482 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



five years, provided they all remained in the state. But we still have 

 56,060, or about two-fifths of the gain to be accounted for. Plainly it is 

 up to that word, immigration. 



Once more the boy — older than ho used to be— sits upon the hill top to 

 study the tide of migration. Truly it is a restless world. Time, the un- 

 equaled builder, the sure healer, has wrought marvelous changes. The 

 boundless stretches of native grasses of that other day are no more. 

 The russet of ripening corn and the green of clovers have taken the 

 place of golden rod and prairie pink. The smoke from thousands of 

 cities and towns tints the autumn air. Beautiful and commodious 

 farmsteads with every modern comfort and convenience have replaced 

 the log cabin and the flimsy pine shanty. More than ten thousand miles 

 of steel net the domain once trailed by the old red and yellow coaches. 

 Swiftly flying autos skim the country roads in contrast with the slow- 

 moving, tongue-lolling ox teams of that other day. 



Immigration, he notes, still obtains upon Hawkeye soil. And when 

 he declares that the movement is just the opposite from the tide of that 

 other day when he sat upon the hill and watched the white-topped hosts, 

 the reader will insist that he is conversing through his hat. Never- 

 theless it is true. The indications are, indisputably, that immigration 

 to Iowa is from the west instead of from the east as formerly. 



Going back once more to the census record of 1905 we find that a 

 very large portion of Iowa's citizens were born in the eastern states. 

 The figures for 1915 point a marked change. The movement from the 

 east to Iowa has plainly reached and passed the high point. The tide 

 has turned, and today Iowa is gaining in population from the great 

 territory west of the Mississippi river, the same to which she has given 

 so bountifully in the past. 



Let us consider a few items. Our near neighbor and competitor for 

 honors in corn production, has always been a heavy contributor to 

 Iowa's population, still is, for that matter. In 1905 we had no less 

 than 136,644 citizens who were born in the Sucker State. Today we 

 have 144,819, convincing evidence that the Illinoisan knows a good thing 

 when he sees it, and that they are still coming. The Buckeye and the 

 Hoosier currents have dwindled perceptibly. In 1905 we claimed 73,480 

 from Ohio and 41,492 from Indiana; today we have 53,217 and 36,381 

 respectively from those two contributors. In 1905 the enumerators 

 found 45,379 people hailing from the state that owns Pittsburgh and Phila- 

 delphia, against 34,902 in 1915. From all the states east of the Missis- 

 sippi the story runs the same. 



West of the big river the figures tell a different tale. They show 

 plainly that the pendulum of migration is swinging strongly toward 

 Iowa. Take Nebraska: In 1905 Iowa had 19,982 citizens that were 

 born on the sunset side of the "Big Muddy," today we have 27,193, a 

 noticeable increase. In 1905 the state claimed 34,784 that were born 

 in Missouri; today there are no less than 48,739 hailing from the Show 

 Me State, and, it may be added, they have "been showed" to their en- 

 tire satisfaction; they know no better farming country can be found 



