108 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



the richest state and have the best right to own such a fair ground. We 

 have the many interests that come in here to make up a very large expo- 

 sition of this character, and I would Lke to make this point in closing 

 and leave this thought with you, that you people deserve to have a fair 

 in your community that is ranking with our highest educational institu- 

 tions, therefore, you deserve all of the state aid that you can secure. 

 And I can assure you that as time goes on your state aid is going to be 

 increased, but, as I said before, the increased state aid ought to be given 

 to the fair that has character. 



The President: On account of the absence of Mr. DeWitt 

 Wing, we have not consumed quite all of our time for the fore- 

 noon program, so I take this opportunity of introducing to you 

 a gentleman who has taken an active part in agriculture in Iowa, 

 who was connected with this great institution for several years, 

 and who is keeping in touch with conditions as they improve 

 from year to year. I take pleasure in introducing to you my par- 

 ticular friend, John Cownie. 

 Mr. President, Fellow Farmers: 



Perhaps you will want to draw a line against me now because I am 

 out of farming actively, but my interests are still there. 



I want to remind you younger men especially of this — the older men 

 of course have heard this story as told by Judge Wright, one of the 

 early pioneers of Iowa, and one of the warmest, staunchest friends of 

 the agricultural society, in an address that he gave many years ago. He 

 told us about the formation of the society. Iowa was then a young state 

 and there had been no state fair. Judge Wright at Davenport had sent to 

 Connecticut for seed onions which he planted in Scott county and had 

 excellent results. Thinking that the people back in Connecticut might be 

 interested in the onions that he raised, he carefully selected and packed 

 a box of his onions and sent them to his old friends in Connecticut to let 

 them know that we had an agricultural society in this state west of the 

 Mississippi that could grow onions. When the box arrived there they 

 crowded around to see what was in it, and when the lid was taken off and 

 the onions exhibited, they broke and rim for their lives, thinking that the 

 box was full of infernal machines — they never saw such onions as were 

 grown in Iowa. That is one of the stories that Judge Wright told about 

 the organization of the state agricultural society. 



When the society was to be organized, a notice was sent out and pub- 

 lished in the newspapers that a meeting would be held in a certain town 

 on a certain day for the purpose of organizing into an agricultural so- 

 ciety. When the day of the meeting came, three men appeared, and one 

 had ridden fifty miles on horseback to attend the meeting; but that was 

 their first meeting held to organize the state agricultural society, but they 

 proceeded to business They weren't as discouraged as the farmers are 

 now. They immediately appointed one man, a large, portly man, as presi- 

 dent; a little man as secretary, and the medium-sized man as vice presi- 

 dent. They talked about organization of a state fair, and finally when 



