Farm Tours for
City Folk?
You Bet!!
By M. Vnrulervelde
N orthwest Iowa is breaking out with something new—free
farm tours for city-bred tourists.
How many times have you driven through an area and
wished you could visit some of the farms, just to see what goes
on behind the scenes? Emmetsburg, Iowa, is one of the towns
doing something al)out that. Road signs on approaching high
ways announce, “FREE FARM TOURS — SEE CHAMRER
OF COMMERCE.” Smaller signs in service stations and motels
invite urban tourists to taste farm hospitality
The usual first response is, “What is the gimmick?” and
"How long must we wait for the next tour?”
The answer, “No gimmick and wait just long enough for
us to contact a guide-host to go along and answer questions.”
But there it is in a nutshell However, that is not to say that
a lot of work hasn’t gone into the tours. Also, a lot of continued
supervision. In the first place, farms were selected that would
demonstrate varied tvpes of agriculture— then their operators
were consulted. Would the farmer and his family be willing
to be interrupted during planting, combining, choring, canning,
doing breakfast dishes? The answer was a resounding, “Bring
the visitors. We’d like to meet them.”
A brochure was then made to give a brief description (A
each farm and its specialties—beef cattle, dairying, poultry,
what-have-you. Even 4-H projects of farm boys and girls were
listed, and in some cases pet animals. From this brochure visi
tors select the farms they would like to visit; on the average,
two units.
After the farms were selected, a crew of guide-hosts was
lined up. These volunteers are retired farmers. It was thought
that they could answer all—well, nearly all— questions put to
them. They were furnished with certain pertinent statistics to
be passed on to visitors as needed. Lists of these guides, with
phone numbers, were left at key spots, including the Chamber
of Commerce office. If one guide is not immediately available,
another is.
What have been the farm-tour results?
Most visitors have been from urban centers in the East.
Many have never before visited a farm.
The men want to see and hear about the scientific angles
of farming — hybridization, balanced rations, mechanized
equipment. And they want to know how the farm program is
working at the grass-roots end. Most visitors are well informed
about federal farm legislation. One tourist took home sample
leaves of com, soybeans, alfalfa and cockleburs.
Ladies have been interested in modern farm kitchens and
rare antique collections. They seem a little surprised that pigs
are provided with air conditioning in the form of large electric
fan out-takes. And, even more amazed to see those same pigs
leave their air-conditioned quarters in favor of easing down
(with a sigh of contentment) into a nice, oozy mud puddle.
As for the city children —of course they all want to see or
be a cowboy. Trouble is, in this age of mechanization, not many
farms can furnish a horse. But there are always lots of farm
babies of interest: calves, colts, kittens, chicks, piglets.
Most visitors have the impression, when they come, that
the farmer is being kept on government dole. And many of
them, when they leave, have adjusted that opinion in varying
degrees.
What effect have the farm tours had on local participants?
Let’s quote one farmer.
“This farm-meeting-city project is a two-way deal,” he said.
“There is a mutual exchange that is good for both of us.”
Surprising reaction has been evident in the retired-farmer
guide-hosts. One expressed it this way, “I get as much fun and
information visiting the farms as the folks I take. You’ve no
idea how farming methods are continually changing!”
What of the future? These farm tours (now available at a
dozen or so spots in northwest Iowa) are spreading. As for
Emmetsburg, it will have additional guide-hosts next year, and
another set of farms. Other rural families should benefit from
this exchange with the city.