NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 551 
fair season in the building of a suitable sheep barn, to house comfortably 
this division of its live stock show. The present accommodations are 
not in accord with the other departments of the fair and greatly below 
that of other fairs where the sheep and wool interests of the state are 
much below that of Iowa. 
The dairy interests were particularly well represented both by the 
show of the dairy breeds of cattle and in the products and dairy machin- 
ery and appliances for carrying on this important branch of farm in- 
dustry. Iowa is to be complimented for its very systematic and v/ell 
proportioned display of dairy work. Its exhibtion of butter and designs 
in butter were especially interesting, both to the curious and the student. 
The displays at the dairy division in the agricultural hall, in all its 
specialties, was a good incentive to start the farmer on down the row 
to the cattle barn, where the specialty dairy cows were on exhibition, 
showing to a certainty that if butter fat is the object you need go no 
farther. 
Horticulture, one of the most important branches of general agriculture, 
forms a leading feature on the Iowa farm, not that it is taken up as a 
particularly money-making proposition or a general ambition encouraged 
for commercial orcharding, but as a home necessity. The family orchard 
is no longer regarded in Iowa as a luxury; it is one of the necessities to 
good living and is as common on the farms as the garden. 
The show of fruits this year is very good, fully up to the average 
season, though procured under a little more restriction in territory. The 
Des Moines valley or territory central in the Des Moines district was 
the only section of the state that was not seriously damaged by the frost 
period last spring. In the above territory there intervened a period of 
cloudy, moist weather following the frost, which gradually thawed out 
the freezing or frost influence and left the fruit unharmed; where the 
reverse condition of sunshine existed, the blight was fatal. 
DISPLAY OF SPRAYED FKUIT. 
One very remarkable display was that of F. O. Harrington of Williams- 
burg, Iowa, who had an educational exhibit of apples, illustrating the in- 
fluence of spraying on the apple crop. Mr. Harrington's spraying con- 
sisted of four applications; the first just before the opening of the 
blossom, the second after the fall of the petals, the third two v/eeks 
later and the fourth and last in August. He sprays with Bordeaux 
mixture and insecticides for the coddling mom. 
Mr. Harrington has been practicing this course of tree treatment for 
the last five years in his orchards, and was exhibiting about fifty varieties 
of apples, which were without defect or blemish. They were the very 
pink of perfection in fruit, and demonstrated what all orchardists can 
have when they put into practice Mr. Harrington's methods of treat- 
ment. He uses a gasoline power sprayer. He has fifty acres of orchard 
and says the commercial orchard is a success and a money maker when 
the spray is used. 
The machinery department at this fair has developed into proportions 
almost incredible to the casual observer. Mr. Ledgerwood, the super- 
