552 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
intendeat, estimates the actual ground space occupied with all forms of 
machinery and implements at forty acres, independent of the machinery 
halls erected by the fair association for the exhibition of machines. 
There are four of these large machinery buildings owned and rented 
by the State Fair to machine exhibitors. There are twenty-four private 
machinery buildings for the housing of exhibition machinery and forty 
acres of open ground. There is more machinery being operated on the 
fair grounds than formerly. The increase in small devices is a matter of 
great interest among machine men. It was estimated that there were 
fully 250 gasoline engines on exhibition; the popularity of this plan of 
power is urged by the exhibits that are being made. 
The exhibition of bees and honey was a good presentation of the im- 
portance of this industry, and the ease with which a practically waste 
product may be made not only highly profitable, but a real source of live- 
lihood to the efforts of the attentive and industrious owner of small 
landed possessions. The exhibit was put up in artistic style and showed 
the skill of the practical apiarist and bee-handler. 
The boys' stock judging contest was a feature at this fair. This is not 
new, but was started several years ago, and is so important as a class 
training that the Ames college animal husbandry department has it con- 
tinued. It meets the endorsement of public sentiment in Iowa and has 
undoubtedly resulted in making some very good judges of live stock 
from among these young men, whose services will be in demand soon. 
The visit of Secretary James Wilson of the Department of Agriculture 
at the Iowa State Fair w^as highly appreciated by the Iowa people, and 
was a very proper recognition of his loyalty to his home state. Secretary 
Wilson has, how^ever, grown beyond state lines in his relationship to the 
people of this country. He has made himself so closely related to the 
general agricultural interests of the whole country that he has a place 
in the esteem and business friendship of the agricultural classes that no 
other man can hope to acquire. 
The topics outlined for discussion at the meeting planned for Secre- 
tary Wilson on the Iowa State Fair grounds were: 
The importance of teaching agriculture in our public schools. 
The correspondence school of agriculture. 
The importance of organization of farmers into societies for industrial 
and social purposes. 
Judge Deemer also took part in the discussion. 
The night show and the vaudeville of the present day entertainment 
for the state fair has been introduced into the program of the Iowa fair 
and has met with the endorsement of the people. The band concert, 
where the highest order of musical talent is employed to entertain the 
fair visitors, is a feature of fair amusement that the refined and ac- 
complished talent of the' country demands, and therefore the State Fair 
has provided it. "There is nothing too good for the farmer," has been 
preached so persistently by the agricultural press that the sentiment has 
taken root, and the state fair managers all over the country have noth- 
ing to do but provide the best talent that the country can turn out. 
