332 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The babj' show was interesting, and to the extent that it stimulates 

 more sensible care and more intelligent consideration of babies, it is val- 

 uable. If we are really to learn much, however, from work of this 

 sort, the parents should be shown along with the babies. That would 

 be a real step toward the study of eugenics. 



How quickly we become accustomed to new things. The flying ma- 

 chine man made flights twice daily, and every afternoon a companion 

 stepped from the machine into space and descended safely by para- 

 chute. This latter act being a new stunt, aroused a languid interest, 

 but probably less than fifteen per cent of the people on the grounds 

 condescended to watch the regular flights for more than a moment. 

 We strive after the difficult and unusual, but once the thing is done, 

 we lose interest. Pursuit is still better than possession. 



Immense crowds attended the evening shows held in the live stock 

 pavilion and before the grandstand. In the pavilion it was mostly a 

 stock show, principally horses. Before the grandstand it consisted of 

 various vaudeville stunts, and concluded with a brilliant display of 

 fireworks. Both were excellent entertainment features, and so gen- 

 erously were they patronized that on the big nights those who relied 

 on the street cars and trains for passage to the city consumed from 

 an hour to an hour and a half in getting to town. This was annoying, 

 but it was a good-humored crowd, and the number of accidents was 

 astonishingly few. 



A group in the Farmer pavilion fell to talking about labor-saving 

 devices and conveniences about the house and barn. "I put in an elec- 

 tric lighting plant last fall," said one, "and it appears to me about 

 the best improvement I ever made. I have electric lights in the house 

 and barn. No more fussing with smoky and dangerous kerosene lamps 

 and lanterns. Simply push a button and we have a fine, clean light. 

 I store my batteries with the same gasoline engine I use for light 

 power work." 



"I grow a lot of corn, and last year I bought a portable elevator. 

 I have been feeling sorry for myself ever since to think of the hours 

 and days and months I unloaded corn and oats with a scoop shovel," 

 said another. 



"I think about the best improvement I have made," said a third, 

 "was to put in a lot of concrete walk. I made a concrete floor for the 

 back porch, with concrete steps and a concrete apron eight feet wide, 

 just off the porch. Then I ran a two-foot concrete walk to the barn, 

 and around that to the cow stable and hog pen. It keeps us out of the 

 mud, and I think the women folks appreciate it even more than I do." 



Whereupon a fourth remarked: "What good sense we would show 

 if more of us would do these things. The man who owns anr' 'ves on 

 an Iowa farm ought to settle down and regard it as his \ . .nflanent 

 home, and improve it as a home in which he expects to live until 



