210 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



from my experience; my father lived here in this county until 

 eight years ago last June. The year I was nine years old I was big 

 enough to plow. "We came home from town one evening a couple 

 of months before the fair and he said, ' ' I saw one of the directors 

 of the fair today," and he said, "we must be in there with our 

 stock, — horses, colts, hogs, sheep and cattle." Of course we had 

 an invitation to come to the fair. "We didn't ask what premiums 

 they were going to pay. We were glad to work and get these colts, 

 etc., all ready by the time the fair commenced, and we had a nice 

 male animal, five or six sheep and we loaded up in a big wagon 

 some corn and took a little grip and came to the fair, and we did 

 not come for money but to show the people what we were raising. 

 It was big advertising. My father brought two big black mares to 

 this country wdth him. One of them raised thirteen colts and the 

 other nine. Our advertising at the fair sold all these colts that we 

 wanted to sell. Now, for example, down here at Pleasantville, at 

 the county fair there were 126 horses and colts in the show ring. 

 They asked me to come down and judge for them. I know a little 

 bit about judging at a county fair. When a man judges horses at 

 a county fair and gives a premium to a colt the rest of the horse- 

 men M'ould like to know why he gave that premium. Very well. 

 There were twenty-five of these horses brought out in the show 

 ring. Every colt was entered in the draft class. I looked them over 

 and I said there are about eight or ten draft horse classes here 

 and the rest of you fellows will have to w^ait until I come to the 

 road class. I picked out those draft colts — worked them down to 

 five. One fellow there says: "We've got him stuck now." Fin- 

 ally I picked out a colt. The other fellows all said : ' ' We are 

 satisfied, but we want you to tell us why you gave that colt first 

 premium." I said: "In the first place he is the best colored one." 

 And they would say, "That's so." "He has got the finest hair on 

 him." "Yes." I said, "If you are going to buy one of these colts 

 for $500, which one would you pick out 1 ' ' They were all satisfied. 

 I went through those 126 horses and every man donated his pre- 

 mium right back to the association. 



Now you have got to send out invitations so that you will get 

 your bookings before the fair commences. Every business man 

 in the county should send out invitations before the fair for their 

 customers to be sure and attend the fair and every man that comes 

 in town say to him, "Here, we are going to have a fair and you 

 want to bring in some butter, and some poultry, and some produce 



