96 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



■ have not followed up the true principle of its organization, or that 

 many fair-goers see only a frolic in the event; the thinking men and 

 women who keep their eyes and the avenues of their brain open under- 

 stand that education of the farm folk is the underlying idea of the 

 state fair; all else is incidental and of more or less importance to its 

 financial success. 



That the usefulness of our state fair is still in its infancy can 

 readily be seen by a glance at the live stock statistics of the state 

 census now being compiled by the Secretary of the Executive Council. 

 The total number of cattle in Iowa is reported at 4,756,322, or which 

 only 86,838 are pure bred, being less than one in fifty, or under two 

 per cent. The average value of all cattle, including calves under one 

 year old, is about $19.34, while that of pure breds is $59.95, an average 

 greater by more than two hundred per cent. Pure bred cattle being 

 worth on an average three times that of scrub animals should be suffi- 

 cient evidence to convince the most skeptical of the positive necessity 

 for greater efforts in further improving the quality, thereby greatly 

 increasing the value. I do not believe it an impossibility within the 

 next five years, by a more general use of high class, pure bred bulls, to 

 increase the value of our cattle $5.00 per head. This would mean a 

 total increase of nearly $25,000,000.00 on the number reported at this 

 time. 



The number of swine, all ages, is reported at 6,465,580, worth on an 

 average $5.27. The total number of pure bred swine is 110,421, worth 

 on an average $12.63, being more than double the average value reported 

 on other swine. An increase of twenty-five per cent on the average 

 value of hogs would mean a total increase of over $8,000,000.00 for the 

 Iowa hog. Following this up on all classes of live stock, you would 

 have a possible increase of $40,000,000.00 in the value of stock in the 

 state of Iowa in the next five years. This is where the educational 

 feature of the stock exhibit at the State Fair is most apparent. What 

 farmer is there in Iowa who can pass through the swine department 

 at the State Fair, where more than twenty-five hundred hogs are 

 shown, and not be impressed with a feeling that an improvement in 

 his own herd must be made, and possibly lay the foundation then and 

 there for this improvement by purchasing a pure bred boar of good 

 quality, or perhaps a few gilts. I appeal to you, Mr. Farmer, if there 

 is one among you who can sit in the magnificent stock pavilion at the 

 State Fair grounds, watching with the eye of an expert the work of the 

 awarding judges, and then go home without a determination to breed 

 better cattle in the future. If you are not directly interested in the 

 breeding of cattle or very closely identified with the work, or in other 

 agricultural pursuits, I can readily see -how your only purpose for 

 visiting the fair is for pleasure. 



It has been the policy of the Board the last few years to provide the 

 highest type of entertainment for the people, believing explicitly in 

 the old proverb that "All work an no play makes Jack a dull boy,'" in 



