14 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



The committee authorized the superintendent of grounds to em- 

 ploy a man and team at $3.50 per day; his time to be devoted to 

 keeping the track in first class condition, hauling manure from 

 speed barns and making repairs to barns; also such other work 

 as might be assigned by the superintendent of grounds. 



The secretary was authorized to enter into contract for rental 

 of not to exceed twenty acres of ground north of fair grounds and 

 at not to exceed $9.00 per acre, to be cropped and used for plow- 

 ing demonstrations during the 1913 fair. 



On Thursday M. G. Thornburg met with the committee and 

 made recommendations relative to the classification in the sheep 

 department. 



Member Summers joined the committee on April 4th and 5th to 

 assist in matters pending before the legislature and to attend to 

 matters pertaining to the privilege department. 



SPECIAL MEETING STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 

 APRIL 7-8-9, 1913. 



As per call of the president the board met at the office of the 

 Department of Agriculture on Tuesday evening at 7:30, April 

 8th, with members of the committee on retrenchment and reform, 

 for the purpose of going over the report of the accountants who 

 had been engaged to investigate the department. 



The following members were present: 



Johnston, Reeves, Curtin, "Wentworth, Curtiss, Summers, Mul- 

 len, Pike, Cameron, Olson and Corey. 



The following brief was presented by the secretary in answer 

 to certain charges and statements made by the accountants and 

 printed in the House and Senate Journal of April 4th, as a sup- 

 plement to the report of the committee on retrenchment and re- 

 form: 



Referring to the report printed in the House Journal of April 4th, 

 (pages 1935-1970) inclusive, by the efficiency engineers, Quail, Parker & 

 Company, who were engaged by the Committee on Retrenchment and 

 Reform to check up the department and make recommendations, we 

 wish to take this report up item by item and make explanation of certain 

 misstatements and unjust criticisms contained therein. 



The first item is relative to the expenditures of the Iowa Weather and 

 Crop Service (page 1938). The law under which the Weather and Crop 

 Service operates, insofar as the state appropriation is concerned, is 

 found in section 1681, Supplement to the Code, and reads as follows: 



