TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 107 



I would put this prerequisite upon you people — I would ask that you have 

 a plan and that everything you did in the future should be done with that 

 plan in mind. It will cost no more to build and locate your buildings ac- 

 cording to some future definite arrangement, something that you will be 

 proud of as an individual when you do arrive at this place where you 

 belong. 



Great expositions employ the aid of the best architects, engineers and 

 landscape architects procurable to make of their fairs the most beautiful, 

 stimulative and educational possible. If success has crowned their ef- 

 forts, as I am sure you will agree with me that it has, then in a small way 

 at least I would recommend their procedure to you. By that I mean, "be 

 advised," and build by a definite plan of development. 



As I said before, you really rank as an educational institution, hence 

 in the planning of your institution you must have something that is digni- 

 fied, something that will stimulate the imagination. You cannot stimulate 

 the people that come to your county fair of something that is better and 

 more beautiful unless you have those things there before them. 



When it comes to planting your grounds with flowering plants and 

 shrubbery, because fairs come at that season of the year, it is very diffi- 

 cult to supply you with a great variety of blooming plant material. There 

 aren't many shrubs that are blooming in August and September, although 

 there are a few, and I know in the planting of the fair grounds today 

 we are using only plant material that will have some value at that par- 

 ticular time. If you do not have flowers, you must have some kind of in- 

 teresting foliage or fruit, and it is surprising the great dearth of mate- 

 rial suitable for that time, but I have worked out a list and if any of you 

 people would be interested in getting a copy of that list I will send you 

 a copy, but it is just those things that are of interest at fair time. 



For instance, dogwoods have beautiful fruit at fair time. Into this 

 planting, I have thrown some colored foliage. That is apt to be garish if 

 you use too much of it, but you can intersperse some of it to liven the 

 effect, and at a distance it looks as though the shrub were blooming. And 

 also, in the use of flowers, we use a great many annuals — cannas, salvias, 

 and materials of that kind which, by some people who are really very 

 much considered authority, are taboo. They are taboo because their 

 colors are too bright and garish, but they do supply on our fair ground 

 planting scheme a lot of color, and it is the spirit of the day that the 

 country girl will come wearing her brightest ribbon, and the spirit of 

 the planting should be in the same character and harmony. There Is 

 sympathy there, as you can see. 



This fall we planted a great many perennials, which to me is an abso- 

 lutely new feature. Your perennials will be planted once, and then they 

 are there for all time to come. We have planted those things which will 

 bloom at fair time, such as phlox and black-eyed Susans, and plants of 

 that kind, and in that way we are trying to make our fair grounds out 

 here more beautiful, and I know in years to come we will have the most 

 beautiful grounds in the United States. 



And when we do have our grounds the most beautiful in the country, 

 we are going to have it right here in Iowa, because we deserve it, we are 



