ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XII 843 



The Hereford breeders made a fine showing with their beautiful "White 

 Faces." Both in numbers and quality the Hereford show was a great 

 deal stronger than it has been in recent years. It is a matter of con- 

 siderable interest to those who, other things being equal, prefer a polled 

 to a horned animal that two double standard polled Hereford bulls came 

 well within the money, especially considering the very strong competition 

 they had to meet. Polled Ito, a yearling polled bull, won sixth in the 

 open class and first in the Iowa class, while Eckle Grove, a two-year-old 

 polled bull— weight 2,080 pounds — won fourth in the open class and first 

 in the Iowa class. Considering the recent origin of this breed this show- 

 ing must certainly be very gratifying to its promoters. 



The Angus show, from a standpoint of quality, was superb and better 

 than last year, but from a numerical point of view it was not quite on 

 a par with some previous shows. The uniformity of the Angus rings 

 was freely commented upon by the onlookers. "They all look alike," was 

 a common expression. "How can the judge pick the winners from cattle 

 that look so nearly alike?" And such expressions were not to be won- 

 dered at. "Doddy" breeders are certainly to be commended for their 

 adherence to a definite type. 



The Galloway show was not large, but the few herds present were 

 very fine and much admired by the visitors to whom the shaggy blacks 

 in this section of the country are comparative strangers. 



The dairy breeds were comparatively well represented. The four 

 breeds — Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey, and Ayrshire — were represented, some 

 better than others. Much interest was manifested by the farmers in these 

 cattle, which is but natural with the present good prices of dairy products. 

 The dairymen also held a well attended meeting on the fair grounds and 

 an excellent program was rendered. A number of lectures on dairy topics 

 were delivered, and plans were made for securing the passage of certain 

 laws with reference to regulations pertaining to sanitary milk and tuber- 

 culosis, at the next session of the legislature. 



The agricultural and horticultural displays were far from what one 

 would like to see at a state fair. Having been a very poor fruit year, 

 one could not, of course, expect much in the horticultural line, at least 

 not in the way of fruit exhibits. Corn not being ripe at the time the 

 Iowa State Fair opens, new corn is an impossibility, at the same time 

 there is no reason why an attractive agricultural display should not be 

 made. In the live stock departments the Iowa State Fair is clearly a 

 leader among all the fairs, but this cannot be said of the agricultural 

 and horticultural departments. It is time for the management to pay a 

 little more attention to these departments, and to make them what they 

 should be, and easily can be made. The fair has always been behind in 

 these departments, and instead of improving they seem actually to be 

 deteriorating. The improvement of our crops and the management of 

 our soils are as important subjects of study as the improvement of our 

 live stock. It is to be hoped that something will be done in this direction 

 for next year's exposition. Let us not have a one-sided fair, but one 

 that is a leader in every respect. 



