TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 595 



In the fruit industry Iowa has never had a better display at its state 

 fair. The apples were not as large, uniformly, as in other years, due to 

 overbearing and lack of moisture in the ground. M. J. Wragg, an au- 

 thority on Iowa's fruit interests and a large grower, says: 



"The state has not had for five years as large a crop in bushels of ap- 

 ples. There has been practically no insect damage. This may be on ac- 

 count of no fruit last year and the excessively dry conditions this year, 

 not favoring the propagation of the insect; at all events, wormy fruit is 

 very scarce." 



Mr. Wragg had 142 varieties of apples on exhibition. In plums the 

 state has the largest yield ever known. The exhibition was made from 

 the American varieties mainly. 



A SORT OF IOWA BURBANK. 



A very remarkable exhibit in the fruit line was that of B. A. Mathews 

 of Knoxville, Iowa. Mr. Mathews is a sort of Burbank in the experimenta- 

 tion and propagation of fruits. He claims to have produced approximately 

 300 kinds of pears, had on exhibition 150 kinds; these he is growing 

 for the commercial trade and recommends them to the public. He has 

 accomplished some wonderful things in his fruit breeding system. He has 

 a very fine-appearing apple which he has acquired by taking the little, 

 old, sour wild crabapple and by means of cultivation and the selection 

 of what he terms sprouts, produced by these methods, used as a new breed- 

 ing basis, acquired an apple of several times the size of the original, and 

 one which will go into the lists of varieties to be used in orchard industry. 

 He has butternuts, hickory nuts, red haws and many other things which 

 he has entirely transformed in appearance and quality from the original 

 by his system of breeding. He deplores the fact that there are not 

 enough of other cranks, as he terms himself, to follow him and take up 

 this work where he is obliged by his age to leave off. 



LIVE STOCK THE CROWNING FEATURE. 



The live stock feature of the Iowa State Fair is its crowning event. No 

 other division or combination of interests could rise in the minds of the 

 people in exhibition importance with that of live stock. Live stock is 

 the recognized power behind agriculture; it is the key that unlocks the 

 treasures of wealth as they come from the soil. Live stock is the medium 

 through which the farmer finds a market for practically everything the 

 land produces. The farmer estimates the value of his crops as he counts 

 the cash from the sales of the horses, cattle, sheep and swine. 



Live stock in all its departments showed a distinctive advance over 

 former years. In horses the horse judge, the horse fancier and the fel- 

 low who talks horse all agreed that this fair was an improvement over 



