OCR Text |
Show or 35 per cent for the entire state, which will mean a handsome increase in-crease for the farming portion of it. Moreover, the labor-saving; appliances, ap-pliances, which can be used to advantage by the larger farmers, and by which one man can do more work than two did twelve or fifteen years ago, is also a factor in cutting down the population of the farming region of the older states of the big valley. The fact, however, that the value of the property owned by the farmers is growing at a high ratio is the consideration of greatest significance. It shows that good prices for products has put money into the pockets of the farmer. He has lifted the mortgage on his farm, has bought improved machinery and automobiles and was never so well off as today. The rural free delivery and the long distance telephone are other accompaniments of the higher civilization civiliza-tion by which the farmer of today has practically all the conveniences con-veniences of city life, with none of its drawbacks. It is to be sincerely sin-cerely hoped that this unexampled prosperity will continue. PROSPERITY OF FARMER SPELLS NATIONAL PROGRESS. The American farmer is the backbone of the country, and upon his prosperity largely depends the development and progress of the nation, says the National Farmer. It is to be said also in soberness and truth that the American farmer is today the most prosperous citizen of the country and of the world. Some interesting facts on this subject are given out by the census cen-sus bureau relating to the agricultural holdings in the middle west. They reveal gains in farm values in the states of this region ranging from 50 to more than 100 per cent in the past ten years. In Iowa it is shown that there has been an increase of 117 per cent in the value of farms and farm property. Everything belonging to the farms, from the lands and buildings to the products has made an immense gain in the decade. In the outlay for labor on the farms there has been an increase of about 50 per cent, which means an expansion of practically that amount in wages per person, for the number of farm workers has probably not increased. The state census for 1905 showed a slight decrease in the aggregate population of Iowa since 1900, due altogether to a falling off in the agricultural regions. The increase in the value of farms shown by Iowa is said to be repeated in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas and the other states of the northern end of the Mississippi valley. Hundreds of thousands of the smaller farmers of the states north of the Ohio and north of the sountern boundary of Missouri ! and Kansas have sold their holdings to their neighbors and have gone into Oklahoma, Texas and the states west of the Rocky moun-tains, moun-tains, where they have bought farms two or three times as large for the money which they have obtained for those which they vacated. They get into a new locality and grow up with it, profiting by the big increases in the value of the lands which is sure to come to them. Oklahoma increased 109 per cent in population in the past ten ten years, Arizona GG per cent and'New Mexico 67 per cent, while Texas, which has not yet reported, will probably show a gain of 30 |