196 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



some years ago there was a committee appointed to make a uniform 

 premium list over tlie state and they did not succeed very well. One 

 thing we want you to get away from when we send out these lists is 

 that they are not mandatory, but that they are merely suggestive. We 

 do not ask anj' man to take that list and follow it out literally. You 

 work in the points that are valuable to you. Whatever you think valu- 

 able, as far as the amount of money is concerned. We are not going to 

 dictate to any fair, or try to, what they shall put up on a first prize 

 stallion, etc. I think we ought to do a little bit different than some of 

 the fairs have done. We had figured up $405 offered for premiums, and 

 of this $200 and some odd dollars was offered for standard bred and 

 driving horses and about $100 for draft horses, grade, pure bred and 

 standard bred, and I think that is hardly fair. I am not going to try to 

 enumerate it. I never made a speech in my life. Every time I under- 

 take to make a speech I am reminded of the minister who outlined his 

 sermon. He did not know just how it was going to come out until he 

 tried it out before an audience. He got it a little longer than he in- 

 tended to and, while delivering it, he noticed one man in the back part 

 of the room dozing and he called to an Irishman near the man and said, 

 "Pat, won't you awaken that fellow back there?" Pat replied, "Be gob, 

 you waken him yourself, you put him to sleep." However, I would ap- 

 preciate any suggestions you make along the line of uniformity of 

 classifications. I don't want to put you to sleep, but I want any sugges- 

 tions you can put in along the line of classification. I will appreciate 

 all you can do along that line with the fair board. We are getting some 

 of these things together and are especially trying to get away from this 

 thing of putting draft horses, Shetland ponies and driving horses, beef 

 and dairy breeds together for championship. I think it is a good thing to 

 have a draft horse championship, but don't mix them with different 

 types. I thank you. 



DISCUSSION. 



E. J. Ciirtin, Decorah : Now that sounds to me like a very pious 

 talk. I don't believe a man sent out by Ames college should make 

 such extravagant statements. Mr. O'Donnell is talking now to a 

 board of fair managers; he is not talking to an aggregation of 

 farmers. Where would we be if we didn't have standard bred 

 horses and other standard bred stock to maintain our colleges? 

 He says that Mr. Kennedy made the remark that for every fast 

 horse there were twenty fast boys. Now, I have managed shows and 

 have hired Mr. Kennedy to lecture at those shows and I never 

 heard him make that statement in my life. I saw nobody else was 

 going to bring this matter out before the board of fair managers 

 and I thought it was about time for some one to say something. 

 Now if Mr. 'Donnell will get back to facts and figures he will not 

 be so extreme in his statements. I raise a few standard horses, hogs 



