276 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



Live, stock prospects were never belter in Iowa. Prices are at the 

 top notch. Farmers who never went in for feeding operations before 

 are seriously considering- their possibilities and profits. The United States 

 Department of Agriculture has launched a campaign to restock Ameri- 

 can farms with cattle, sheep and hogs. Kvery farmer who has roughage 

 or feed going to waste or who can feed stock will be asked to cooperate. 

 The government proposes to do its part by arranging for a distribution 

 of feeders and help in extending credit to farmers. It has been pointed 

 out that every farmer who can feed stock should do so; first, as a pa- 

 triotic duty to help' relieve the meat situation; second, because of the 

 fact that it offers him a better chance of a fair return than in years past. 

 It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the stock exhibits attracted 

 more than usual attention at Des Moines this week. The entries in all 

 departments were large and of a high quality of excellence. In some de- 

 partments the entries were not as heavy as in former years, but the 

 Iowa fair will continue to maintain its supremacy as the paramount live 

 stock exposition of all the grain-belt fairs this year, as heretofore. Farm- 

 ers leaned across the pens and discussed the new conditions which have 

 grown out of the war. They arranged to enlarge their stock operations. 

 The fair this week was a clearing house for farm needs and problems, 

 an incentive to do still better work in the future. Present conditions 

 and lessons learned at this year's fair cannot help but give an impetus 

 to the stock business in Iowa such as nothing else has done in many 

 years past. 



An unusual exhibit, and one which attracted much interest and at- 

 tention, when the public finally found where it was located, was that 

 showing the manner of conducting trench warfare nowadays. The ex- 

 hibit consisted of a barbed-wire entanglement, such as the soldiers are 

 forced to fight their way through in Europe, and a series of first, second 

 and third line trenches, with communicating trenches and flrst-aid shel- 

 ter pit, showing the manner in which troops are zigzagged from the 

 rear to the firing line and are returned and, cared for when they are 

 wounded. The trenches were so deep that visitors could pass back and 

 forth far out of sight, except from aeroplanes and balloons above, and 

 were built on exactly the same plan on which the real trenches in north- 

 ern France are built and maintained. Warfare has ceased to be an open 

 affair, charging one another, or picking out an enemy and firing at him. 

 Today it is a matter of digging in and awaiting the artillery bombard- 

 ments and barrages. No matter how many splendid articles one may have 

 read describing trench warfare, it is doubtful if as accurate an idea of 

 trench conditions was to be had as from the trenches shown at the 

 fair this week. The soldiers who dug these trenches and w^ho explained 

 their operation deserve a great deal of credit. We may abhor war, we 

 may believe that this war was thrust upon us, we may pray for peace, 

 but the fact remains that the war Is on and that we should understand 

 conditions the very best we can. This exhibit helped us to do this. 



A striking exhibit showing the number of varied uses to which elec- 

 tricity can be put on the farm, and the low cost thereof, was made at the 

 state college building. A number of appliances, ranging from a churn to 

 a curling iron, were operated by the electric current, while above each 

 was a placard showing the cost. According to this display, 4 or 5 cents' 

 worth of electricity will do any one of the following chores around the 

 farm: Separate 1,400 pounds of .milk, churn twenty pounds of butter, do 

 two large washings, clean all the rugs in the house, sharpen an ax or a 

 scythe six times, pump enough water to last a family two days, run the 

 sewing machine six hours, light a thirty-two-candle-power lamp an hour 

 a day for five days, heat an electric iron half an hour, make five slices 

 of toast every morning for four days, make cof^e for a family of six, 

 run a twelve-inch fan four hours, heat a heating pad from four to eight 



