262 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



nothing more or less than so many furnace blasts of withering, blasting 

 heat. The farmers' faces became long. Men of the city talked of hard 

 times on the farm. The hay crop was a practical failure. The oats crop 

 was below the normal. It was freely predicted that the com crop would 

 show a falling off of millions upon millions of bushels. 



"And then, in this crisis of pessimism, came the Iowa State Fair, 

 opening the western circuit of expositions. The exhibits were more in 

 number and better in quality than ever before. In every live stock de- 

 partment the pens were crowded, while disappointed prospective exhib- 

 itors were turned away for lack of room. The agricultural and horti- 

 cultural building was literally packed with the finest specimens of fruit 

 that Iowa has grown in many years. And the people came from the 

 farm to see the exhibits in numbers larger than ever before. Fifty 

 thousand visitors were hauled to Des Moines in one day by the railroads 

 entering the capital city. Nor were these visitors parsimonious. They 

 had money to spend and they spent it freely. They paid the state fair 

 management $179,000.00, whereas in the previous year they had paid but 

 $157,000.00. They left immense sums in the stores, going on extensive 

 shopping expeditions. Iowa rubbed its eyes. Surely here were not the 

 impoverished farmers of whom it had been prating so glibly. 



"And so, to the direct educational value of the state fair held at Des 

 Moines last week, must be added the immense value of the exposition 

 in setting the farmer's condition right before the world. There could 

 be no surer or better criterion of the continued prosperity which is his, 

 of the farmer's ability to buy what he wants and needs and of the farmer's 

 capacity for play as well as for work." 



The representative of the Breeders' Gazette of Chicago reported his 

 observations as follows: 



"Neither drouth nor flood avails to dim the glory of the Iowa State 

 Fair. Some former years have seemingly sought to drown it out, and 

 now a scorching summer's sun has scattered its discouragement in some 

 sections of the state, but the fair rises to yet greater heights, triumphant 

 over all. It may briefly be summarized as record-making in nearly all 

 respects. 



"Cornbelt farming has encountered one of its rare vicissitudes, and 

 Iowa has suffered, but no evidence of that fact could be found either in 

 the exhibits or the attendance. From Des Moines southwest production 

 has been notably lessened from almost unprecedented drouth, but other 

 sections of the state will close the year's accounting with records of pro- 

 duction that range all the way from a little less than average to a great 

 deal more than the average. No note of discouragement was sounded. 

 The cornbelt farmer is forehanded. He is not dependent on the returns 

 of a single harvest, as crib and bin and bank hold accumulations of former 

 favorable seasons. 



"Fairer weather never forwarded the progress of an agricultural event. 

 Des Moines is in the center of a sun-blistered spot, and the withered 

 grass on the fair grounds testified sadly to that fact, but the main streets 

 had been oiled so that the dust was well laid. The coolness which over- 

 spread the northwest covered Iowa with its edge, showing traces of frost 



