SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART VII. 267 



by nature's deposits of richness in her soil and by nature's perpetual 

 favoritism of climate. 



And so the farmer is rich and the whole State is rich because of him. 

 He has money and he spends it, and the whole State prospers with him. 

 He's rich in fine horses and fat cattle and sheep and hogs; he's rich in 

 bank accounts and the comforts of life; he's rich in privileges of church 

 and school for his family; he's near to towns and railroads and colleges 

 and music and books and social enjoyment. The farmers of Iowa live in 

 better houses, have better farm buildings, and better stock on their farms, 

 have more labor saving machinery and more ease and enjoyment in life 

 than the farmers of any other State or country or time. Fifty years ago 

 the rich lived not half so well as the average farmer in Iowa. The one 

 crop farmer of the far West or North lives in constant fear of crop failure 

 or low prices that means for him real or relative ruin. The welfare of the 

 southern farmer depends upon the price and crop of cotton. The farmer 

 of our eastern States has a soil less productive and more refractory. The 

 oriental farmer lives with certain famine just ahead of him. The farmer 

 of continental Europe is either a grasping landlord or a cringing peasant. 

 When the travelers tell them of Iowa farmers with their broad acres and 

 herds of stock and comforts of life and luxuries of existence, the Euro- 

 pean farmer is incredulous and exclaims, "These are not farmers, but 

 princes you describe." 



There are in Iowa 210,000 farms, and on these farms there live 51 per 

 cent of the people of the State, 1,130,000 persons. Of these, 320,000, or 

 about two out of every seven, are classed as workers by the census taker. 

 These 320,000 workers produce a value every day of the year, Sundays 

 included, of more than a million dollars, a sum of money equal to one 

 dollar every day in the year for every man, woman and child that lives on 

 the farms of this State. That is to say, the worker on the farms of the 

 State of Iowa produces a value of between three dollars and three dollars 

 and a half every day, not counting out the Sundays. Is it any wonder 

 that the wealth of Iowa's farmers is proverbial? 



Two-thirds of the farms of Iowa are occupied by the owners of them, 

 and everybody knows that these farms are above the average for the 

 State. Consider the condition of this average farmer in Iowa living on 

 his own farm. By the aid of a single helper he produces a value of $7 

 every day of the year. His farm is a little less than 160 acres. He and 

 his family live in the midst of opulence, good health, and pleijty to eat. 

 He produces a large part of his living and lives cheaper than any other 

 man can do. Unlike the European farmer, he eats the best and sells the 

 rest. Sit down to dinner with this Iowa average farmer. His own farm 

 and his own work have produced the beef and pork and chicken, the po- 

 tatoes, and the bread, the butter, and the milk and the cream, the vegeta- 

 bles and the fruit of a dozen varieties. If his products are as varied as 

 they may be he has raised on his Iowa farm all that he has on his table 

 except tropical fruits, tea, coffee and spices. He lives in the midst of an 

 independence unequalled by any class of men anywhere. His income is 

 large. His expenses are small, and he's rich in all that is best in this 

 life, money, lands, independence, contentment and self-respect. 



