64 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



to the farmer were shown by at least one manufacturer who is doing a 

 big business with hog men because he is able to sell one of these houses 

 and deliver it to the farmer for less than it would cost the latter to buy 

 the lumber required to make one. Cattle - \id hog waterers in which 

 the water can be kept warm in the coldest weather in winter by means 

 of kerosene lamps attracted a great deal of attention, and the manufac- 

 turers of these products made a large number of sales notwithstanding 

 that money is hard to get for most things at this time. 



A very impressive lesson was presented by the cow-testing exhibit in 

 the new cattle barn, which was put on by the dairy husbandry department 

 of the Iowa State College and the state board of agriculture. The exhibit 

 consisted of ten grade Jersey and Guernsey cows from the herd of Joseph 

 Geraghty & Sons, McGregor, Iowa. It taught two lessons: First, the 

 effect of rational or scientific feeding upon milk production; and, second, 

 the effect of using registered sires in herd improvement, so far as it re- 

 lates to production. Complete annual production records were shown 

 for six cows that had been under test for two consecutive years. The 

 cows varied in age from four to seven years. In 1919, when no special 

 attention was being paid to furnishing a well-balanced ration, the aver- 

 age production for the six was 5,814 pounds milk and 304 pounds fat; 

 in 1920, when the cows were fed a proper dairy ration according to their 

 capacity to handle feed, the average production per cow was 8,133 pounds 

 milk and 448 pounds fat. In other words, the same cows with improved 

 methods of feeding produced 2,319 pounds more milk and 144 pounds 

 more fat per year than when indifferently fed. 



While stockmen were studying type and quality of high-class, pure- 

 bred beef cattle in the judging ring and many were making mental notes 

 of the improvement they might effect in their cattle at home by breeding 

 to a first-class registered sire or by adding one or more registered fe- 

 males to their grades and eventually building up registered herds, one 

 of the big packers displayed the carcasses of two steers in papier mache 

 — one of a pure bred and the other a grade. These two steers were also 

 displayed in stuffed form as nearly like the animals as the best taxider- 

 mists could represent them. The pure-bred steer. Buster, was the grand 

 champion steer in the junior feeding contest at the 1919 International, 

 which was fed for that show by Miss Clara Ray, Mellott, Ind. The scrub 

 steer, Mike, came from a corn-belt feed lot where he had been fed for a 

 period of 80 days and carried about as much flesh as a steer of that kind 

 can be profitably made to carry. The 19-months-old Buster weighed 1,270 

 pounds when slaughtered in Chicago, while the four-year-old Mike weighed 

 1,165 pounds when he was slaughtered on the same day. 



The object of the exhibit was to show which type of steer will make 

 the most economical gains and why a well-bred steer brings a higher 

 price on the market than a scrub. Object lessons of this sort that tell 

 the truth are invaluable to the stockman who has not yet learned to ap- 

 preciate the full value of improved blood in live stock. 



The county exhibits, of which there were 17 in the agricultural build- 

 ing, created greater interest than usual, judging from the attention they 

 received from the visitors. The exhibits were exceedingly attractive and 



