TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 87 



In addition all entry records were smashed, 238 filing applications. Fur- 

 thermore, the entrants competed individually and also as teams of three 

 from their respective counties, after a preliminary contest under the su- 

 pervision of the county agricultural advisors. Polk county won, with a 

 total of 1,956 points out of a possible 2,400. The members of the team 

 were Edward Menough, Grimes; Merwin Smith, Des Moines; and De 

 Wight Kinsey, Grimes. Forty points behind came Hamilton county with 

 Johnson, Clinton, Woodbury, Greene, O'Brien, Monona, Dickinson, Boone, 

 Marshall, Crawford, Muscatine, Wapello, Jasper, Washington, Adams, 

 Clarke, Van Buren, Webster, Cherokee, Cass and Worth winning prizes 

 in the order named. The total value of the prizes was $40. The highest 

 possible score was 800, with six classes of stock and two of grain to judge. 

 For the fourth time in eleven years a boy from Warren county won first. 



The baby show continues to be a potent factor in educating mothers as 

 to infant needs and showing in a scientifically demonstrable way the won- 

 ders of their babies. "Everyone knows his own youngster is the finest 

 in the world; the baby show tells why." More than 300 babies, with in- 

 numerable "rooters," disputed brains, brawn and beauty in the com- 

 petitions. 



Motors are coming to be common among farm interests. Whether ex- 

 pressed in the little one-cylinder engine for the well or feed grinder or 

 washing machine, in the tractor, or in the automobile, motors are integral 

 parts of farm equipment. Forty-five types of small stationary engines 

 suitable for chores and odd jobs were on display, while tractor styles 

 were legion. Iowa has more than 400,000 automobiles registered, and the 

 show in the big machinery pavilion represented every popular make. The 

 class of car used by the Iowa farmer shows a steady increase in size, 

 power and usefulness each year, and with the rise in car standards comes 

 an awakened community conscience on the road problem. There remain 

 now only the three eastern counties in Iowa's second tier from the north 

 that have not voted for paved roads. It is as morally certain as votes 

 can make it that next year will see a paved highway under construction 

 to cross the 300 miles of the state. As a factor in the molding of com- 

 munity ideals the automobile has become Iowa's greatest unifying agency. 



Farm machinery, apart from motors, has almost assumed a secondary 

 importance. Not that the entries this year rivalled in numbers, quality 

 and variety those of preceding years — in some directions they manifestly 

 excelled — but that the motor offshoot of farm machinery has outgrown its 

 parent. Furthermore, farm machinery has become so well standardized 

 that the competition of ten years ago among machinery salesmen is prac- 

 tically non-existent. One can report little that is new for field operations. 

 Devices tending to greater handiness of operation were numerous. The 

 farm home is receiving the immediate attention of machinery manufac- 

 turers. Washing devices, lighting and heating plants, water and sewage 

 systems, home elevators, and a score of other devices to save steps and 

 stoops for women featured the show. 



But the fair has gone far beyond the home into the community. Thirty- 

 six district and county rural schools contested the products of their pupils, 

 artistry being mingled with artisanship, as geography, painting and model- 



