270 IOWA DEPARTMENT qF AGRICULTURE 



REPORT OF CATTLE DEPARTMENT. 

 S. B. Packabd, Superintendent. 



Marshalltown, Iowa, Nov. 26, 1909. 

 Mb. J. C. Simpson, 



Secretary Department of Agriculture, 

 Des Moines, Iowa. 



Dear Sir: — Responding to your request for a review of the work and 

 suggestions for improvement of the various departments in the exhibits 

 for the coming year, I beg to submit, in connection of the cattle depart- 

 ment, some things which might aid in the enlargement of the dairy side 

 of the cattle show. Iowa is largely engaged in the milk production and 

 is at the same time most deficient in the breeding of pure breeds of dairy 

 cattle. It needs but this statement to call attention to a branch of the 

 most profitable pure bred cattle industry that has been overlooked in favor 

 of the beef breed side, which is so thoroughly well established in the state. 

 The dairy pure blood pays its keep with a milk production and its selling 

 price, not less than any of the pure bred of the beef breeds, can be readily 

 seen is all "velvet." The last exhibit of dairy cattle at the state fair 

 was much better and larger than any before it. This was stimulated by 

 the increased classification and more premiums. I suggest that the state 

 board consider a still further increase in premiums for all the dairy 

 breeds, not overlooking the Ayrshires which seems a breed that ought to 

 find a place in view of the groat favor that is shown for the breed out- 

 side of the state. With liberal premiums and a substantial increase in 

 the stable room to give satisfactory accommodation, I believe many herds 

 of dairy cattle will be put on exhibition from nearby and even remote 

 states and thus give the enterprising Iowa dairy man a chance to see 

 and to study the various breeds that promise in type and milk production 

 to meet the taste and demands of a large inquiring number of visitors 

 from the dairy counties which a big exhibit will be sure to attract. To 

 further specialize such an exhibit it might be well to have the exhibit 

 judged by themselves the first two or three days of the fair. This would 

 relieve the congestion somewhat in the ring and much more contribute 

 to the comfort of the visitors in securing lodging rooms in the earlier 

 part of the fair. The city of Des Moines is taxed much beyond its capacity 

 from Monday to Thursday in caring for the visitors in a manner that 

 suits the taste and comfort of a class that are not v.illing to take any 

 kind of a rooming place when used at home to a faultless entertainment. 

 Give the dairymen a chance to be in at the first and best days of the 

 fair and they will go to see an exhibit of dairy cattle the best that can 

 be assembled in the country. 



At the meeting of the fair association at Chicago I suggested that an 

 agreed rule be adopted requiring, either in 1910 or 1911, that all dairy 

 cattle at least, if not all breeds, be certified as free from tuberculosis as 

 a condition for entry at any show of the fairs. 



With assurance of my high regard to each and every officer and mem- 

 ber of the best state board in the country, and to all the many exhibitors 



