The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-05-13
john Cownie, of the State Board of
Control, Says 1t Is Worth
Sixty Dollars an Acre.
NO UAIMPROVED ACRES IN THE STATE.
Governor Names Commissioners for
the st. Louis ExpositiOn-Tcache
to Hold n COnferencc-Progr
for the Grand Army Encampment-
other Notes of Interest.
Especial Correspondence

ME, of the state board of control,
says:
Iowa land is worth, on an average, $50
an acre to-day. see estimates that 1t is
worth $50 on an average; l think that Is
| too low. l am speaking of improved lands,
now. We have no unimproved lands in
Iowa, properly speaking; Tor if we speak OF
| unimproved it means capable OF being
titled There is no open land in this state.
There are pieces Of waste land and tim
Der lands that can be bought for from
s2a to $40 per acre, possibly; but that is lot
properly considered in fixing the price of
Iowa farm land 1 think there has been
an advance OF $40 an acre in the last two
| years. Since 1890 there has been an ad-
vance OF $50 per acre or more, in my opin-
| ion.
| Moreover, much Of the land is being
bought by the farmers themselves. They
| are charging their holdings. The farms
| are getting larger instead of smaller. While
the present prices remain the farmer can
afford to grow and sell products from land
| worth SEQ or SIS an acre. There are sections
| of the state where the land is worth 500
and $125 an acre right along. The east
ern part of the state Is rapidly taking on
the Illinois status.
THE farmers who sell are not moving
away into the west or into other states,
| as a rule. They are staying right in Iowa.
|
cities and are sending their children to
the better schools Few farmers, compare
| lively, are going to the cheap lands west
The Iowa money put into Dakota, Mime
sofa and Canadian lands is put there by
| investors rather than by Iowa farmers who
have sold their land and are seeking new
| homes. With the Iowa bank deposits
| quadrupled within the last II years the
Iowa farmer can afford to hold his land
and farm it or he can sell it and be inde-
| pendent all the rest of his days"
| The reports to the state executive
council last year showed that the av-
erage consideration for Iowa land on
| March /, 1901, was $44. This is be-
lieved to have been very low, al
though more of the rise in prices has
occurred during the past year than in
| the first year since 1900.
Delegates Named
Governor Cummins has appointed
the Iowa delegates to the American
Congress of tuberculosis to be held
in New York City May IA, Is and 16.
Great interest attaches in Iowa to
this congress for the reason that the
state board of health believes that
tuberculosis may be transmitted from
the bovine milk to the human system
| despite the fact that DR.. Koch in the
| tuberculosis congress in London de-
clared last year that it could not.
The Iowa delegates to this congress
are the following physicians: II. H.
Clark, McGregor; J. I. Gibson, Deni
son; c. +. Kellogg, Clinton; C. II.
Preston, Davenport; w. E. Hartman,
Ames; f. w. Porterfeld, Atlantic; j.
NJ. Emmert, Atlantic; l.. w. Littig,
Iowa CITY; j. r. Guthrie, Dubuque;
e. E. Dorr, Des Moines; w. S. H. Mat
thews, Des Moines; ID. McCrae, Coun-
ell Bluffs; George Z. Neil, Fort Madi-
son; c. B. Adams, Estherville; w. S.
Lessinger, Mount Pleasant; r. P.
Berry, Clermont; r. E. Conif, Sioux
City; A. j. Hobson, Hampton; E.
Portertield, Indianola; j. w. Lauder,
Alton; Il. H. Little, Muscatine; w. j.
Eylotf, Mason City; A. Poore, Cedar
Rapids.
Weighing Grain.
The Iowa grain dealers have given
considerable attention to the argu-
ment of A. E. Schuyler, assistant
weighmaster of the Chicago board of
trade, in favor of the Genital system
of weighing grain. This system of
weights and measures prevails on the
Pacific coast. 1t is based on the hun
dred weight instead of on the bushel
1t dispenses with practically all the
computation between the buyer and
seller. The scales weigh the grain by
the hundred pounds, while under the
present system it is necessary to
keep complicated system of figures
in mind. A bushel of corn is sc
pounds shelled or 10 on the cob; oats
is SO pounds to the "bushel; wheat
60, etc. The number of pounds has
to be divided by the number OF
pounds in the bushel weight, which
is different for every kind of grain
Moreover, the weight of bushel OF
the same kind of grain varies in the
different states. The result is end
less confusion. All this could be
eliminated if every bushel, as it were
!. weighed 100 pounds.
Commissioners Chosen.
Governor Cummins has announced
the members of the Iowa commission
to superintend the Iowa exhibit at the
st. Louis exposition, for which the re
cent legislature appropriated $125, 900
: On the commission as named is one for
.. mer governor, two former congress
men, four former state senator's ant
three former representatives. Their,
are five democrats on the commission
as required by law. The list is as fol
lows:
Commissioners at Large-William LARA
bee, Clermont. Fourth district; w. w. Wit
, mer (dem), Des MoineS.
District Commissioners-First Leroy A
Palmer, Mt. Pleasant, democrat; Second
George NJ. Curtis, Clinton; Third, w. 4
Hartman, Hampton; Fourth, Thomas Up
desrar, McGregor; Fifth, James H. Ire
win Cedar Rapids; Sixth, Samuel S. Car
! ruthers, Bloomfield democrat; Seventh, s
NJ. Leach, Abel; Eighth, p l.. Prentis, Del
phos: Ninth, W. 7. Shepherd, Harlan, dem
'crat Tenth, c. j. A. Ericsson, Boone; Eley
enth- w. c. Whiting, Whiting, democrat.
! Grand Army Encampment.
Commander George Metzger of tn