FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV. 313 



mobiles have added their quota to the constantly increasing throngs. 

 The cash receipts will probably be larger than last year and this despite 

 the fact that the prices for the amphitheater were reduced this year, as 

 was right and proper. 



Visitors to the Iowa State Fair have become accustomed to seeing 

 larger and finer exhibits of live stock than are to be found at any of the 

 other state fairs. The parade of prize winners on the closing day has 

 come to be an affair of the greatest importance, eclipsing anything in 

 art or literature, a million-dollar parade of prize winners without a 

 peer. Visitors to Des Moines this week found a live stock exhibit which, 

 while not breaking former records, is well abreast of former exhibits. 

 In the matter of swine alone is the exhibit any smaller than heretofore, 

 the serum restrictions imposed by the management (and lifted only 

 at the last moment) resulting in cutting down the exhibits in this de- 

 partment to approximately half. The cattle display was as good as has 

 ever been made, while the horse exhibit was larger and finer than ever 

 before seen at any state fair. 



"With sixty acres of space devoted to farm machinery the exhibit of 

 the mechanical aids to farming was an eye-opener to those who had not 

 realized the extent to which the farmer is summoning the inventive 

 genius of man to the aid of his brawn and brain. The machinery ex- 

 hibit has been growing from year to year, constantly outgrowing its en- 

 larging quarters and showing the extent to which the Iowa farmer is 

 becoming a better customer, year by year, for the latest and most per- 

 fected mechanical aids to the gentle art of tilling the soil. 



With so much that is good and instructive in the exhibition as a 

 w^hole, it would be impossible to single out all the meritorious features 

 deserving of special mention. A couple will have to suffice. The ex- 

 hibit of the United States Office of Public Roads, a branch of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, was not only attractive in itself (Iowa being one 

 of the three states of the Union to receive this display), but it also 

 opened up a possibility which future fairs should not overlook. Nothing 

 is more important to the farmer than good roads. Schools, homes, 

 happiness itself depend upon easy means of transportation. The road 

 exhibit this year showed models of highways which link farm and 

 town together in a perfect union of harmonious co-operation. The 

 exhibit should be larger next year and should deal with local condi- 

 tions, as well as national. A splendid start has been made and 1914 

 should show a road-making display which will be a practical object to 

 every observer. 



As usual, the Iowa State College building was worthy of several 

 visits. Several new features made it more valuable than ever before. The 

 display of wireless telegraphy was interesting, but the display of a 

 model farmstead and the offer of the college experts to furnish blue- 

 prints for laying out farms and building farm homes were so practically 

 valuable as to stand out chief among the many splendid exhibits in the 



