698 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



of Denver, vice-president, and 0. M. Plummer, of Portland, Oregon, 

 secretary. 



The manner of conducting the babies' health contests is interesting 

 in the extreme and never fails to attract large numbers of applauding 

 spectators. The entries are divided into classes, according to sex, age 

 and residence, prizes being awarded for the most perfect entries in one- 

 year-old, two-year-old and three-year-old classes, both from towns and 

 country. The babies are subjected to tests, both physical and mental, 

 by medical experts and trained nurses, who handle their little charges 

 deftly so as not to unduly frighten them, but to observe them as 

 nearly normal as possible. Stripped of their clothes the tots are meas- 

 ured, weighed and examined for physical defects; throat specialists ex- 

 amine for evidences of enlarged tonsils or adenoids; calipers are deft- 

 ly swung around heads a-bloom with brown or golden tresses, in order 

 accurately to discover the contour of craniums; chests are thumped and 

 stethoscope records are made to test the lungs, while bright colored 

 balls and toys are dangled before surprised eyes in order to test the 

 quickness of mental grasp and the ability of the juvenile brain to re- 

 spond to a suggestion. And all the while fond and doting parents and 

 even tentative and timid bachelors stand afar off and wonder why the 

 examiners forget all about noting the texture of hair, the Cupid's bow 

 of the lips and the dimples which play about laughing mouths. But these 

 are health contests, not beauty contests; and the item of daily food, 

 the question of sleeping room ventilation and the apparently immaterial 

 details of play are more carefully gone into by the doctors and nurses 

 than are those perfectly apparent points of facial beauty on which 

 former contests were invariably determined. 



AMERICAN HEN AND COMPANY— THE FARM WOMAN'S BANK. 



(By A. H. Snyder in Successful Farming.) 



VALUE OF POULTRY AND EGGS RAISED IN ONE YEAR. 



Illinois $ 34,344,482 



Missouri 33,918,187 



Iowa 33,150,585 



Ohio 30,746,291 



Indiana 26,013,342 



Pennsylvania 25,780,701 



New York 25,504,894 



Kansas 23,246,574 



Texas 19,424,711 



Michigan 17,926,239 



California 14,683, 20'9 



Kentucky 14,542,124 



Minnesota 14,482,329 



Wisconsin 14,180,433 



Nebraska 13,856,885 



