4 60 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



At each fair there should be a representative of the State department of 

 agriculture to see that the legal requirements governing the exhibits 

 and the management of faiis are complied with. 



CONVENTION OF COUNTY FAIE BEPKESENTATIVES. 



A general meeting of representatives from all of the fair associations 

 of the State should be held each year for conference and the discussion 

 of the questions that arise in the administration of the work of the 

 county associations. The presidents and secretaries of the local asso- 

 ciations should be ex officio delegates to these meetings and three others, 

 chosen at the annual meetings. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE DRAFT HORSE BREEDING INDUSTRY. 



BY WAYNE DINSMOKE. 



Secretary Percheron Society of America. 

 In The Breeder's Gazette. 



The big gray geldings are sold, although only three years of age, 

 and the buyer has come. Father has gone to deliver them, but twelve- 

 year-old Robbie is nowhere to be seen. He, poor lad, does not wish to 

 see them go, as they made his pet team. He was the first to find them 

 as foals and pioudly commented on their shapeliness and early promise of 

 strength. He taught them to eat ere they were six weeks old, and it 

 was Robbie who saw that they never lacked for good pasture, clean 

 alfalfa hay and good corn, bran and oats. Their size, docility and ready 

 response to the rein are due in large part to the small stockman. He 

 realizes that the $700 the buyer has paid for the pair will go far toward 

 paying for some of the improvements he and father have been planning 

 but he hates to see them leave the farm. The need of looking after 

 the young stallions in the east pasture furnishes a good excuse, and he 

 has gone back there to hide his boyish grief. The younger colts will soon 

 cause him to forget those that are going, and he begins to realize that 

 the sturdy draft horses father and he are breeding are important fac- 

 tors in the financial success of the farm. 



The present status of the draft horse industry is better than at any 

 time in the past twenty years. It is doubtful whether breeding pros- 

 pects have ever been so good since Louis Napoleon started the woIk 

 of draft horse improvement in America in 1851. The year 1911 has been 

 a good one for draft horse breeders. Prices have been steady on breeding 

 stock, and higher for commercial horses. Demand has outrun supply for 

 the year as a whole. Sound horses, weighing 1,600 pounds or over, of 

 full age, have averaged very clcse to $285 per head on the Chicago mar- 

 ket. Anything at all high-class has brought from $375 to $42E. Matched 

 pairs, sound, five years old, and weighing over 3.400 pounds, have brought 

 from $650 to $800 per pair, and buyers have never been lacking for this 



