760 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BUENA VISTA. 
Wm. Zeilman, Alta, October 31, 1908. 
General Condition of Crops and Seaso7i — Crops good except oats which 
were poor. Temperature about normal. Excessive rainfall during June, 
July and August, but dry since then. 
Corn — Average acreage; yield one hundred ten per cent of an average 
crop and quality good. 
Oats — Acreage up to the average but yield poor; about seventy per 
cent of an average crop and very poor quality. 
WTieai;— Little raised but a good yield and good quality. 
Rye — None sown. 
Barley — One hundred per cent of an average crop and a good berry. 
Flax — Not much sown; a poor quality and yield. 
Buckivheat — None. 
Millet — Very little sown; good yield and good quality. 
Borghum — Very little raised but it was good. 
Timothy — Good quality and an average yield; the seed crop only fair. 
Clover — Heavy hay crop but no seed. Not much seeded last spring 
on account of price of seed. 
Prairie Hay — Not much in county; yield good. 
Other Grains and Grasses — Experimenting a little with alfalfa, also 
with speltz. 
Potatoes — Good; yield above the average and of good quality. 
YegetaUes — Average crop with the exception of tomatoes and cabbage 
which were poor. 
Apples — Very light yield and not very good quality. 
Other Fruits — Cherries good; plums scarce and all small fruit almost 
a failure. 
Cattle^ — Average number and in good flesh; prices low. 
Horses — Increasing in number and decreasing in price; in fair flesh. 
Swine — Below the average in number and not in as good shape as usual. 
A little cholera in center of county. 
Sheep — Good and increasing in numbers. 
Poultry — A little below the average on account of wet weather. 
Bees — Number of colonies up to the average but yield of honey only 
fair. 
Drainage — A great deal of underground drainage being done and sev- 
eral drainage ditches completed and working on others. 
Lands — Increasing in price; in southern part of county it is changing 
hands at $100 to $140 per acre; in the northern' and eastern parts it is 
not worth quite as much. 
Report of Fair — Held at Alta, August 11-14, inclusive. Weather against 
it; rained two days and those days the attendance was light; other days 
a good attendance. Exhibits in all departments good except horses. 
