The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-09-09
SELLING the Iowa Farm.

Des Moines Register and Leader:
The Fairfield Ledger tells of Van
Buren, county farmer who recently
killed himself out of remorse after
he had sold his choice Iowa land with
a view to locating on an irrigated
tract in some semi-arid region or on
a ten-acre patch of third-grown fruit
trees in some mountain valley of the
far west His was an acute case, OF
course. but it is quite certain that
very few Iowa farmers ever sold theft
Iowa lands to take UP agriculture
elsewhere without feeling keen regret
sooner or later.
Every Iowa man who visits the
west, the northwest or the southwest
comes back to tell that he found
everywhere former Iowans who were
convinced that they had made a mis-
take in pulling up stakes and leaving
the Hawkeye state. The editor of
the Anamosa Eureka made such a
trip recently and this is what he
wrote on his return:
Portions of the great northwest, as
we have said on former occasions,
have many advantages in the produc-
ton of small grains, particularly
where irrigation is racticable-which
is a comparatively limited territory
but the traveller who swings through
thirteen hundred miles OF our north
western domain will feel as the sol
| diers3 did on their return home after
the war-it is like getting back to
Gods country once more. We wish
especially that every farmer in Jones
county could make this journey and
| the year as they never have and new
er will realize it until they have seen
it with their own eyes. Not one of
them would ever feel like complain
ing again of Iowa soil and Iowa eli
mate as long as he lives"
! Just to furnish an illustration of
what so often happens to Iowa farm
ers who sell their Iowa lands to farm
elsewhere, we may cite this one of
many cases like it. This farmer was
I one of perhaps hundreds in the state
I who invested his good money in a
| ten-acre tract in an irrigation dis
| trict in the far west, planted with
! two or three year old apple trees
4 Last year he paid $3.50 an acre for
/ the first FIVE acres and $3.50 an acre
/ for the second FIVE, because the price
had been raised to fit the demand OF
4 over-anxious Iowans. Last winter
most of his trees were killed by cold;
/ this summer most of the remainder
/ died because of water shortage, and
now this particular Iowan has a
! he would sell for song Iowa has
/ better apple-growing territory than
most Of the alleged apple districts OF
the far west Iowans who want to
4 establish orchards can do it on ten
acres OF their own quarter section
farms and make it pay If they will
/ go ct 1t scientifically.
No matter what the promises Of
eloquent real estate boomers, there
isn't farming land anywhere else in
this country or any other that can
1 be more prof1tably farmed than
Iowa land. Other lands may be
! cheaper. but no other are more pro
/ ductive Iowa can match every story
OF riches that the smooth takers
who sell western lands may put up
i If 1t is a story of apples, Iowa can
point to orchards that yield crops
\ worth from $500 to $1,000 per acre
when they are scientifically cultiva.
ed. If it is . story of wheat, Iowa
has fields that produced forty and
more bushels per acre in even this
dry year. If it is a story of corn, nc
other region can equal Iowa's yields
If 1T is a story of fine horses and
choice cows. better cannot be found
| elsewhere than in Iowa. II 1t is a