Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/577



tion and distribution of new and promising seeds and plants sent out among the farmers of the State for experimental purposes.

The amount of improved lands in the farms of the State at this time was reported at nearly 4,000,000 of acres out of a total acreage in the State of 33,000,000. It is estimated that there was unimproved land entered at this date and taxable amounting to nearly 24,000,000 of acres of which nearly 16,000,000 belonged to non-residents. The assessed value of unimproved land averaged $2.75 per acre. The average price of wheat was forty cents per bushel; corn, twelve cents; oats, fifteen cents; potatoes, twenty-five cents; and hay, $1.50 per ton. There were produced 3,000,000 gallons of sorghum syrup, valued at thirty-three cents per gallon.

Barbed wire fencing had not then come into use and the farmers were experimenting with hedge plants of osage orange, hawthorn, willow and honey locust. Others were making fences by ditching. But the common fence was of rails or boards and was the great expense in making farms, costing more than all other improvements combined.

Stage lines conveyed passengers, mail and express packages in various directions from the terminus of the railroad. Freight lines were established to transport goods, lumber and coal to the chief towns of the interior and western portions of the State and bring back farm produce for the eastern markets.

The population of the State had now reached 674,913, showing an increase in ten years of 482,700. The aggregate value of the farms had reached, in round numbers, nearly $120,000,000; while the total value of farm implements and machinery was more than $6,000,000. The value of live stock was more than $22,000,000; the corn crop made a yield of more than 42,000,000 of bushels; wheat, 8,500,000 bushels; oats, 5,887,000 bushels; potatoes, 2,800,000 bushels. The dairy products were, in