Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-04-25
THE LOT OF THE FARMER.

THE LOT OF THE FARMER.
Modern improvements have done
much to improve the condition of the
farmer. A few years ago he was al
most an outcast, practically cut off
from the world for days, even weeks,
at a time, hearing all the news second
hand and leaving his farm only sell
dom to drive slowly to the nearest
town, market his produce, receive his
weekly paper with it's stale news, buy
his supplies and journey slowly back
home. His only opportunity to brush
up against the outside world was on
these infrequent trips to town, when
he would spend a little time discuss
ing weather, crops and politics around
the stove at the village store. Today
all is changed. He rides to town on
an electric car, sends his merchandise
in the same way, has his telephone in
his home, gets his daily paper and his
other mail by means Of the rural
routes, and keeps up with the times
as much as does his cousin in the city.
His children, instead Of receiving a
meager education few months in the
year at little cross roads school with
an incompetent teacher, are sent to
centralized and consolidated schools
with able teachers and good facilities
for instruction, and there fitted for
college, to which they can be sent on
crease in the value Of the farm since
the Introduction of modern inventions
and Improvement
!, I~~ Fo~,, to-, 4 L TO-
Of the other western states in these
improvements and this general pro-
gress. Iowa is primarily small-farm
state. Three things have revolution
lied the farmers condition within a
decade: electric inter-urban railways,
rural telephones and rural free deliv-
cry of mail.
No point in Iowa is more than ten
miles from a steam railroad, yet al
most $50 miles of electric inter-urban
railway are already in operation and
many more are building. These lines
radiate from such commercial centers
as Des Moines, Iowa City, Waterloo,
Cedar Rapids, Mason City, Clinton and
Davenport, for ten to thirty miles into
the surrounding country. Passenger
cars are run at frequent intervals.
with low round-trip fares prevailing,
and semi-daily freight cars operate on
most of the lines. The farmer sends
his milk, garden truck and fruit to the
city on a fast flying electric car where
he once slowly and laboriously hauled
it across country by wagon.
There Is no country in the str tie in
which rural telephone lines arc not in
successful operation. These connect
the farmer with his neighbors and
with the town and city markets. By
them he learns whether there is a
market for his produce and disposes
Of it before the town trip is begun.
By them he learns what is m ost need
ed and fills that need, thanks to the
ir.er-urban at his door, within the
hour. The rural telephone is Of COM
paratively recent installation in Iowa.
There was time when the ordinary
fence wires were used, but now more
than 1000 lines have strung regular
wires and cater to the rural trade,
with as good equipment as is to be
found in cities. In the beginning the
farmers were compelled to pay the
cost of installing the service, ordina-
rily about S25 for wires and instru-
ments, and monthly rental Of 81 or
81 to the operating exchange. Today
telephones are installed free, as they
are in the city, and nominal rental
is charged. In many counties the far
mers have organized mutual compa-
MES and conduct their own exchanges
The rural free mail delivery system
now extends over the entire state On
September 1 of last year 1907 rural
mail carriers we're making daily trips
in Iowa and seyenty-five new lines
were installed during that month.
Iowa has more rural mail carriers
today than it has city mail carriers.
The annual pay roll for the rural. car
riers aggregates a million and a half
dollars. Each rural carrier makes one
trip day, the trips averaging twenty
four miles. The rail is delivered at
the highway entrance to each farm.
There are few farmers today who do
not receive their daily paper with the
news of the world and, most important
of all, the reports Of the grain and
stock markets.
An innovation Of even more recent
date is the circulation of the weather
forecasts. The Iowa Weather and
Crop bureau. with headquarters at Des
Moines, sends out by telephone daily
the weather forecasts for that night
and the next day to $1,000 farmers,
while 5000 printed cards with the
forecast are sent by rural free mail