6^ IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



is that farmers are so situated that they cannot all come the same week. 

 Part of the family comes one week and the balance the next. With our 

 camping facilities increasing each year a family can procure a tent for 

 the full time. Part of the family may use it the first week and the rest 

 the last week. Our tenting facilities this year were swamped really be- 

 fore the fair commenced, as all the tents were taken by Friday of the 

 first week of the fair. 



As an illustration of the percentage of Iowa live stock that is exhibited 

 at the fair, there were 666 horses entered, 58S of which were entered by 

 Iowa exhibitors and 55 per cent of the premium money was awarded to 

 Iowa exhibitors. There were 1,298 cattle exhibited and of these Iowa fur- 

 nished 921 and won 65 per cent of the premiums. Of the 3,774 swine 

 entered, 3,481 were entered by Iowa exhibitors, to whom was awarded 

 89 per cent of the premium money. There were 784 sheep entered, of 

 which 555 were entered by Iowa exhibitors and 81 per cent of the pre- 

 mium money was awarded to Iowa sheep breeders. So you see by the 

 report of premiums won in all the stock departments that Iowa breeders 

 won over 72 per cent of all the premiums, and it is because of this fact 

 that I say if it becomes necessary for Iowa to hold her fair for the best 

 interests of her own resources she is in a position to do so regardless of 

 conflicting dates with other fairs. I hope this will not become necessary, 

 but we will have to protect our own interests. 



The boys' and girls' club department has outgrown its quarters and it 

 will be necessary to provide more adequate space, for I consider this 

 department the most interesting and instructive of any of the depart- 

 ments of the fair. It is to this new blood that we will have to look to 

 carry on the great work of insuring the future success of the fair. Our 

 plans are not fully matured. The executive committee will recommend 

 to the incoming board plans for enlarging these departments in the way 

 of a .larger exhibit in the boys' and girls' department; in the way of a 

 larger exhibit building, in a dormitory for the girls, and other improve- 

 ments. No one could view the parade of 1,500 boys and girls which 

 marched before the grand stand this year and not feel proud that he was 

 a citizen of this great commonwealth. These young people represented 

 canning clubs, baby beef clubs, pig clubs and, in fact, everything I think 

 that Iowa is interested in. So let's take good care of them, for they will 

 make the fair greater in the future. 



A few years ago I made the prediction in one of my addresses to this 

 body that land in Iowa in the near future would be selling at from $300 

 to $500 per acre. That has come true. No doubt the war brought this 

 condition about sooner than natural conditions would have done. How- 

 ever, it is here and it is here to stay. People ask me if I think this land 

 will stay at that price and I say it certainly will. It may not go any 

 higher for some time, but I do not think it will go back. 



Do you expect farm products to go back to the same level as they 

 were before the war? 1 do not. Wages and everything else that enters 

 into the production of the farm have gone up. The government con- 

 tracted an enormous debt during the war and the debt was contracted 

 during the period of high prices, and if prices should now decline to the 

 same level as before the war we could never pay oft this debt. 



