EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX. 385 



husbandry department, which exhibited the international grand champion 

 steer Defender, giving him a tent to himself just south of the entrance 

 to the stociv pavilion, where he was constantly surrounded by a throng 

 of curious spectators. Defender is coming along in very good shape and 

 in December will again compete at the international for the coveted po- 

 sition at the head of the line. At present his ration consists of three 

 pounds, four times daily, of equal parts of corn, bran and oil meal, with 

 a little oats. 



The soil map of the State, which created so much interest last year, 

 was duplicated again this year and was studied and appreciated by a 

 constant stream of visitors. The extension department of the college 

 has been doing a great work the past two or three years and had a fine 

 exhibit of their county experiment station work. The experimental 

 plots at the various county stations were a very effective manner. These 

 were worthy of very careful consideration. At these county stations dif- 

 ferent kinds of crops are experimented with to ascertain what are the 

 best and most profitable kinds to raise, their yields, etc., alfalfa, clovers, 

 and the small grains are tested, and a fund of knowledge is thus secured 

 which is invaluable to the farmers over the State. This year a com- 

 plete report of their work will be published in bulletin form and can be 

 better appreciated by those who saw the exhibits at the fair. 



IOWA'S GREATEST STOCK SHOW. 



The above heading fittingly describes the stock show of the Iowa State 

 Fair of 1907, and Iowa has set a pace that it will be hard for the other 

 shows to keep up with. In all divisions this show was strong and in 

 some divisions a record breaker, notably in the horse department and in 

 the Short-horn rings. Also in the swine department, where the superin- 

 tendent was forced to turn hundreds of hogs away a week before the 

 fair opened, notwithstanding the mammoth new swine pavilion which 

 has been erected to take care of the exhibit. It was an even show and 

 one which the Iowa and neighboring farmers from other states appreci- 

 ated to the utmost. The live stock pavilion w^as crowded to its capacity 

 from early morning until late at night and it took the entire week ■ to 

 finish the judging. The cattle, horse and swine entries were the largest 

 in the history of the association. If the Iowa show continues to grow 

 as it has in the past several years it will require buildings of larger 

 capacity and an extra show pavilion to take care of the show in the way 

 it should be taken care of. A gratifying feature of the show, too, was 

 the large number of Iowa exhibitors. Iowa cattle, hogs, horses and sheep 

 all being strongly in evidence. For example, in the cattle department 66 

 per cent of the entire exhibit was made up of Iowa cattle. In the horse 

 department 70 per cent; in the hog department 87 per cent; in the sheep 

 department 43 per cent, and Iowa cattle, horses, hogs and sheep, too, are 

 better than they have ever been before. While the 1907 Iowa State Fair 

 set the mark high, yet we predict that the breeders will rise to the 

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