428 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The fair management has done everything possible to encourage 

 breeders to send in their birds. The building is admirably adapted 

 to the purpose, being light, commodious, well located, and well venti- 

 lated. The assistant superintendent, constantly in charge of the build- 

 ing, is a practical poultryman who makes the interests of the exhi- 

 bitors his own, and in spite of the petty annoyances of the position, 

 remained unfailingly courteous and obliging to all. We would be glad 

 to see farmers send in more poultry to the State Fair. There are few 

 •quicker ways of seeing the imperfections in your own birds than to join 

 the line of anxious exhibitors around the table and place your bird 

 by the side of the other fellow's. While it is distresing to note how 

 the judge's eye lights on the weak points of your fowls, it leads to per- 

 sistent effort to overcome that weakness by another year and try 

 again, and we would urge all of our readers to patronize their county 

 and state fairs and thus help to sustain interest in the poultry In- 

 dustry and to benefit themselves. 



The judging this year, as last, was by W. S. Russell of Ottumwa, 

 and, as usual, was most satisfactory. Awards were made promptly, 

 winning exhibitors thus receiving the advertising which their premium 

 entitled them to. 



STATE FAIR POULTRY >"0TES. 



It is interesting to listen to the snatches of conversation caught as 

 one passes through the isles of the poultry building: 



"Why," exclaimed Mr. Shivvers, "people come from all over the 

 State — I might almost say from every state — to this fair, and farmers 

 ought to know the immense advertising an exhibit here gives them. 

 They don't patronize the fair enough. The first year I came I brought 

 my family at a cost of thirty-five dollars, and I made enough sales to 

 pay all the expenses for my fowls and my family. The advantage is 

 not immediate, but people take your card, and perhaps in a month or 

 six months later comes a letter saying, 'I saw your birds at the fair,' 

 etc., and you get an order." 



"Why don't they classify the exhibits?" echoed one who knew why. 

 "Because it would take twenty men to clasify all these exhibits and 

 get the birds in place after judging. No one man could tell how much 

 space to allot to each class and get the exhibits placed. Then, such au 

 arrangement would practically drive out the large exhibitors of all 

 breeds who are one of the attractions at the fair. If a man has a 

 string of birds he wants them together where he can make a good show 

 and care for them as easily as possible. Some of these men bring from 

 400 to 800 birds to a fair, and it is only right that they be accommo- 

 dated. They help to bring a crowd which looks at their birds and buys 

 of the men who keep their breed." 



