226 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



$9,000 of funds before its 60 by 138 feet of dimensions were added to the 

 permanent equipment. Under the track a wide subway was led at a cost 

 of $7,000, whereby safe access is had at all times to the infield used this 

 year as a show place for the light horses. 



Legislators were not much disposed to listen to the board's plea for 

 equipment funds. They listened to the women of the state. The new 

 Women's and Children's Building marks a distinct and significant de- 

 parture in fair grounds equipment. Iowa says thereby to the world that 

 the care of the infants and the education of the mothers are of as much 

 importance to the state as the improvement of pigs and other farm stock. 

 It is time that such a note was sounded. The sum of $80,000, $5,000 in 

 furnishings and the balance in the building, evidences the hold this idea 

 has taken. The new building aims at education and comfort. As a rest 

 place for women, with its spacious rooms, baby "check-stand," children's 

 play grounds, broad porches commanding fine sweeps of vision, and 

 cleanly dining room, the building is worth all it cost, but its fundamental 

 motive is educational. The lecture auditorium; the graphic appeals by 

 moving pictures, charts, lights and warning bells toward a more rational 

 hygiene and diet; its kindergarten in which twenty pupils from a nearby 

 school, carried each morning to the building in a consolidated wagon, spent 

 two hours in routine work each morning; the baby health contest, in 

 which infants were thoroughly examined according to the more advanced 

 standards of physical and mental tests — all these features made forceful 

 appeal, even to the thoughtless parents, and afforded aid to the eager 

 seekers after help that typifies in highest degree the educational feature 

 of a state fair. The exhibit of art was also housed in this new fireproof 

 building. i 



The agricultural building shows annual advances. Of especial note 

 was the individual farm exhibits, awakening wonder by the diversity and 

 prime character of the products of an Iowa farm. Fruits were in abundant 

 display. The northern half of the state will harvest an extraordinary corn 

 crop; south of the center, and especially toward the southeast, drouth 

 has been disastrous. But no hint of it appeared in the attractive displays 

 of farm products. The exhibit of the parcels post was in this building, 

 an enlightening display. The state dairy department continues its helpful 

 education, and the foundation of a dairy exhibit is in evidence that will 

 soon call for a special building. 



The machinery section afforded all the variety that could well be asked 

 or understood, although suffering considerably from the absence of the 

 spectacular massed displays that a half dozen or more of the largest 

 exhibitors have been wont to make. Their withdrawal from the exhibition 

 at the fairs this fall may have been wise, but it certainly gave smaller 

 exhibitors a rare chance to reach fair goers. Forty more exhibitors 

 appeared in the machinery department than last year. The smaller 

 manufacturer thus made hay while the sun shone. The mechanical aids 



