PROCEEDINGS STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 75 



us all feel good if the balance comes out on the right side, showing a 

 profit, but when it conies down to facts we must judge live stock and 

 agricultural fairs from the exhibit standpoint. There is no question but 

 that the Iowa State Fair had the best balanced live stock show in 

 its history. In fact, a larger percentage of our premiums were called for 

 this year than ever before. Practically every class was filled. We are 

 also very proud of the exhibit in the agricultural building which was 

 well filled with county exhibits and individual farm exhibits, and a 

 wonderful horticultural show. 



Mr. Cameron has spoken to you about the budget system. I really 

 feel very proud of the work the Board did this year. I think you all 

 realize it is a very easy matter to add to your premiums and add to the 

 expenses of your fair. We got into that habit during the war. But 

 when you come to cut down it is rather a hard proposition. Mr. Cam- 

 eron told you that at the meeting in March the board went over this very 

 carefully and made out a budget calling for a reduction of about $35,000. 

 This called for a good big cut in a number of departments, especially 

 in some of the amusement features, but I want to say that every mem- 

 ber of the Board put his shoulder to the wheel and worked with the 

 Executive Committee, and the superintendents outside of members of 

 the Board did the same thing, and after the fair was over and our 

 books were balanced they showed we only ran over our budget about 

 three per cent. In fact, the expenses of the fair, other than premiums 

 only overran $2,000. I feel that is a wonderful showing. 



Some of the other fairs operate on this same basis and I was dis- 

 cussing the matter with them during our meeting in Chicago, and one 

 fair manager said, "We always make up a budget, we did again this 

 year, but overshot about $15,000. We were pretty well pleased," he said. 

 "We usually go over from $20,000 to $25,000." 



We have worked out this budget system before in different departments, 

 that is for advertising, attractions and things of that kind, but this was 

 the first year we ever applied the budget system to all departments of 

 the fair. This matter was also discussed by the county fair managers 

 last year and I believe they profited by it. I noticed in tabulating the 

 expenses of the county fairs in the state of Iowa this year that they 

 reduced their operating expenses about five per cent. That is quite a 

 creditable showing because it has been going the other way for a good 

 many years. 



Now, as I said, I have prepared a report of some eighty pages and I 

 have tried to cover every detail of the fair. The financial report is in 

 detail and there are data that cover the exhibits and everything of that 

 nature. I am not going to take time to read any portion of this report. 

 You can all take it home with you and look it over. 



