FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 133 



The sheep exhibit this year was made by thirty exhibitors, showing 

 about 700 head of sheep, which is a slight increase over the number shown 

 last year. 



The management finds it difficult to increase the sheep exhibit, or 

 even hold its present exhibitors, with the accommodations they have to 

 offer them. The old sheds assigned the sheep exhibitors again this year 

 did not prove to be much shelter during the storms on Thursday and 

 Monday nights. This caused considerable feeling among the sheep ex- 

 hibitors; in fact, every sheep exhibitor at the 1914 fair signed a petition 

 that they would not show their sheep at the Iowa State Fair unless 

 better accommodations were provided for their exhibit before another, 

 year. 



The sheep industry in the State of Iowa is of such importance that we 

 are in hopes that the coming session of the legislature will give the matter 

 serious consideration and make an appropriation to provide adequate 

 quarters for the sheep exhibit at the Iowa State Fair before another 

 fair takes place. 



The poultry exhibit was made by 104 exhibitors, who exhibited 1,612 

 birds, or approximately the same number as was shown at the 1913 fair. 



The educational poultry exhibit put on by the Extension Department 

 at Ames, including demonstrations in poultry dressing, proved to be 

 an attractive and educational feature in this department. 



The classification added this year for flock, consisting of one male and 

 ten females properly mated to produce standard specimens, attracted a 

 number of entries and a great deal of attention. The pens for exhibiting 

 the flocks were 6x8 in size and were built on the ground. It would 

 seem that this is the practical way to show poultry. We believe the time 

 will come when practically all utility breeds will be shown in this man- 

 ner and the numerous classes carried in all premium lists for fancy 

 breeds of poultry will in time be discouraged or eliminated. 



The agricultural exhibit was far superior in quality and quantity to 

 what we have had in former years. The new classification for county 

 exhibits brought out seven excellent exhibits. They not only showed in 

 an attractive way what was produced in the county but they also stimu- 

 lated an interest in the county agent work. 



The seventeen individual farm exhibits clearly indicated the diversity 

 of products that may be produced upon an individual farm in the state 

 of Iowa, and they were put up in such shape as to make them educa- 

 tional as well as attractive. The plan of using the score card for the 

 exhibits in the county and individual farm classes provided a better 

 basis for judging and met with the approval of the exhibitors. At the 

 close of the fair the Iowa Agricultural committee of the Panama-Pacific 

 Exposition secured a number of the county and individual farm exhibits 

 as well as some of the specimens of sheaf grain exhibited in the indi- 

 vidual classes, for the purpose of making the agricultural exhibit at the 

 San Francisco Exposition in 1915. We are of the opinion that we 

 will hear from these exhibits later when they are placed on exhibition 

 in competition with the products of other states. 



