\m IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Ihey will stay. It has been the policy of the Iowa State Fair aud Ex- 

 position to try and have a well balanced fair, and in that way interest 

 all the people who attend. It is with pride I speak of it. Iowa has tae 

 reputation of having the best balanced of any of the state fairs; that is 

 where its success has been — catering to all the people. 



This year we made permanent improvements on the grounds of over 

 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One hundred thousand of this 

 amount was appropriated by the general assembly, and I am sure the 

 members who were present on Tuesday and Wednesday of the fair had no 

 regrets for the part they took in appropriating this money for the large 

 and commodious grand stand that was built with the money. We were 

 unable to complete the stand with the appropriation made, as the lowest 

 bid we had for completion of the ten sections was one hundred and sixty 

 thousand dollars. With only one hundred thousand available we had to 

 omit the interior and the back walls, but it certainly was a great im- 

 provement over the old wooden structure that was torn down and one 

 did not hear the people talk about fire or panic. We erected another new 

 brick cattle barn, and also another brick horse barn. When these cattle 

 and horse barns are finally completed they will each be under one roof, 

 and very convenient not only for exhibitors but for all who attend tuc 

 fair. We are striving each year to better our facilities for handling the 

 people to and from the city, and with the new arrangements now I eing 

 made between the city and the street railway company I think another 

 year you will find a great improvement along this line. 



There has been a growing demand among exhibitors to erect perma- 

 nent buildings of their own on the fair grounds, but up to this time the 

 general arrangement of the grounds was such that we could not assign 

 them space. This year has definitely settled the permanent improve- 

 ments on the grounds and I think next year you will see some very 

 creditable buildings erected by the exhibitors. We allow no permanent 

 buildings that are not constructed of brick, stone or cement. 



The Iowa State College of Agriculture occupied the entire building 

 formerly known as the Women's Building, and every person who visited 

 the exhibit was not only pleased but received a great amount of informa- 

 tion from the different departments of the school. In the south end of 

 the building a lecture room was set off and at different hours of the day 

 lectures were given by the professors of the different departments. One 

 department in this exhibit was very interesting to me for the reason of 

 the intense interest taken; this was the domestic science instruction given 

 each day by the lady in charge. Practical demonstrations were given in 

 this work and one always found the room full of young ladies — and old 

 ones for that matter — eager for information in this line. The other schools 

 of the state have made application for space and it will not be many years 

 before you will see practical demonstrations of their work. The Board 

 ot Control had an exhibit showing the work done in their institutions. 

 All of these help to interest the people, showing what our institutions are 

 doing along these lines. By concentrating the exhibits at one place like 

 the State Fair and Exposition people who are unable to visit the dif- 

 ferent state institutions can see and judge of the work for which they 

 are taxed to maintain. 



