty
two years. beginning first with one COW
then increasing, has paid for 400 acres
OF land, worth on the market today
without buildings, $40 per acre. and has
placed thereon, $1,000 worth of barns
and $1,000 house and he said to me:
My cows have paid it all. His dairy of
between thirty and forty COWS averaged
last year 372 pounds and he sold it at IS
cents net to him in New Orleans.
could tell you something OF the
Iowa pig. | can take you to town in
Iowa of less than 5000 population where
in single year the banks paid hog
checks on all average Of ST 500 per day
Would you liketo know Of the Iowa
hen? can give you the name of one
man who handlesa million dozen eggs
per annum and over $50 tons of poultry.
Shall tell you of the Iowa bee?
Yol may haze heard of the lady from
the city who WAS visiting relatives in
the country. and who from certain
slances which she saw exchanged con-
cluded her friends thought her unfa-
miliar with The ways of rural life. Sit
ting down to supper and noticing some
honey on tue table hesought to redeem
herself by the remark, IL observe YOU
keepa nee 1he last Federal census
reported tie losa bee to have stored in
d single year III excess of her needs.
100000 poands-3, 500 tons. 800 car
loads, eight train loads of forty cars
each, OF as delicious honey as that of
which Old Homer sung. Iowa. MIR.
Chairman, Keeps bee.
Amid tAesetenporal conditions there