676 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



it was this year. The poultry show was not strong. Several important 

 improvements are in prospect for next year. A manufacturers' building 

 will probably be erected, and a steel grand stand built. Three or four large 

 hog barns with concrete floors, patterned after the admirable swine barn on 

 the grounds of the Minnesota fair at Hamline , will also be constructed . With 

 the exception of the northwestern part, Iowa's corn crop is in excellent con- 

 dition, and a few more weeks of warm weather will make it safe for har- 

 vest. Pastures are as a rule in splendid grazing shape and an unusually 

 generous hay harvest was completed under favorable conditions. It seems 

 pretty generally understood that feeding operations will be resumed by a 

 large percentage of the old-time feeders in Iowa. They will have the corn 

 and hay, and notwithstanding labor troubles at the packing house centers, 

 will hardly abandon an industry which has made them thousands of dollars. 

 While many of them have lost money they have not lost their courage and 

 faith. Reports of big receipts of cattle at Chicago and other points, in the 

 last two or three days have been enthusiastically received by hundreds of 

 feeders and prospective meat makers. It is obvious that if a settlement of 

 the packing house troubles is effected and normal conditions are restored, 

 the beef, pork and mutton making industries will not be slow to adjust 

 themselves to the situation. 



IOWA'S FIFTIETH ANNUAL STATE FAIR. 



A HALF CENTURY OF USEFULNESS ROUNDED OUT BY THE SUCCESSFUL SHOW 

 AT DES MOINES LAST WEEK. 



Breeders'' Gazette. 



Iowa was born lucky because rich. It still retains the wealth and the 

 luck, and both are increasing as a logical result of the fact that its progres- 

 sive people are learning how to apply intelligent labor to a prodigiously fat 

 soil which lies in a favored zone. Veracious Uncle Sam is authority for 

 figures which prove that it is on top of all States in the production of live 

 stock and corn and at Des Moines last week the Golden Anniversary State 

 Fair corroborated the statistics and reflected the inspiring condition of the 

 State's agriculture. 



Nothing marred the fair; everything aided it. Favored by the weather 

 gods and supplied with superior exhibits in all departments it brought to Des 

 Moines the best element of Iowa citizenship. With the rank and file of the 

 State's best farmers actively, loyally and solidly behind it, with the 

 momentum ot fifty prosperous years of steady, substantial progress and with 

 the goal of perfection before it, the State fair takes rank among America's 

 foremost educational institutions of this useful class. 



