THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART XI. 661 



and farming a farm). By doing this they are sure to obtain a competency 

 for old age. Another problem for Iowa farmers to solve is, the difference 

 between farming a farm and staying on a farm. Webster tells us that 

 farming is the practice of tilling land, but farming in western Iowa I 

 would say consists of tilling land and raising stock and poultry and one 

 who does this is a busy man. He has a place for everything and every- 

 thing in its place and when one passes by one of these farms he is struck 

 by the tidy appearance and skillful manner in which he finds everything 

 arranged. 



Farmingis a business, just as much so as the manufacturing of goods 

 and selling them. The underlying principles are alike, the general meth- 

 ods are alike, the causes of success or failure are the same — the same things 

 which take most attention in any factory business are exactly the things 

 needed for successful farming. These are: knowledge of what the mar- 

 ket wants and when it wants it; selling produce where there is the most 

 demand and the least supply; the art of dicreasing the cost of production; 

 of finding out just what the cost of production is and the study of market 

 conditions to decide what we can and cannot profitably raise. It is un- 

 necessary for me to draw a picture of what staying on a farm consists in 

 because I do not suppose there are any of this class of farmers in this part 

 of Iowa. There is another item that comes up as we look at tbe future — ■ 

 the price of farm land in Iowa. Many of you here today have the price of 

 land at five dollars per acre and some of you have undoubtedly seen it for 

 much less. "With the present value of farm land in this vicinity ranging 

 from fifty to one hundred dollars per acre the question is asked, is this an 

 actual or a fictitious value. It is an actual value to be sure. While I do 

 not believe the farm land will advance as much in the next five years as 

 it has in the past five years, yet there is a future for Iowa that we know 

 not of. To be sure the present value cannot be sustained if land owners 

 all rent their land, but I believe the time is not far distant when every 

 farmer in Iowa who owns a farm will make his home on the farm, thereby 

 bearing his part of the burden of society in the locality that is entitled to 

 it above all others. Just think of a farmer from fifty to sixty years of age 

 leaving his home on the farm and moving to town to spend the rest of his 

 natural days in indolence. It is a matter of fact that men are all well and 

 strong from fifty to seventy years are at their best. Their judgment is 

 ripe, they have an extensive line of experience and they have long since 

 learned not to make the same mistake twice. The free delivery of man 

 in the rural districts of Iowa will have a tendency to keep the older class 

 of farmers on their farms and the rural telephone' lines will do even more. 

 Still there is another advantage awaiting your welcome. The interurban 

 railroad (we have every reason to believe that in the next decade). All 

 of the principal thoroughfares of Iowa will have a road of this character, 

 thus enabling us to transport our products much cheaper and more con- 

 veniently than by present methods. Emerson declared a little while be- 

 fore he died, "We think civilization near its meridian, but we are yet only 

 at the cock crowing and morning star." The future will verify Emerson. 



