ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 273 



the laurels he gained there, he went to the next biggest fair, when he 

 left the county fair he went to the district fair and then to the state 

 fair, and then not content with that went around over the state fairs 

 of the middle west, and attended the fat stock shows in Chicago, and 

 all this after he had his first beginning at the rural fair in his own 

 community. In my judgment the grand parade that was witnessed here 

 on the last day of the Iowa State Fair would be impossible if it was not 

 for the county fairs of the state of Iowa. It was the consummation and 

 the fruition of these fairs, and I have it from men who are competent 

 to judge that it was the greatest pageantry of live stock, the greatest 

 parade in numbers and quality that has ever been exhibited in this or 

 any other country. That, my friends, is a strong statement. And every 

 Iowan should take great pride in the fact that it occurred here in an 

 agricultural state that is barely half a century old. 



I am led to believe, also, that these farmers institutes, the corn shows 

 and horticultural shows, are merely the outgrowth of the original ideas 

 that were inaugurated in the local district and county fairs. They have 

 in a way today separated from them, because they have wanted to spec- 

 ialize. Also I must recognize the tribute we owe to our great agricul- 

 tural school at Ames. It, too, is doing a great work, not only for Iowa, 

 but for all the agricultural states of this country. When I was coming 

 to Des Moines here about three or four weeks ago to attend the Im- 

 plement Dealers' Convention, picking up the Register and Leader at 

 Jefferson I read that a bullock from the Iowa State College, Shamrock 

 the Second, had carried off the sweep stakes at the Fat Stock show in 

 Chicago. Now there was nothing remarkable about the fact that the 

 Ames Agricultural College carried off the highest award, because it has 

 become an annual characteristic of that institution, but I did think with a 

 little pride, of the appropriateness of this decision being rendered by 

 a man from the Ould Sod to pass judgment on what I consider the 

 real thing. And I look for the Agricultural College to produce a Sham- 

 rock III which will be the equal of his predecessors. 



The President : Hon. E. J. Watson, Commissioner for the State 

 of South Carolina, was to have addressed the convention on "Pub- 

 licity and Advertising by the State," but I am sorry to say that 

 I have just received the following telegram from Mr. Watson: 

 "Greatly regret it, but imperative circumstances prevented my 

 making connections to put me in Des Moines in time. Please ex- 

 press my regrets to the assemblage. The disappointment is mine." 



We will now listen to the report of the Director of the Iowa 

 Weather and Crop Service for the year, Dr. George M. Chappel. 



Dr. Chappel: I have a few figures here that show the estimate, 

 average yield, acreage, average price, and total value of farm 

 crops raised in this state this year. These figures are based on 



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