TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 711 



that it will not pay to milk cows that are not high producers, and dairy- 

 bred stock is the most highly developed in this line. 



There was more activity in the sheep department than usual. Both 

 in quality and numbers the show outranked that of last year by a good 

 deal. It was also apparent that there was more interest taken by farmers 

 in this department. Sheepmen reported having made many sales; in 

 fact, some of them had sold out early in the week. Sheep are a good 

 investment, and a small flock, at least, should be kept on every high- 

 priced farm in the state. 



The swine exhibit was not quite so large as last year, but there were 

 close to 2,400 head in the hog pavilion as compared with nearly 3,000 last 

 year. There were two main reasons for this decrease. First, the rules 

 were such as to exclude second rate stock; and, second, the hog supply 

 all over the country is short. There is no question but that there were as 

 many first-class hogs in the pavilion as there were last year, so it may 

 truthfully be said that from a quality point of view — and quality is the 

 important consideration — the hog show of this year was superior to that 

 of 1908. 



The machinery exhibit, as usual, was large. It was educational. ^lany 

 new inventions were shown. When one attempts to look over the ma- 

 chinery at a great state fair one begins to realize how it is that the 

 American farmer is able to produce food and clothing so abundantly for 

 the best fed and the best clothed nation on earth and yet export vast 

 quantities of products to foreign countries. To the inventors and manu- 

 facturers of farm and other labor-saving machinery the American farmer 

 owes a debt that he can never repay. It is absolutely useless to attempt 

 to get a comprehensive idea of all machinery exhibited at a modern state 

 fair; one line is all any man can study thoroughly in the usual time at 

 his disposal for such investigation. 



REGISTER AND FARMER, 



DES MOIXES, IOWA. 



With this issue of our paper going to press Iowa's great state fair 

 is at its height. All Iowa seems to be there. And, then, we have our 

 neighbors from Illinois and Nebraska and the Dakotas, and even from 

 Kansas and Missouri. There are distinguished visitors from Washington, 

 D. C., men from the agricultural department, public officials and poli- 

 ticians. And from the marts of trade, the great packing centers and 

 grain centers, have come some of the captains of industry, tremendously 

 interested in the great achievements of agriculture and stock raising 

 which are exemplified on Iowa's fair grounds as nowhere else in all 

 the world. 



And all Iowa seems to be prosperous and happy. A great people, aglow 

 with enthusiasm for the achievements of their state and of their fair, 

 having brought with them the flow-ers of their flocks and their herds, their 

 fields and their vineyards, and their happy, healthy families. Nowhere 



