SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX. 469 



HAWKEYE STATE FAIR A RECORD-BREAKER. 



DEPABTMENTS FILLED TO OVERFLOWING WITH EXHIBITS OF THE FINEST QUALITT, 

 WHICH ARE VIEWED BY THOUSANDS. 



Twentieth Centtiry Farmer, Omaha, Nebraska. 



Iowa Is a great State. Its people are a great people and they have 

 a way of showing their greatness to the rest of the world. The Iowa 

 State Fair last week eclipsed all others in a general way. Its attendance 

 was greater than ever before. The grounds were filled to overflowing 

 with the various exhibits and accessories that go to make a great State 

 fair. The live stock department, which is, of course, the chief point 

 of interest, led all previous exhibits. The swine section brought together 

 a total of 2,868 hogs of all the various breed. New classes had been pro- 

 vided this year for Tamworths and Yorkshires, and there were excellent 

 exhibits of these two breeds, as well as of the others. Having in view 

 the position as the leading hog show of the United States, which has 

 been proudly held by the Iowa State Fair, it could scarcely be expected 

 that any marked improvement in general excellence could be noted. It 

 was good enough, however, to hold up the reputation of the greatest show 

 on earth. Breeders invariably come with their best and meet competition 

 of the warmest sort. Premiums were widely distributed and no one 

 breeder had a cinch on more ribbons than he could carry away. The 

 Duroc-Jersey department was a center of interest, this breed having sent 

 forward the second largest number, 1,001 head, as against the Poland 

 Chinas, who still retained the lead at 1,162. Intense interest followed 

 all the show rings in the red hogs, and it is to the credit of the fair 

 management that Messrs. Roberts and Swallow, who passed upon the 

 exhibits, afforded universal satisfaction throughout the entire list. The 

 Tamworth, which has heretofore been considered a sort of joke by the 

 lard hog producers, made a long step toward public popularity at this 

 show by producing a more attractive lot of the breed than have ever 

 before been put onto these grounds. 



SENSATIONAL IOWA BRED HORSES. 



The horse show was widely talked of, because it crowded all the horse 

 barn facilities, overflowed into the cattle barns and into the race horse 

 barns and called for still further accommodations under tents and tempo- 

 rary sheds. As usual, it was an importer's show, several importations 

 of forty or fifty head just over, having come almost direct from the sea- 

 board to this show. But they were good ones throughout and gave a 

 good deal of promise for the horse breeding interests of the west. With 

 all their excellence, however, it was the sensational two-year-old Percheror 

 bred by C. A. Saunders of Manilla, Iowa, that captured first prize in class 

 against a great ring that included first prize winners at the Paris ex« 

 position. This horse was Lerida 2d, a very dark, almost black, gray, 

 that was so well appreciated that Professor Curtiss of the Iowa Agricul- 

 tural College bargained for him before the show for. his own farm at 

 $1,000. There were, as usual, Percherons, Belgians, Clydes, Shires, coach- 



