The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-05-25
JUST PRAISE FOR IOWA.

J
/ Some of the advantages and achieve
ments of Iowa are admirably set
4 forth in the latest issue of Printers
4 Ink. a publication having wide cir
culation among the newspaper fra
/ ternity and advertising men. Among
/ other things attention is called to the
! fact that Iowa has lower percentage
] of illiterate persons than any other
! state in the union; that it has less
waste land than any other equal
area in the world and that it leads
the nation in the production of oats.
iowa farm products are properly char
acterized as the gold mine of the
/ state. Climate is the secret spring
of bumper crops. Iowa knows no
! foods, no toraadoes, no earthquakes,
no destructive storms and no serious
\ crop failures The states average
/ annual temperature is 40 degrees. It's
/ per cent of sunshine is 90, whereas
/ Florida and Sunny" Italy only en-
joy so, and Oregon and Washington
forty-one each. Iowa gets its great
est precipitation during the summer
months, twelve inches, when Cali
fornia only gets one inch. Oregon
three inches, and Washington TWO
inches. The three latter states get
their big precipitations in the winter
months, $50 and fourteen inches re-
spectively, In winter. Iowa gets only
3S3 inches.
Willis L. Moore, chief of the wealth
er bureau. is quoted as having made
this official statement iowa has all
the essential factors of climate to
make it the most productive state in
the union" The Iowa death rate is
among the very lowest. California
and Colorado are noted for their
healthfulness, yet. where 1,2oS die
/ in Iowa. 1874 die in California, and
1 1,724 die in Colorado. The death
rate for pneumonia is; Iowa seventy
seven, Colorado 21S; and for typhoid:
Iowa thirty-six, Colorado sixty-eight.
The following concrete examples of
( the prosperity of Iowa farmers are
/ given:
/ Some idea of the productivity of
the soil, as a result of this climate,
I can be got when it is stated that by
intensive farming a man named SEES
tier, on a thirty-two acre farm just
outside Des Moines. built $4,000
worth of improvements and paid for
them with the products of the soil in
\ seven years. A Scott county onion
! grower has averaged S135 net profit
/ the acre for the last fourteen years.
A celery farmer named Case mas
cleared over s3.on0 an acre. 1t must
be remembered that Iowa is the
twenty-second state in the union in
point of size: also that fifty years
ago Iowa was mostly landscape and
Indians, as somebody has put
But Iowa has less waste land IL.
any other equal area on earth. Today
there is $4,000. 100000 worth oil
taxable property in the state. Iowa
farm lands and buildings are valued
I at 81 ,49T 100000, equal TO those OF
New Jersey, Connecticut, Kentucky
4 Kansas, Colorado and Oregon put to-
u gether, or one-eleyenth those of the
United States. In 1908 the Iowa
farmers, surplus was s440,G30,o00
equal to the yearly output of the
gold mines of the world plus $4,000,
0eo."
Iowa and Illinois lead all other
states in corn production. Iowa is fal
ahead OF any other state in the pro
) duction of oats. The foregoing figures
! take 70 account of the humble Iowa
hen which annually produces as mucl
: wealth as the silver mines of Colo
RADIO. Or OF Iowa's manufacturing out
, put. $3.50. G00 600 worth in 1908 Say!
the author of the article quoted above
Combine all this wealth, which rep
/ resents purchasing power, with few
: facts about the people themselves
which indicates their purchasing In
elination. and Iowa at once become
TitaIly interesting to the ADVERTISING
man. The population is essential
AGRICULTURAL Out of total popula
. ton OF 2,210,000. fully 1.371,000 ar
: of the farms. There are 14S,SS6 farm
!. owners and 1926 tenant farmers
or 2S,612 in all. There are 574 low.
localities supporting newspaper. Q
that number 375 have less than Loo
population. 114 have between 100
I and 2 coo: seventy eight have betwee
: III 900 and 10000; only five have be
;. tween 10000 and 10000; and Their
4 are but four cities having a popul;
ton Of over 10000 Yet every one c
these many localities is W 10 dat
fl every respect. Telephones, hea
ing systems. running water ga
Y lights, sewerage autos and even ele
9 tFicity are 20 be found on the farm
9 Mex hotels. business blocks, We
zzred and lighted streets. farm house
gbtch rival in beauty and cost man
civ homes are to be seen on ever
hand. and tell the story of the groy
il ing wealth. one county alone, til
e weaIth Of which is s75.00o,0c0 he
/. sz5 $50 invested in pianos. Out /
Il 1000 autos owned IN Iowa, 6,0t