342 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



that the younger men have sufficient confidence in tlie possibilities 

 of dairying to enlarge their herds and that the dairy movement will 

 be continued by the j^ounger men Avhere the older leave off. 



Apparent at the State Fair this j^ear was the interest in dairy- 

 ing displayed by many of our farmers who had not entered the 

 field. The demonstration made by the cow testing associations was 

 a center of interest. This exhibit has grown from the insignifi- 

 cant display of a few years ago to one of our principal attractions. 

 At the fair was shown also the largest and best display of dairy 

 cattle in the history of the fair. At the Dairy Cattle Congress held 

 at Waterloo a record breaking attendance was made. 



At the National Dairy Show, held this year at Springfield, Mass., 

 an Iowa buttermaker took first prize for the best tub of creamery 

 butter. In this contest buttermakers from 23 principal dairy 

 states competed. We are even more proud of our showing of 

 dairy cattle at this exposition. Iowa herdsmen brought back the 

 first prize for the best herd of 12 Holsteins and the best herd of 12 

 Gruernsey cattle shown by any state. We also brought .home a large 

 proportion of the prizes given for individual cattle in the various 

 breeds and classes. 



The showing for the year as regards the increased production of 

 dairy products would have been even more remarkable were it not 

 for the protracted hot dry season which affected the central and 

 southern Iowa districts this summer. In these sections production 

 was materially lessened. With the hot dry weather came an in- 

 creased demand for ice cream, much of the raw material for which 

 had to be secured from the northern section of the state. 



Never in the history of the industry has Iowa butter brought so 

 high a price as it did this year. The eastern market which takes 

 about five sixths of our product was uniformly firm. New York 

 quotations averaged for the year 32.43 per pound for extras. 



CREAMERY BUTTER. 



From reports received from 462 creameries we find that 97,- 

 628,788 pounds of creamery butter were manufactured in Iowa last 

 year. This is the highest figure for production recorded during the 

 past eight years. The product brought as returns the sum of 

 $27,127,228.49. 



We attribute much of .the increase in returns to the marked im- 

 provement which is gradually being shown in the quality of butter 

 now being manufactured. Informing the creamery patrons as to 



