TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 93 



•will be sufficient profit, however, to make sure that the new cattle barn, 

 for which the last legislature made an appropriation, will be constructed 

 on the original scale planned, even tho the cost of materials has Increased 

 since the first estimates were made. Another possibility is the building of 

 additional wings to the grandstand. Most of those who stood in line for 

 hours waiting for tickets and then considered themselves lucky to buy 

 standing room will assent heartily to any such plans. 



The financial success of the fair, however, can only be considered as in- 

 cidental. As an education in what Iowa is doing in agricultural lines, and 

 as a stimulus to great effort in the future, the fair attains its greatest use- 

 fulness. These main purposes were stressed even more strongly than 

 usual this year. 



The live stock show was, as always, the outstanding feature of the fair. 

 All departments were well represented, but the Iowa hog dominated the 

 field. In all probability it was the greatest hog show ever held. The In- 

 creasing tendency of breeders to work for big type animals with frame and 

 vigor was shown in all exhibits. 



The agricultural college exhibit this year concentrated largely on the 

 spraying of apples. On the one hand was a pile of upsprayed apples, 

 wormy and blotchy with disase; on the other was a pile of smooth, healthy, 

 sprayed apples. In bottles were the materials used — the arsenate of lead, 

 the copper sulphate, the lime, etc. And, best of all, people were at hand to 

 explain. The college exhibit is oftentimes "old stuff," but it is always one 

 of the most educational exhibits on the grounds. 



There is always a tendency to overlook the corn and small grain show. 

 Judge L. C. Burnett pronounced the exhibit this year to be one of unusual 

 quality. In order to promote more interest in the corn show, we would 

 suggest that prizes be offered for this year's corn. Of course, corn of the 

 current year would be immature, but prizes on such a basis would stim- 

 ulate to an unusual degree the breeding of corn for early maturity com 

 bined with size. 



The government and state, in a little tent near the stock pavilion, were 

 prepared to tell Iowa farmers how they might take advantage of the new 

 tuberculosis law. Thousands of Iowa farmers were astonished to learn 

 how advantageously they might clean up their herds. 



Aside from the live stock, machinery draws more attention than any- 

 thing else. Nearly two hundred tractors, of all shapes and sizes, were on 

 exhibition. And this year farmers studied them more than ever before. 

 New silage handling devices are always of interest, and this year special 

 attention was devoted to a machine cutting the silage in the field. There 

 were a multitude of self-feeders of different types, with modem improve- 

 ments to prevent waste and keep out rain. Continually new things are 

 being invented to lighten the burden of the Iowa farmer, and in the course 

 of time many of those new things prove exceedingly practical. 



The size of the fair exhibits in actual bulk was impressively shown by 

 the announcement that four hundred and fifty-one freight cars were re- 

 quired to handle the job on the railroads. Of this total, three hundred and 

 eighty-eight, or seventy-five per cent, were used for live stock. And this. 



