198 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



on its present valuation. There are also a great many small tracts return- 

 ing yearly almost unbelievable profits. If we had had a bureau of publicity 

 clothed with authority and provided with ample funds to collect these 

 facts and put them into printed form for distribution at home and abroad, 

 it would not only open the eyes of a great many of our own people but 

 would be the means of attracting thousands of settlers to our state. The 

 presentation of the claims of the various states and communities is be- 

 wildering. These claims are presented by displays, personal conversa- 

 tion, printed matter, lectures and picture shows, and would be equally 

 effective with people of Iowa as of any other state. We must not let 

 ourselves be deceived by the thought that with all our great resources 

 we can close our doors to the outside world and expect strangers to seek 

 us out. Every resident of Iowa is familiar with the motto, "Of all that 

 is good Iowa affords the best," but others do not always see us as we 

 see ourselves. Only recently the United States census bureau gave out 

 a report showing that of all the states in the Union Iowa is the only one 

 to show a loss in population within the past ten years. This is not good 

 advertising for Iowa and will not be the means of bringing more farmers 

 or investors to our state, for usually people are a little skeptical of any 

 community, city or town, which is losing population, as a place to en- 

 gage in a new enterprise. While we people of Iowa are not greatly dis- 

 turbed over the report showing our loss in population — at least not for 

 the present — how does it look to the stranger who is seeking a new lo- 

 cation to engage in farming? Unless we are active in our efforts to 

 acquaint him with the true conditions in Iowa, won't there be some 

 doubt in his mind that perhaps there is something wrong with Iowa 

 after all? Haw will he know that our farmers have become so pros- 

 perous that they are buying the land from their neighbor to add to 

 their holdings, and that this has been the most potent cause for our de- 

 creased rural population? Again, how is the stranger to know that he 

 can receive as large or larger returns from his tract of land, either large 

 or small, in Iowa, as in any other location on earth? He does not know 

 that we have in this state apple orchards which return net profits of 

 from $500 to $1,200 per acre; neither does he know that he can raise 

 tomatoes that will return a profit of from $1,500 to $2,500 per acre; 

 that he can raise onions that will return from $600 to $1,200 per acre; 

 that we can show him conclusively where wheat has yielded at the rate 

 of eighty-eight bushels per acre; that men are receiving a profit of $100 

 per acre by raising pottatoes; that we have corn yields that run as high 

 as 150 or more bushels per acre. All these things would be very inter- 

 esting and attractive to the homeseeker, and when they occur in other 

 states, they let the whole world know of it. Here in Iowa we traesure 

 it as a bit of news that is of no particular importance, and which re- 

 ceives no world wide publicity for the reason that we have no bureau 

 whose particular mission it is to let such facts be known. Our indiffer- 

 ence to our resources was very aptly stated by a resident of the state 

 of Oregon who was interviewed in this city by one of the newspaper men a 

 few days ago. He said in part: "It strikes an outsider that Iowa ought' 



