572 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



pionship. His action is extremely high all around and his build and style 

 are not greatly excelled by the famous Grandee, which won his accustomed 

 place at the top of the class of aged stallions. 



WELSH PONIES. 



■i 



Welsh ponies were more numerous and of higher quality than has been 

 the case before. The breed is undoubtedly gaining steadily in the appre- 

 ciation of American fathers and mothers who seek mounts and driving 

 ponies for their children as they outgrow their Shetlands. 



Wallaces' Farmer. 

 If some of those eastern financiers who have been lying awake nights 

 worrying over western agricultural conditions had spent last week at the 

 Iowa State Fair, they would have gone home tired but feeling better. 

 There is no better barometer of agricultural conditions in the cornbelt 

 than the Iowa State Fair. The attendance this year and the temper of 

 the people ought to reassure the most pessimistic pessimist. Never before 

 has it been so large, and seldom has a more cheerful and satisfied spirit 

 been so manifest. The railroads coming into Des Moines were taxed to 

 their capacity, while hundreds of farmers from all sections ,of the state 

 drove into the city in their automobiles. While the general report was 

 to the effect that the corn crop was not up to last year, and that there 

 had been a short hay crop, and the pastures were short, there was no note 

 of discouragement. Everybody seemed happy. Crops were not as good 

 as some previous years; that was all. 



If anyone had a lingering doubt that this is a dry year, it was surely 

 dispelled last week. When the Iowa State Fair fails to bring at least 

 .one rainy day, it is dry weather for sure. No one in Iowa would have 

 complained very much had it rained last week, but since it did not every- 

 one in Des Moines enjoyed the delightful weather to the utmost. With 

 the exception of one day there was not a cloud in the sky, and not until 

 Thursday did the thermometer reach a point which made sight-seeing 

 at all uncomfortable. It was ideal, made-to-order fair weather through- 

 out the week. Even the wind was tempered to the needs of the Wright 

 biplanes, which made very successful flights each day. 



These aeroplanes were a revelation to those who had not seen any- 

 thing of the kind before. Thoy rose from the ground like great birds, 

 flew hither and thither at will, described figure eights, and ascended and 

 descended at the will of the operators. Except on one day these ma- 

 chines seemed as stable as wheeled vehicles on the ground. On Tuesday 

 the wind blew irregularly, and the uncertainty of aeroplane navigation 

 was apparent in the unexpected dips made by the machines when 

 struck by the fitful gusts. The fiights made last week, however, were 

 suflScient to convince all but simon-pure skeptics that the aeroplane Is to 

 play a tremendous part in the civilization of the future. With the growth 



