410 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



show yard was keen, competition severe, yet everyone was satisfied with 

 the outcome. All had absolute confidence in the integrity of the judges 

 and those in charge of the show. Merit counts in the American show 

 ring, nothing else has standing. 



While it is not to be assumed that every individual showman thought 

 his animal or animals got full credit for their worth, their good qualities 

 and beauty of form, while it is not asserted that some honors might not 

 have been placed dii3ferently and perhaps pleased a few people better, 

 every exhibitor felt that such difference of opinion as might exist in a 

 few cases were not due to mistakes on the part of the judges, but rather 

 to different points of view of individuals. 



Exhibitors and breeders left the grounds feeling satisfied that honors 

 won were justly won and that they had been earned. Farmers returned to 

 their homes with clearer and better defined ideas concerning animal form 

 and function, with a fuller comprehension of the benefit derived from the 

 feeding and breeding of pure-bred live stock and many with a strong de- 

 termination that the best, not necessarily the most expensive, is none too 

 good for the farmer who tills the soil on the high-priced corn belt farms. 

 Young men, farmers of the future, went back brim full of pulsing ambi- 

 tion to dream of new herds, new studs and flocks to be started at some 

 future day. In short, the great fair spoke in no uncertain tones of the un- 

 told value to the State, and of the large returns the State annually derives 

 from the few hundred thousand dollars invested in land and permanent 

 improvements on the fair grounds. 



Nowhere can the State invest money to better advantage than in the 

 building up of educational institutions, and included among these in- 

 stitutions is the great State fair, which in some respects is really the great- 

 est of all. The State fair is not a school for the young so much as it is 

 for the adult, the man and woman of experience from the practical walks 

 of life. 



Iowa is recognized everywhere as the greatest agricultural State in 

 the Union. It is but fitting that she should build up the greatest fair 

 of any State but this cannot be done without a most liberal policy on 

 the part of the legislature. There are still many things needed to en- 

 able the fair management to take care of the ever increasing number of 

 exhibitors who desire to bring their stock to compete for honors at the 

 State fair. It is almost impossible to comprehend the tremendous growth 

 and development that has taken place in Iowa and the surronding 

 states during recent years. It was thought, for example, that when the 

 $80,000 hog pavilion, completed just before this year's fair, was being 

 planned that it would be large enough to accommodate all the hogs that 

 would be brought to the show for many years to come. Such was not the 

 case, however. It is large enough to accommodate about 3,000 hogs. 

 It held 3,200 this year but between 500 and 700 head were turned 

 away because of lack of space. Had the pavilion been built twice its 

 present size, large enough to accommodate 6,000 hogs, it would have 

 been none too large. This has been the experience, not only of the Iowa 

 State Fair, but at otlier state fairs as well for the past decade. Accommo- 

 dations provided have always been too small. 



