ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 197 



Had this article, along with others equally as pointed, been written 

 and published two years ago, there is no doubt but what Iowa today 

 would have a well organized bureau of publicity and immigration. It 

 was my pleasure to visit the land show referred to in the above article 

 and upon this visit I gathered an armful of booklets, pamphlets, leaflets 

 and other advertising literature. If we are to believe one-half of what 

 we find in the advertising literature set out by other states, transporta- 

 tion and development associations, etc., we will learn that Louisiana 

 is the banner corn state, producing crops yielding from 75 to 100 bushels 

 per acre with one or two additional crops on the same land in the same 

 year; that Virginia beats the world for its luxuriant pastures; that Al- 

 berta is the only place on the map where oats can be grown success- 

 fully; that if you want to grow onions and other garden truck you will 

 have to move to Texas, or if you want to grow apples it would be useless 

 to think of doing so outside of the states of Colorado, Idaho, Washing- 

 ton, or Oregon; that Kansas has a monopoly on all the soil suitable for 

 growing alfalfa; that if it was not for the wheat grown in the Dakotas 

 and Minnesota we would grow hungry for bread; that the state of Wis- 

 consin furnishes the only ideal location for dairying; that sheep can be 

 raised successfully at present only in the states of Wyoming and Montana; 

 that if you do not live in the state of Missouri it would be useless to 

 endeavor to raise mules; that without New York's product we would 

 have no cheese; that the state of Massachusetts has a corner on all sole 

 leather used in the manufacture of shoes; that without the coal in 

 Pennsylvania and the oil from Oklahoma we would have to sit in cold, 

 dark rooms. In fact, there is not much left for the farmers of Iowa 

 except to grow hogs, and we are of the opinion that if Iowa does not 

 wake up and file a claim through a bureau of publicity and immigration 

 this honor will soon be claimed by others. It would be eminently proper 

 then to ask the question, 'What is the matter with Iowa?" 



There should be no jealousy existing between counties and cities of 

 the state in this work. A bureau of publicity and immigration is for the 

 benefit of the whole state, for every county in the state, and for every 

 city and town in the state. Because some organization or some one lo- 

 cality is active in its support is not sufficient reason why it should be op- 

 posed or discredited by any other locality. What we need in Iowa is a 

 new spirit, or, as Mr. Wilson of the Greater Des Moines Committee would 

 say, "Think as a unit." And we know of no better way to bring about 

 this state of affairs than through a well organized bureau of publicity 

 that would collect and disseminate such information as would cause the 

 people of the state to think as a unit. 



All farm data goes to show that the smaller the field the larger may 

 we expect the average yield. Therefore, unless steps are taken to reduce 

 the average size of the farms in Iowa by increasing the number of farm- 

 ers, land values will cease to increase, as a fair rate of interest cannot be 

 realized on the value of the land unless greater yields are received. The 

 average yield of farm crops in Iowa today does not correspond with the 

 average price of farm land. There are many farms in Iowa of high 

 value which are operated in a manner that returns a good rate of interest 



