450 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



DEMONSTRATIONS. 



Certain stated periods each day should be devoted to demonstrations 

 to be held at different places on the grounds. These demonstrations might 

 be the packing of fruit; the use of the Babcock test; spraying operations, 

 including the mixing of sprays, as well as their application; killing, 

 dressing, and packing poultry for market; sanitary handling of milk; 

 transplanting, budding, and pruning trees; seed selection; germination 

 tests; laying out and planting garden plats; stock judging; canning, 

 preserving, and drying fruits; cheese making; butter making; testing 

 agiicultural machinery; disinfecting rooms, stables, and- clothing; con- 

 ducting cooking schools, dress-making and millinery school; demonstra- 

 tion plat work; plowing matches, and similar contests. 



These demonstrations can be made valuable features of the fair, de- 

 pending upon the skill of those in charge of them. Machinery in motion, 

 processes in course of performance, and other forms of effort in actual 

 operation attract attention and are never-failing sources of interest. 



By stopping all other exercises and concentrating attention upon the 

 demonstration features for an hour or two each day, variety will be given 

 to the exhibition, and valuable information can be imparted free from 

 interruption or distraction by other exercises. 



CONTESTS. 



Contests in crop production, animal breeding and feeding, and other 

 agricultural operations should be organized early in the year, the results 

 to be exhibited at the fair. Persons entering such contests should be re- 

 quired to declare in advance their intention to compete, in order to shut 

 out crops or animals that are the result not of skill but of mere accident 

 or chance. 



In all such contests accurate data should accompany each report show- 

 ing the items of cost in producing the article and the methods pursued. 

 The premiums offered should be for results secured under conditions pos- 

 sible to every farmer of intelligence, and be for operations above those on 

 a minature scale. To exhibit 10 ears of corn out of a crop of 40 acres 

 is no evidence of superior farming, but to exhibit 10 superior acres out 

 of such an area is a real test of skill and worthy of proper recognition. 

 For persons in control of farms the contests should be in operations of 

 sufficient size to require the exercise of more than ordinary exertion and 

 skill. For boys and girls they could be adapted to suit the means at their 

 command. 



ENTERTAINMENTS AND AMUSEMENTS. 



Trials of speed, acrobatic and sleight-of-hand performances, exhibitions 

 of trained animals, moving pictures, the merry-go-round, military drill, 

 games of ball, foot races, and other athletic sports, baloon ascensions, 

 and similar entertainments are all unobjectionable when properly con- 

 trolled, and provide entertainment to those who come to spend an idle 

 hour. They should, however, not be permitted to Interfere with the 

 main exhibition and the more serious purposes of the fair. The associa- 



