The Beauty of Iowa [antikvár]

Introduction "[Iowa is] something more than the world's popcorn center " said Phil Strong, in his book Hawkeyes, and indeed it is. The state is home for a hardy, mostly conservative, sometimes obstinate, but thoroughly honest breed of I owans that have sprung from the seeds of American and European ancestry. Iowa's agricultural richness is due, in great part, to the efforts of a gathering of more than 20 nationalities that have reached into the state's black earth, America's "Heartland," to extract a yield that now accounts for a large portion of the nation's food supply. It is this same yield that has fattened Iowa's corn-fed hogs and created a cattle market second to that of Texas. Surprisingly though, more than 32 million acres of the state's "grade one" farmland is in crops. Iowa's industry claims more workers than does agriculture. Its industrial population upstages its agricultural output by many times. Once the town was home for only about five percent of Iowa's population. Now, over 50 percent have abandoned their rural beginnings for the cities, due to the growing industrial economy. Iowa has a cultural side, although it is perhaps overshadowed by the state's agricultural origins. It is the birthplace or early home of some of the nation's best writers: Ruth Suckow, Thomas Beer, Emerson Hough, Ross Santee, Carl Van Vechten, and the list goes on. Some have vividly captured the picturesque sweep of Iowa's colorful landscape, using it as a framework for portrayals of its equally colorful citizens.