Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-11-13
'IOWA'S RESOURCES
TIE Foundations of Our Common
wealth Have Been Laid Broad
and Deep.
SOME OF IT'S ADVANTAGES
"In All That is Good, iowa Affords
the Best" is Maxim, True
i'm Many Ways.

trable. walls should be made to mark
the rest of the state line, the two and
a half million people of the Hawkeye
state might still live on, healthy
happy and possessing almost every
comfort of life. Iowa is as nearly as
any other spot on earth place OF
varied resources and practically I'M
limited possibilities.
Iowa, as an agricultural state. has
very little waste land. Every one OF
the ninety-nine counties is resplend-
ent with rich farms. Iowa has vast
storehouse of coal and clay and wat
er. Climate and soil conditions COM
bine to make it a state rich in all
productions.
Iowa, also, is typical as a state
where the blending of races from all
the world is in progress, under most
favorable conditions, to produce the
new American race, combining the
best of all.
Iowa has soil of infinite richness
and great possibilities of continued
fertility. soil due to the great work
of the glaciers in depositing the sedi-
ment all over the state.
And what of the climate 1t is
such a one as fits the land for high
productiveness. An intelligent OBJ
server, who has travelled much, ad-
vanced the idea that the land best
| fitted for the production of grain and
root and fruit, and all that the earth
may be made to yield, for animal
life, and for men and women, for
boys and for girls, is that which has
frost and thaw, and just such land
lin,
ters, and the summers occasionally
give spells of burning heat; but the
former thoroughly disintegrates the
soil, while the other helps to insure
bountiful crops every year. The state
is either the first or the second in
each recurring year in the production
of Americas great staple, corn, and
as well in the yield of oats.
The average annual temperature is
AIS degrees, which is also that for
the spring season; for summer 1t is
71.3; for autumn sos, and for win
ter 20.7; and the extremes such as
are occasionally met with, are rem
dered endurable because of the SUI
perior dryness of the atmosphere at
such times. The average annual
rainfall is 32.43 inches. Nearly three
fourths of the precipitation, or over
Z per cent, is in the crop months
April to September, and during what
what may be designated as the grow
ing months, May to August, fully "a
per cent of the rain falls. The prec-
ipitation in winter, November to
March, is only about 20 per cent of
all the downpour of the year, and
that comes mainly in the shape of
snow, and believed to be the best
form for the protection of grasses
and to prevent the washing and the
leeching Of the soil on plowed fields.
From the middle of September way
into November, and sometimes far
into the last month of the year, the
weather is delightful. Nowhere is
the American autumn, famous the
world over, more charming than in
the middle state of the Union.
There are ten states that have less
rainfall than any part of Iowa, and
eight that have less than the average
in Iowa. On the other hand, eigh-
teen states have greater precipitation
than any part of this state, while
seven others have rain more than the
Iowa average.
With this sort of climate and a
marvellous richness of soil, Iowa has
more than met the glowing anticipa-
tions of her possibilities given out
| by statesmen of the last century, who
thought so much of the best land in
the world should not go into one
state. 1t has long been one of the
| two foremost, as before remarked,
in the production of corn, and also
of oats. 1t has repeatedly produced,
moreover, more than FIVE tons of
grains-corn, wheat, oats, barley,
rye and buckwheat-for each man,
woman and child in the state, and
more than once has the yield approx
mated, or even exceeded per capt.
ia of six tons. Some counties have
produced-did it in 1909-over ten
tons per capita. The average yield
of these grains, the country over, is
about one and third tons per cap
ita.
In the year 1910, the corn crop OF
Iowa amounting to 343.793000 bush
els. valued at $123.793,00O was Sec
ond only to the crop that Illinois
produced. The oats crop of 49,
100000 bushels, and valued at $4S,-
9S9, 900, was by 100000 bushels
the largest yield in any state
The hay crop of 1910 of $3.50, 000
tons. was the largest of all the states
that year except Ohio. The crop OF
1909, 5S93.000 tons, was larger than
that of any other state by nearly l.
100000 bushels.
In domestic animals Iowa has lone
been leading state. The number OF
horses on January 1, 1909, according
to the last accessible Year Book OF
the Department of Agriculture, was
1,447 900, being nearly $4,000 in ex-
cess of Texas, the second largest po-
SCISSOR of horses. The number of milk
cows at the same time was 100000
the state then being the second only
to New York in that respect. OF 9TH
er cattle Iowa had 1911, 900, valued
at $50, 164, 900, being second only to
; Texas. In swine, the holdings in To-
wa, 6,4S5,000 head, amounted to al
most twice what was found in any
other state.
: Iowa, the fifteenth state in the I'm
ion, in point of population. and the
twenty-fourth in area, Is fourth In
number of miles of railroad operated
by steam, there being nearly 10000
of such miles reported and taxed
And there are hundreds Of miles O