FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 253 



made the awards and the prize money, for the most part, was distributed 

 with some degree of evenness to all the exhibitors. Four championships 

 went to four different breeders. The winning aged boar carried a wonder- 

 ful top and was easily entitled to the blue and the royal purple. lowana 

 won out in the aged sow class with their grand champion of last year. 

 She has been shown for three years, and has never been defeated. She is 

 today a joy to look upon. No sow ever carried a smoother loin. Berkshire 

 men generally were pleased with the size, quality and fitting of entries 

 and with the awards which were made. 



YORKSHIRE. 



Some choice bacon types were seen in the Yorkshire classes. The boar 

 classes were not well filled, but there were some good individuals shown. 

 The sow classes were strong and although Davidson captured the cham- 

 pionship ribbons he was pushed hard in many cases. The judging was 

 done by C. C. Roup, of Kalona, Iowa. 



WALLACES' FARMER, DES MOINES, IOWA. 



(Issue of Septeviber Jfth.) 



The fair season is on, and if the future can be predicted from the 

 opening at Des Moines last week, it will be even more successful than 

 usual. Never before has the Iowa fair offered so much and such a 

 variety of entertainment and instruction. The regular fair exhibits are 

 superior, both in quality and arrangement and convenience of access. 

 Courses of lectures on all sorts of topics of interest to farm folk are 

 given each day in the different buildings, and the amusement features — 

 some excellent and some not so good — are sufficient to provide entertain- 

 ment and relaxation. On Friday, the first real visitors' day, the exhibits 

 were practically all in place. Thursday night and Friday morning, a 

 gentle rain rather discouraged the attendance of some folks, but Friday 

 was children's day, and the children of the city were out in force, with 

 the result that by the time the sun came out, about noon, the crowd 

 seemed about as large as on some of the principal days a few years ago. 

 The rain delayed many within fifty miles of Des Moines, who had in-, 

 tended to drive in by auto, but a number of hardy spirits plowed through 

 the mud, and said it felt good to experience a real rain and feel real 

 mud once more. 



Monday opened with threatening weather, and this, together with the 

 preceding rain, must be held accountable for the lessened attendance — 

 about 20,000 less than Monday of last year. By the middle of the day the 

 sky had cleared, however, and it proved a very satisfactory day for those 

 who came. Monday night, however, the clouds which had advanced and 

 retreated during the day, marshaled their forces, and about eight o'clock 

 descended in force, with driving rain and high wind. Tents were blown 

 down, glass was broken, loose timbers were thrown about, to the injury 

 of several people; branches of trees were torn off, electric wires were 



