Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1869-09-23

from it the ground slopes off in near
ly all directions, diversified by fire.
quent ravines, and tolerably well
shaded by young oak trees. The
"Amphitheatre," of tiers of seats,
was large and strong, and the stock
sheds were good, roomy and abun-
dant-Gany remaining unoccupied.
The Halls for fruits and vegetables
were also large enough; but the
Fine-Arts Hall, a new pine-board
hnilding IL the form OF cross, of
which each wing was 80 by l05 feet,
was excessively crowded, and proved
much too small both for the things
on exhibition and for the number of
The crowd of people on
the Grounds was immense. Twen-
ty-one thousand tickets were sold on
Thursday, we were told; and we be-
lieve mt least twenty-three thousand
persons were in attendance at one
time during the day. DR.. Shaffer,
Secretary of the State Agr'l Society,
told us that this Fair exceeded any
previous one ever held in the State,
in the number and variety of articles
on exhibition, and in number of peo-
pie attending.
1t appeared to us, however, that
the character of the Fair was too
local-though perhaps unavoidably
SO. Most of the articles exhibited,
and most of the people, seemed to be
from the regions not over 90 or 100
miles from keokuk. Illinois was
especially well represented, in peo-
pie, stock, agricultural machinery,
fruits, &c. There were perhaps one
or two hundred persons present from
our County, and probably aless mum
Der from MahaSka. Asto other repre-
sentation, after full searching, the
only thing We could find on eXhibi-
ton from our County was q fine SAM
pie Of plums, from Mr.. Luke's Nurs-
cry at Ilamilton-which took first
Premium, and seemed to be without
competition. Mahaska County, as
we were told, had on exhibition only
three horses. The state of the Des
Moincs river was some excuse for our
County, Of course; butcertainly some
other reasons must have affected
other parts Of the state.
The display Of fruits was splendid.
both from Iowa and from Illinois
and it seemed to be nip and tuck"
between the two States. Grapes
wcro fecbly represented, but other
fruits were varied and magnificent.
The display Of vegetables, &C.,
seemed to us to be good but small;
and the same might be said Of sheep
and poultry, only moro so. Amoug
the hogs was one giant old fellow,
coming from somewhere in this
State, Of the Chester White Breed, if
we rccollect right, and weighing 1910
pounds. His tushcs lookedas though
he were trying to be an elephant.
a monster imported Norman horse
attracted much attention. lie was
from Illinois, and weighed 1850
pounds. Another, almost or quite
his equal, was also in the stalls. Be
side them, an ordinary team would
look like a baby-show.
The show Of agricultural inple
ments, machinery, &C., was varied
excellent, and mainly from Illinois.
To enumerate would be impossible.
Among the things we especially no
ticed was q fine Marsh Harvester
a machine which, if it successfully
performs all it proposes to do, must
effect revolution in harvest work
And it was especially pleasant to
notice that patent churns, washers,
wringers, scrubbers, and many other
new inventions for tightening the
toll of women, were numerously rep
resented and attracted much atten-
tion. Among these was one Iowa
concern, a patent stove and washing
machine combined; from Davis
County. Young Mr.. Hospers, Of
Pella, was unable to get his new
stalk-cutting machine made ready
for the Fair; and the mode! of it is in
the Patent Office; SO it was not rep
resented at all. But he told us that
he looked over the Grounds careful
ly, and saw nothing there approach
ing the distinctive features of his
invention. The ingenuity shown in
some Of the mechanical movements
Of the differentagriculturaI machines
exhibited seemed indeed wonderful,
proving that the demands of the
great Farming interest in this coun-
try engage the thought and attention
of many Of our best machinists and
most fertile inventive minds; and
surely this is cheering indication
Of the progress Of the age.
In the Fin Arts Hall, among the
innumerable articles on exhibition
we were attracted most by some
splendid paintings and chromos-a