The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-05-19

5000 MILES OF RAILROAD
Advantages Of the State Are Many
and the Agricultural Interests Are
Of the Most Favorable
Character.
Especial to The Gate City.1

tSpecial to The Gate Clty.J
DIES MONIES, Iowa. May 49,
Iowa Is the hub of the greatest live
stock and grain markets of the world.
Chicago on the east, Minneapolis on
the north, Sioux City and Omaha on
the west, Kansas City, st. Joe and st.
Louis on the south, together with the
markets within her own borders, af-
ford the greatest opportunity offered
to any people of the world to market
the products of the farm.
More than nine thousand miles OF
railroad within the borders OF the
state, a mileage that is exceeded only
by three other states in the union,
connect all Iowa points with these
great markets Very few farmers in
Iowa live ten miles from a railroad.
At any and all seasons of the year
Iowa farmers have the advantage OF
the highest market prices with short
hauls.
Lack of markets and railroad facili-
ties have rendered the crops at many
parts Of Canada and western United
States almost worthless. In some OF
the irrigated sections of our noun
tain states, potatoes rot in the ground
for lack of a market; fruit falls I'M
gathered; alfalfa is uncut and there
is no harvest because there is no
market.
A former Iowa man after spending
some time in some of the mountain
states returned to Ida county, IOWA.
In an interview published IN the Ida
County Pioneer, he said:
81 could have bought train load OF
potatoes for ten cents bushel
! saw pit after pit of the finest poti
| toes you ever saw that the owner
said he would not open but would al
low them to rot down where they
we're so he could resume his farmins
operations on top of them.
at is the same with their fruit.
They raise an immense crop every
| year. Their apples they pick by hand,
carefully sort and resort them, wrap
them in tissue and pack them In
boxes. 1t is beautiful fruit, all the
same size and color and some years
that get good price, but more often
they don't. Last fall their fruit rails
ers organized and shipped their fruit
back to the cold storage countries,
Chicago, ST. Paul, Omaha, Kansas
City and some to Des Moines, with
/ the idea of selling fruit during the
winter when the price was right. The
price was never right. however for
Iowa and the middle west had all the
home raised apples they needed and
when the settlement came, the fruit
raisers of the west did not get
enough off their crop to pay the
freight"
The vast Dominion of Canada with
an area Of 661s times that Of Iowa,
has no live stock or grain markets
4 within It's borders to compare with
those contiguous to Iowa. The great
bulk of the grain from the western
/ provinces goes to market by way OF
the great lakes, reached at TT Will
{ liams and Port Arthur, Ontario. the
/ twin cities at the head of Lake Super
Tor. Here the terminal elevators are
inadequate to the demands and ship
ping is very congested.
The central body of the organized
farmers OF Canada, known as the Do
minion Council of Agriculture, in its
meeting in Regina. Sask, eighteen
months ago. passed resolutions urg-
ing the domision government to use
Its utmost influence with Canadian
railways operating in western Canada
to provide more cars and increased
elevator service and also to make the
best arrangements possible with the
railroads of the United States for the
use Of their cars from western Can,
ada points to Minneapolis and Duluth
| From Regina to Minnesota by rail
lis s07 miles; from Des Moines to