222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



matter into the newspapers hero. lie can- get it into the newspapers in 

 the form of reading matter wlien we can not begin to get it there. We 

 employ a regular reporter on one of the papers who has access to all the 

 newspapers. He prepares these slips and presents them at the office. 

 They are talien to the managing editor or editor-in-chief, looked over, and 

 if the article is in the form of news it goes in without any charge to us. 

 We get very effective advertising in that way. Of course we must patron- 

 ize the papers with advertisements, for whicla we pay. We spend about 

 $125 with each of the papers here. Then we have a list of seventy-five or 

 eighty papers with which we spend from three to five dollars each. They 

 print tliese slips for us. We send them out already prepared. These 

 articles are read in country places where we could not possibly reach tlie 

 people witli billboards or posters. Newspaper advertising is the most 

 effective advertising we can do. Tlie monej^ we are spending for litho- 

 graphs and billboards I think is almost thrown away. I think the day is 

 fast coming when we will have to resort altogether to the newspapers 

 to advertise our fairs. 



Mr. Blackstock: Our fair has been in the liabit of investing one hun- 

 dred, one hundred and twenty-five, and sometimes as higli as two hundred 

 dollars in lithographs. When they were distributed over the county you 

 could only see one occasionally. If Buffalo Bill's show liappened to be 

 coming about the same time they would put in two or three tliousand 

 dollars' worth of posters, and our little bills would be lost sight of. You 

 can not advertise fairs in competition with such shows, for it belittles the 

 interests of the fairs. If I were secretary of a fair I wonld not buy a 

 single poster; I would put Avhat money I had into newspaper advertising, 

 as Mr. Downing has suggested. 



Mr. Ilulet: I have been advertising fairs for the past seven or eight 

 years, and each year I have spent less and less money on lithographs aiul 

 posters. I have used the newspapers to advertise in more and more as the 

 years have gone on. I have been afraid, however, to abandon the poster 

 advertising entirely, not knowing what the result would be. I have at 

 each fair put out some posters, and have put out little fence stickers with 

 only the date of the fair on them. The advertising that has counted, 

 however, has been the newspaper advertising. We have some eleven 

 newspapers in our county, and thirty days before the fair I had them 

 lillcd each d.iy witli references to the fair. These went in as news items. 



1 believe in one fair advertising the ne.\t. If we liave a good fair 

 this year the exhibitors will advertise it for next year. If they have been 

 well treated at one fair they will talk the year around about it, and will 

 be sure to exhibit at the next. Then the^only thing you have to get 

 before the people the next year is the date for holding the fair. That 

 you can get before them through the newspapers. 



