EDITORIAL. 405 



Nebraska exhibits were especially elaborate, the former giving prom- 

 inence to cultural methods and the latter to feeding problems and 

 cereal diseases and insect pests. 



A novel and instructive feature for women was what was known 

 as the Model Kitchen. This was in reality a school of domestic 

 science, and was under the management of the head of the domestic 

 science department of the Iowa College, assisted by teachers of home 

 economics from the Illinois and Missouri universities and elsewhere. 

 Here a ten-day course was given to a class of young women number- 

 ing sixty, with daily demonstrations and lectures which were open 

 to the general public. 



For the farmers and experts in embryo — the students in the agri- 

 cultural colleges — a special incentive was offered in the form of a 

 judging contest. In this, teams from the Iowa and Kansas colleges 

 and the Missouri University struggled in a keen but good-natured 

 competition, finally won by the Iowa College, for the possession of 

 prizes aggregating several thousand dollars in value. Among these 

 were the grand sweepstakes trophy — a silver cup valued at fifteen 

 hundred dollars and presented under the auspices of the Mexican 

 Government to stimulate interest in corn judging — and a thousand- 

 dollar trophy offered b}^ the "Western Grain Dealers' Association for 

 the judging of oats. The contests involved the grading of selected 

 and commercial samples of the different grains, and also a statement 

 of the reasons for the judgments made ; and there were public lectures 

 by representatives of boards of trade and grain exchanges as to the 

 methods of grading, buying, and selling. Thus the opportunities 

 open to the students were much extended, and the}^ gained both ex- 

 perience and training of a sort to stimulate and develop subsequent 

 work in the class room. 



A national exposition of this sort, if closely held to the educational 

 purpose, presents very considerable possibilities in that field. Like 

 most of the other foiTQS of extension work, it is still in the experi- 

 mental stage and now possesses the temporary advantage of novelty, 

 which must soon to some extent be lost. Much of the instruction it 

 imparts is admittedly more or less superficial in degree and ephemeral 

 in effect, needing subsequent and continued stimulation through other 

 channels to effect its greatest and most lasting value. As a means of 

 arousing interest, however, of pointing out in a practical way the 

 need of individual improvement, and in revealing the opportunities 

 which scientific effort is developing, it ma}^ easily become a factor 

 well worthy of consideration in the work of popularizing the results 

 of agricultural research. 



