NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 137 
incomprehensible to any one who did not visit the fair. Three hundred 
and twenty exhibitors occupied space in this department and showed 
everything from a tin pail to a silo, from a wire stretcher to a wire 
making machine, from a ball of binding twine to a machine for making 
same, from a cream separator to a threshing machine, from the smallest 
gasoline engine to the largest traction engine, and about one million or 
less other articles not herewith mentioned. A conservative estimate of 
this exhibit could be placed at one million dollars. The manufacturer 
not only places his goods on exhibition, but calls in his large corps of 
experts to instruct and explain the workings of his machine. It is the 
only place where the dealer or consumer can make a personal inspec- 
tion of the various makes of machines, vehicles, or labor saving tools, 
as it may be, without a great loss of time and needless expense. It is 
jecoming quite common now to hear the remark by some farmer who 
wants a new potato digger, gasoline engine, grain drill, pulverizer, 
or other new piece of machinery, that he expects to wait until he 
can look over the various makes exhibited at the state fair. Rarely does 
a day or week pass that we do not receive a communication from some 
farmer asking for the name and address of the manufacturer or dealer 
who exhibited some article in this department which attracted his at- 
tention and which he is now ready to buy. That is a part of the edu- 
cational feature of the fair; exhibits in all departments are of equal 
educational value. In the dairy department will be found the cream 
separator, churn, ice cream freezer, and other manufactured articles 
for use of the farmer and dairyman. In the poultry department will 
be found specimens of birds that help to make the profits from the poul- 
try industry of Iowa run into the millions each year. It is really too 
bad that a suitable building of sufficient size to properly arrange and 
show the magnificent display of plants and cut flowers is not available. 
The beauty of this exhibit is practically lost by reason of inadequate 
and inappropriate quarters. 
The number of exhibitors and entries in the various departments 
of the Iowa State Fair and Exposition follow: 
Number of Number of 
Department. Exhibitors. Entries. 
Horses 88 1,157 
Cattle 82 1,085 
Swine 224 2,505 
Sheep 26 619 
Poultry 67 776 
Agriculture 107 884 
Farm implements and machinery 319 
Pantry and apiary 91 1,351 
Dairy 115 115 
Horticulture 28 1,046 
Floriculture 19 207 
Fine arts 225 3,336 
1,391 13,081 
