PART XI 



IOWA STATE FAIR AND EXPOSITION, 1911 



Press Reports and Live Stock Awards 



Results in Boys' Judging and Girls' Cooking Contest 



PRESS REPORTS. 

 The Iowa Homestead. Des Moines. 



With an attendance 21,000 larger than in 1910 and total receipts $25,000 

 greater, the 1911 Iowa State Fair proved to be the biggest and best of any 

 of the fifty-seven annual exhibitions which the Hawkeye state has held. 

 A quarter of a million people witnessed the exhibition at Des Moines lant 

 week. The net profits to the management are computed to be close to 

 $50,000. 



Conceding that there is no surer barometer of prosperity than the at- 

 tendance upon and patronage of the various stiate fairs, agricultural affairs 

 in Iowa must now be recognized as in better condition than for many 

 years past. Pessimistic predictions w^ere freely indulged in during the 

 early summer. The crop season started out most auspiciously, never 

 had hopes of a bumper crop been better. But along came June weather, 

 which instead of being that rare thing of which the poets sing, was 

 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 normal. It was freely predicted that the corn crop would show 

 a falling off of millions upon millions of bushels. 



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

 ing the western circuit of expositions. The exhibts were more in num- 

 ber and better in quality than ever before. In every live stock department 

 the pens were crowded, while disappointed prospective exhibitors were 

 turned away for lack of room. The agricultural and horticultural build- 

 ing was literally packed with the finest specimens of fruit that Iowa has 



