TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 65 



also very representative of the counties, inasmuch as each exhibit had 

 been gathered from at least 40 farms in the county it represented. The 

 grains, forage crops and grasses, the products of the orchard and the 

 garden were all of hi^h quality and the arrangement of the exhibits, while 

 quite similar, were varied enough to be interesting and attractive as well 

 as educational. 



For the purpose of judging the exhibits the state was divided into four 

 districts — the northern, north central, south central and southern. The 

 fair association set aside $1,200 in cash for each district to be divided 

 pro rata by each county in the district according to the score made. To 

 these sums the State Farm Bureau Federation added $50 in cash for each 

 district, thus giving each district $1,250. 



Thirteen individual farm exhibits added much to the appearance of 

 and interest in the agricultural building. The exhibits were very attrac- 

 tively gotten up, the products represented were varied and of the very 

 best. Thirteen farms were represented. For the purpose of awarding 

 prizes equitably the state was divided into four sections as for the county 

 exhibits, with Polk county forming a fifth section by itself. 



Under the grandstand the Iowa State College had a number of highly 

 interesting and educational exhibits. Among them was one that attracted 

 a great deal of attention — that made by the soils section. On a large 

 map of Iowa which hung on the wall, information was given in regard 

 to the progress of the soil-mapping work which is being carried on in 

 different counties of the state under the supervision of Prof. W. H. Stev- 

 enson. Maps showing soil surveys covered the 33 counties that have 

 been surveyed. The number of counties that have asked to have their 

 soils mapped as soon as possible were also indicated. 



After a county has been surveyed, fertilizer tests are conducted on 

 some of its principal soil types with a view of determining how the fer- 

 tility may be most economically maintained and also which kind of fertil- 

 izer should be used. The result of some tests that have been made in 

 different counties were shown in crop yields. On a Henry county Grundy 

 silt loam, for example, larger and more economical returns were secured 

 with corn where the soil had received manure and rock phosphate than 

 where manure and acid phosphate had been added. On the same soil 

 where crop residues were added instead of manure acid phosphate proved 

 more profitable than rock phosphate. The result of a number of other 

 tests were explained by H. J. Harper, the young man who had charge 

 of the exhibit. 



Hog feeding experiments was one of the special features of the animal 

 husbandry booth of Iowa State College. An experiment at the college, 

 wherein corn substitutes were used for fattening hogs, was featured. The 

 result of this test, where 125-pound hogs were fed on tankage, salt, corn 

 and corn substitutes, showed that the substitutes would have to be pur- 

 chased at lower prices than they sell at now in order to be profitable. 

 The value of corn substitutes compared with corn, as determined in this 

 experiment, is indicated in percentages as follows, considering corn as 

 100 per cent efficient: Com, 100; barley, 76; kafir, 77; milo maize, 94; 

 ground oats, 61; rye, 89; wheat, 97 per cent. 



