SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX. 431 



ducing any of the products on display could easily acquire the same. 

 The fruit display excelled the record of former years, there being more 

 plates of apples, for example, on the tables than have ever before been 

 brought out. The quality of the fruit was good and the exhibit was 

 exceedingly atractive. 



We said in the beginning that sensible management has much to do 

 with the success of a fair. In this case the directors of the fair are 

 deserving of the highest compliments for their efforts in giving the 

 people a clean, wholesome, entertaining and instructive fair. It must 

 be a mater of great satisfaction to President Morrow, of the State 

 Board, to see the fair brought to so high a degre of perfection under 

 his administration. However, after the people have passed their com- 

 pliments to the Board and to President Morrow, they reserve the right 

 to place a larger share of credit for the success of the fair to the Sec- 

 retary, John C Simpson. Mr. Simpson has proven himself able to 

 Interpret correctly the desires of the people, and he has used his office 

 to satisfy those desires in a way that has more than pleased the 

 people of the State. He has always contended that the State Fair was 

 not a money-making institution, at the same time he has stood for the 

 inculcation of business principles into every department. "What is 

 taken in at the gates goes right back into improvements, thus laying 

 the foundation for a still greater fair. Mr. Simpson did his part, the 

 people of the State did their part, the exhibitors shirked no duty that 

 fell to their lot and the result was that the 1906 fair was a record- 

 breaker in every respect. 



An educational feature of the fair that has attracted a good deal 

 of interest is the contest for the $200 scholarship at the Iowa Agricul- 

 tural College. This year thirty-two young men under twenty-one years 

 of age entered the contest in the judging of cattle, horses, swine and 

 grain. This movement was put on foot in 1904 and has been a popular 

 feature ever since. The first year the scholarship was won by Ellis Rail, 

 Birmingham, la.; the second by Mr. Chas. F. Steen of West Liberty, Iowa; 

 the one of 1905 Mr. Roy Igo of Indianola, Iowa, while this year it again 

 goes to West Liberty, being won by Mr. Alexander Wilson. The work 

 was in charge of Prof. J. A. McLean of the Iowa Agricultural College, 

 and was conducted in an orderly and business-like manner. In some 

 instances the classes passed on by the students were the regular entries 

 made by exhibitors, the awards for comparison being afterwards made by 

 the regular judges of the departments. 



A close student of the cattle exhibits at the Iowa State Fair would 

 soon comprehend the fact that this was not a record-breaking year. 

 It was evenly balanced throughout, but the dropping out of six or eight 

 of the best herds in the corn belt will be felt by any show. The Martin 

 herd of doddies, from Churdan, Iowa, was not out this year; the notable 

 Casey and Bobbins herds were missed; the Brown, Moody, Clarke and 

 Brookside Farm Galloways were not there, while in the Herefords the 

 absence of the Funkhouser and Curtice herds made a noticeable differ- 

 ence in the exhibit of white faces. However, there were new breeders 



