Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-02-22
IOWA's POPULATION.
More About the, Decrease in Popula
ton of the State. and How 4
~ to Remedy it. e3ii .f-.

H G $3.50 rs
Several of the commercial Organi-
cations of the state have endorsed
the project of securing an appro-
priation by the legislature for the
purpose of creating an Iowa public
ity bureau. In making such a move
to advertise the resources Of the
state, Iowa would be adopting a
plan that has been tried in other
states with successful results.
But in such an advertising cam
paign whom does Iowa expect to in
terest? Is it the man in the cities,
ar the immigrant? And what will
Iowa offer? Will it expect the i'm
migrant or the eastern farmer to
come to Iowa with enough money to
buy one of Iowa's overgrewn farms
at from 500 to $50 an acre, or
enough money to operate one of
these big farms as tenant, or does
it expect these settlers to come to
Iowa to work as farm hands? If
its appeal is to the man in the big
cities, will it attract him to the
cities of Iowa or to the farm, and
if it brings him to the farm does
it believe a city man without ex-
perience is capable of making sue
cess of farming enterprise in
which he will be asked to invest
from $4,000 to $4,000?
1t seems to us that what Iowa
must do before state wide public
ity campaign will be effective is to
get people to put into effect plan
or plans to cut down some Of our
big farms into small tracts for in
tensified farming. Then Iowa will
have something to offer the settler,
something within the reach of his
purse and something that insures
him better returns, even though a
larger investment is required than
any farming proposition that any
other state can offer.
There is hardly an acre of Iowa
land that is not adapted to inten-
sive farming. Iowa's soil is unsur-
passed and Iowa never has known a
crop failure. Iowa is so situated
that it will become the garden spot
of the world If it lives up to the
great possibilities. Iowa is closer
TO more markets than any other
state. On the west there is Omaha,
Council Bluffs and Sioux City. On
the north there is Minneapolis and
st. Paul. On the east there are
the hundreds of thousands of peo-
pie in the Iowa and Illinois cities
along the Mississippi river, besides
Chicago, Springfield, Peoria, and
the Illinois cities. On the south
there are Hannibal, st. Louis, Kan
sas City and st. Joe. In addition
to this there are Des Moines and the
interior Iowa cities, Here are mil
lions of mouths to be fed, millions
of consumers.
Owing to the adaptability of the
soil and the short seasons, Mime
sofa and the Dakotas will continue
to be used for big wheat fields. For
many years to come the farms Of
Kansas and Nebraska will be of
great acreage, because these states
are not completely settled. Much
of Missouri's land is hilly and not
to cultivation. Illinois has
gone in for intensive farming on
small scale, but it's farms, as rule,
are of big acreage as in Iowa.
Iowa's fertile soil, it's abundant
rain fall, supplemented by we'll wa
ter for irrigation, when necessary
for intensified production, and it's
proximity to the market centers
makes 1t the ideal garden spot. But
a field of from 160 to a thousand
acres cannot be successfully operat-
ed by one family as a garden. There
is need for smaller tracts of ten,
twenty or forty acres, and Iowa
should set about interesting some
one in providing small tracts of this
size to offer to the men 1t seeks to
induce to settle in Iowa.
1t can be done as it has been
done in other states. In Colorado
and other western states syndicates
have acquired large acreages. water
ed them by irrigation and then
placed them on the market in small
tracts. Many young men have gone
from Iowa to take up these small
farms who might have been kept at
home IL the same opportunity had
been given them here. This plan
has been worked successfully in
many Iowa cities in opening up city
additions. Large tracts in the sub
urbs of the cities have been secured,
cut up into city lots and improved
and in this Way the cities have TAX