432 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The Iowa State Fair grounds are each year adding new features of 

 interest by the erection of one or two new buildings, to relieve the 

 cramped condition of some department that has not room for its exhibit 

 or the building not in accord with the general plan of architecture on 

 the grounds. 



The feature of sensation this year in building is the new hog barn. 

 This is without question the largest exhibition hog barn in the world. 

 It will accommodate approximately 3,000 hogs and may be added to, so as 

 to accommodate the possibilities of increased exhibition demand for all 

 time to come. It is not only large, but it is conveniently laid off into 

 streets and blocks and lettered so that each exhibitor may be readily lo- 

 cated when his correct address is known. The building is airy, cool and 

 well lighted. It is highly satisfactory to the hog men for whom it was 

 built. It is the greatest advertisement the Iowa State Fair has ever 

 had in the way of fair grounds improvements. It was provided by an 

 appropriation of $75,000 by the last legislature after an urgent demand 

 of the swine growers of the State. 



GKEAT IIOG EXHIBITION CENTER. 



Iowa is the greatest hog producing State of the Union. It is not only a 

 hog exhibition State, demanding large space at its fair for the exhibition 

 of its pure bred herds, but it is also a popular Slate away from homo, in 

 its hog producing and hog breeding interests. Large numbers of good ex- 

 hibition hogs come to the Iowa State Fair from all over the hog raising 

 districts of the United States. It is the general and local exhibition in- 

 terests that combine to make the Iowa State Fair the great hog exhibition 

 center. 



In hog produclion Iowa, in comparisou with the five leading hog grow- 

 ing states on January 1, 1907, stands as follows: Iowa, 8,584,500 head; 

 Illinois, 4,4^9,705 head; Nebraska, 4,080,000 head; Missouri, 3,544,950 head; 

 Indiana 2.924.S79 head. It will be observed that Iowa has almost double 

 the hog lopulatioa of any other State and more than the combined popu- 

 lation of the next two leading states, Illinois and Nebraska. These figures 

 will in a measure explain Iowa's position as a hog exhibition State and 

 why it deserves just such a $75,009 hog barn on its State Fair grounds 



The interest in the swine department of this fair has been steadily in- 

 creasing and exhibitors have been added each year for a dozen or more 

 years in such numbers as to plainly indicate a healthy growth in the pure 

 bred interests of the State. The number of hogs exhibited last year, 1906, 

 as compared with the present year, 1907, were: Poland-Chinas, 1,162; 

 Duroc- Jerseys, 1,001; all other breeds, 705; total, 2,868. This year: Po- 

 land-Chinas, 950; Duroc-Jerseys, 1,180; all other breeds, 706; total, 2,836. 

 The present year's show was represented by 206 owners, individuals and 

 firms. 



HORSES CAPTURE THE VISITORS. 



The horse department was, as usual, full, and a great attraction. In 

 the judging pavilion the audience was greater during this entire show 

 than the seating capacity of the building could accommodate. The large 

 string of finely-groomed horses, with their flash and dazzle of ribbons and 



