968 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



reports of bounteous yields and bright prospects for tlie fall harvest. 

 An occasional bottom land farm has suffered severely from abnormal 

 rainfall or cloudburst, but neither animals nor people will need to go 

 hungry in Iowa this year, and there wil be plenty to spare for those who 

 wish to buy. Therefore, the farmer at Des Moines last week was happy 

 and he showed it. He was out for a day or so of well earned recrea- 

 tion. In a great many cases he brought the good wife and some of the 

 little folks along, and after the tire wears off they will all be the bet- 

 ter for the outing. 



As for the fair itself, it was bigger, better, cleaner than ever before. 

 Every available foot of exhibition space seemed to be filled. The live 

 stock exhibit, in which Iowa always leads, was better all around than 

 ever before. This will be dealt, with at length elsewhere by our corps 

 of live stock representatives. A particularly gratifying feature was the 

 increasing percentage of home bred animals. The space in the differ- 

 ent exposition halls was fully occupied with attractive exhibits. The 

 display of machinery and farm appliances was immense. Each year 

 we hear rumors of an agreement among machinery manufacturers to 

 discontinue exhibiting at Des Moines, but we notice that each succeed- 

 ing year this department requires more room. The fact is that the 

 manufacturer of improved agricultural machinery is not living up to 

 his advertising opportunities if he fails to show at Des Moines. There 

 is no department of the fair that receives the closer or more critical 

 attention of the well-to-do Iowa farmer than this. Scarcity of competent 

 help has driven him to utilize labor-saving machinery to the utmost. 

 He no longer requires of the machine that it do the work of two or 

 three men. If it will do the work of one man, or even lighten his 

 labor or increase his capacity, and can be be had at a reasonable price, 

 the Iowa farmer will have it — and he is able to buy it and pay for it. 

 Recognition of this condition is responsible for the growth of the exhibit 

 of machinery and labor-saving devices. To make this exhibt easier 

 to get at comfortably a large machinery hall is badly needed. 



The fair this year more than ever before most fully justified our 

 contention, made so often in the past, that the state fair is one of the 

 greatest of Iowa's educational institutions and as such is entitled to 

 the most liberal and whole-hearted support at the hands of the state 

 legislature. It is not many years since the state board of agriculture 

 was looked upon as a beggar at the doors of the general assembly, and 

 what was given, was given grudgingly and more as a matter of charity 

 than with the idea of building up an institution. We are referring 

 now to the condition a number of years back. It must be confessed 

 that at that time the management was not such as to justify unlimited 

 confidence. In recent years this feeling has been changing somewhat, 

 as is evidenced by the two magnificent permanent buildings, the live 

 stock pavilion and the agricultural and horticultural hall. The time 

 has now come when the fair should rank in the mind of the legislator 

 with the other state educational institutions and should have the same 

 hearty, earnest, and liberal financial support. The fair continues for 

 only one week — practically for only five days — but in that length of 



