Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1873-10-09
MAHASKA COUNTY FAIR.

MAHASKA COUNTY FAIR.
TUSCALOOSA, Iowa, }
October I'd, 1878
EDITORS COURIER 81 Stuk a notion"
to go up to the Mahaska County Fair
at oskaloosa this year. This CThurs-
day. is the I'd day it hiss been running,
and as have not seen anything about
it in your paper, perhaps relation of
what is to be seen here will not be nm
acceptable to your readers.
In company with half dozen other
Ottnmwaites, we arrived here per
Iowa Central by the timely hour of l
O'Clock A. NJ. After snoozing until
daylight, and partaking of an excel
lent breakfast at Mr.. Shipley's hotel
the Madison House we wendell our
way toward the fair ground. At this
hour, s O'Clock, there are not many on
the ground, but the buildings are open,
and stock and articles ready for in
spection. There are not quite as many
stands and eating houses as there
We're on our grounds; three peanut
stands and one commodious eating
house. the owner Of which bought the
exclusive right OF the Society for Sl45.
No "side.shows," unless couple of
swings may be called such.
We proceeded to examine the stock
pens, which are remarkably well fill
cd with very fine stock; as the name
of the exhibitors were not on the
entry cards. we cannot find out in ev-
cry instance by whom exhibited. On
the thoroughbred pens and stalls.
however, the pedigree cards of the
animals are nailed OH, and there we
find the name of the owner. The
horse classes are well-1illed, and we
can see good specimens having the
good points of the different breeds,
from the rounded, massive form of the
Norman OF Draft horse, to the lighter
and nimbler form of the PAGER and
trottcr; although, as far rs we have
heard, there are no very celebrated
trottcrs present. The show of fine
DuRHAMs AND DEVON
CATTLE
Is fine indeed. Samuel Ingels has his
Devon bull, 'Prince of
Wales" here, wearing the red ribbon,
Qst prcmium) and weighing 1900
pounds. He also has the Devon COW.
Crosse of Canada" a splendid animal,
weighs 40 pounds. We noticed
several other fine Devon cattle wear
ing red and blue ribbons. Among the
short-horns is the two-ycar old sweep
stakes bull, "Maior Booth" belonging
TO Mr.. Sewers, a COW and bull Of EN-
ormons size belonging TO some of the
Primes, and some very good grades
short-horns, belonging to Mcssrs. d.
M. Hamilton and N. Cone. We had
not an entry in the sheep classes at our
fair, but here we find several pens con-
tanning short-wool Spanish Mcrinos
and long.wool Cotswolds. and one
pen Cashmere goats. Among
SWINE
The Cheshire breed seem to predomln-
ate. The monster Cheshire boar. t'Duke
Of York. is here. He has never
failed to sweep the first premium and
sweepstakes wherever exhibited, and
he has been exhibited at State and
county fairs in Illinois, Ohio. Ken
lucky and this State. He is not the
smallest hog on the ground either, in
fact he weighs 900 lbs. The "Lancas-
Ter Pet" same breed, is in one pen he
is fourteen months old and turns the
scale at 440 lbs. Next we come to the
Cheshire sow, Jessie;;' she swept the
sweepstakes at the Illinois State Fair
this year; she is three years old and
contains GOO cubic pounds. There are
other fine hogs, but space forbids spe-
cial notice, except that the Primes, ii.
p. Martin and Robert Sewers, are the
principal exhibitors of Berkshires, and
w. Moore and A. J. I.ytlc, of Poland
Cllinas. And next comes that indis-
pcnsablc feature of every fair. the
FLORAL HALL.
Ii would not exagge crate anything to
say that they have truly magnificent
display for county fair. The display
OF plants is very good, but the Herald
docs not know what he is talking
about when he talks about it's being
the finest in the State. The show of
apples surprised our expectations.
John n. Dixon is at the head of fruit
having GO varieties of ap
pies and several varieties of pears
George Barber has twig of Northern
Spy apple tree, about IS inches long
with s good apples on it. But Mr..
Amos Kemble's display of ported
plants, charmed us more than any
thing else. Right here is an illustra-
ton of what good judgment will do.
1T is well known that Greenhouse men
are "shut out" from competing for
premiums for house plants, at nearly
all comfy fairs, thus reducing the size
of floral display considerably, but the
Mahaska Society told Mr.. Kemble
they would pay him SIS to bring in