FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 299 



Red, Kharkov and Red Cross. In recent years the Iowa Experiment 

 Station has bred a new variety of winter wheat known as No. 404, which 

 seems to be outyielding the varieties referred to above. No. 404 has 

 produced four bushels more per acre tlian Turkey Red as an average 

 during the past few years. The old stand-bys in the oat line are Kherson 

 and Silver Mine. They head the list of all the varieties that have been 

 under test at the Iowa station for many years, with the single exception 

 of a new variety originated by the Iowa station known as White Kher- 

 son. White Kherson has been developed by selecting white kernels from 

 the ordinary yellow Kherson variety, and present indications are that it 

 will be superior to the ordinary Kherson. The best barleys for this state, 

 according to tests made at the state college, are Caucasian, Oderbrucker 

 and Manchuria. Samples of all these varieties, together with others, 

 were on exhibition; they epitomized the practical side of much of the 

 experiment work that the college has been conducting during the past 

 decade. 



The poultry industry, as every farmer knows, is one of growing 

 importance. We are just beginning to learn how to produce eggs profit- 

 ably; the same is also true of fowls for the market. We are learning 

 how to feed them so as to make the largest possible gain from a given 

 amount of feed. The art of caponizing is again being introduced as an 

 aid in producing market poultry at a profit. To that end the state col- 

 lege demonstrated caponizing every day and every hour of the day on 

 the fair grounds. Any farmer could go there and learn to caponize or 

 at least learn the rudiments of it and go home and in a short time be- 

 come an expert. A capon fattens much more rapidly than a cockerel and 

 his meat brings a higher price on the market because it is more tender, 

 and there is a growing demand for it. In- connection with the poultry 

 exhibit, model poultry houses suitable for various farm conditions were 

 shown. 



There were a number of individual farm exhibits again this year. All 

 were tastily arranged and nice to look at, but that was about all that 

 could be said for them. As we have repeatedly said in former years, these 

 individual farm or county exhibits are absolutely valueless from an edu- 

 cational standpoint; they mean nothing and the sooner we can get rid 

 of exhibits of that kind and put others of educational value in their 

 place the better off we shall be. The mere fact that a farmer is able 

 to select a few dozen wheat, oat or barley plants from his fields, tie 

 them in neat bundles, and hang them up on the wall in an artistic manner 

 gives no idea whatever of how he manages his farm or how he raises 

 that grain. If individual farm exhibits could be made to show how suc- 

 cessful farmers are managing their farms, how deep they plow their 

 ground, how they sow their different grains, what the cost of operating 

 is, and what the net returns at the end of the year amount to, the informa- 

 tion would be educational and of great value. It would afford comparison 

 between different systems of farming. There are successful grain farmers 



