From the Ridgeway Journal dated February 17, 1910:
On Saturday, March 5, a special train was expected to arrive in Ridgeway at 11 am. This train, sponsored by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, featured speakers and exhibits to provide education on “dairying”. The train included “an Arms Palace Car, containing some of the most improved dairy bred animals to be used at each stop to demonstrate the essential points to be observed in selecting and breeding great economical and profitable milch and butter producing cow” and a baggage car that had “ miniature silos, cow testing machines, dairy literature and other necessary equipment for demonstration.”
On hand to talk about dairy farming were men from the Department of Agriculture, the Iowa State Dairymen Association and other experts in the field. These men are recognized as authorities on subjects pertaining to dairy farming, who will lecture on the subject of breeding and caring for the dairy herd and making the farms more productive and profitable. All of this was free to the local farmers and they were strongly encouraged to take advantage of this educational opportunity to learn more to improve their herds, milk production and their farms. They were encouraged to bring their families as well: “Bring your wives, sons and daughters along. They need the training as well as you, for they are to be the farmers and farmers’ wives of the future.”
The train was due to leave Ridgeway at 12:00 when it would “depart for Blythedale and other northern points.”
