TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 577 



attention of all the citizens of our state. "We hope that this department 

 will come back with an even stronger exhibit next year. 



To many farmers, and especially to farmers' boys, the machinery exhibit 

 is of more value than any other one department of the fair. The display 

 this year far surpassed those of previous fairs. The wonderful new ma- 

 chinery building just west of the administration building added to the 

 attraction of the machinery exhibit. At present this building has an extent 

 of 270x520 feet, and when completed will cover more than five acres. 

 Large as this building is, however, it contained but a very small part of 

 the mammoth exhibit. The most striking feature of the outdoor machin- 

 ery display was the large number of silos. They attracted great atten- 

 tion, and it is to be hoped that at least several hundred farmers will 

 have been inspired to erect silos. We consider it a good scheme for the 

 farmer's wife to accompany her husband on the inspection of at least part 

 of the machinery exhibit. She might, with profit both to herself and her 

 husband, direct his attention to such labor saving devices as gasoline en- 

 gines that run the washing machine, house-lighting plants, water sys- 

 tems, heating plants, etc. We saw some farmer boys who learned much 

 in their inspection of the machinery. First, they satisfied themselves 

 what a given machine was good for, and then they looked it over care- 

 fully and noticed how it did its work. For instance, they would com- 

 pare a certain disk drill with their home drill, and discuss the value 

 of recent improvements which had been made. These boys learned some- 

 thing. They were not only looking for ways of doing their home work 

 easier, but they seemed to have an insatiable curiosity, which caused 

 them to poke into things and ask questions continually. We are con- 

 vinced, though, that many of the boys did not really learn a thing about 

 the machinery. They idled along, looking first at this and then at that, 

 stopping at the places where the most people were gathered or where an 

 engine was making the most noise. 



THE CATTLE SHOW. 



The cattle show, wonderfully good as it was, did not greatly surpass 

 the high standard set by previous fairs. The dairy show as a whole was 

 by far the strongest exhibit that has ever been seen at the Iowa fair. The 

 beef breeds were hardly up to the usual standard. There was a wonder- 

 fully strong show of Herefords, and the Galloway, Polled Durham and 

 Red Polled breeds all surpassed last year's strong exhibit. The cattle 

 show should surpass in both numbers and quality that of any other state 

 fair this year. 



THE SHOET-HOBNS. 



A strong feature of the Short-horn show this year was the good show- 

 ing made by the Iowa exhibitors. It may not have been the best Short- 

 horn exhibit that has been seen at the Iowa State Fair, but with pas- 

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