FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART I 15 



"State Weather and Crop Service— Appropriation. There is hereby- 

 appropriated, out of any money in the state treasury not otherwise ap- 

 propriated, the sum of two thousand seven hundred dollars annually, to 

 be drawn and expended upon the order of tfie president and secretary 

 of the department of agriculture for such service. Including the salary 

 of the director, which shall not exceed fifteen hundred dollars per annum. 

 (Sec. 1681, Supp. 1907)." 



The following comment is made by the engineers: 



"The expenditures under these two appropriations are checked in this 

 department and certified by the president and secretary before warrants 

 are issued — the director of the state weather and crop service presenting 

 an account monthly for his salary ($125.00), his stenographer ($60.00) 

 and his incidental expenses — but no record thereof is made in the finan- 

 cial books kept in this department." 



The appropriation for the support of the Weather and Crop Service 

 Bureau is made specifically for that bureau and is not made to the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. The salary of the director and clerk is fixed 

 by statute and the director keeps an itemized account of the salaries and 

 incidental expenses. An itemized account is also kept of these expendi- 

 tures in the State Auditor's Office and in the office of the Executive 

 Council. 



We see no reason why a fourth record of these expenditures should be 

 made in this office and be confused with the finances of this department. 



Under the heading: "State Fair Financial Position," we find listed 

 the present value of the land and all improvements on the grounds prior 

 to 1901 at $100,000. The fair grounds contain approximately 300 acres and 

 if any attempt whatever had been made to arrive at the true value of the 

 land it would not be listed at less than $200,000, saying nothing about 

 the buildings and improvements on the grounds prior to 1901. 



We should also like to know why the unexpended appropriation of 

 $1,275.00 is listed with the assets and liabilities of the fair, when the 

 law explicitly states this appropriation is made for the support of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and it is so used. 



"The original contracts for the erection of the main buildings, to- 

 gether with the architects' certificates supporting the payments therefor, 

 have been submitted to us, and we are informed that, with one exception, 

 no contract has been awarded, in connection with which, the proposals 

 were not advertised and bids obtained in customary manner. The ex- 

 ception referred to was in connection with the erection of the cross- 

 section of the horse barn which was required at very short notice and 

 for which the board had not the requisite amount of time wherein to ad- 

 vertise the proposals in the usual way." 



The exception referred to was not the cross section of the horse barn 

 which was built in 1912. Contract for this section of the barn was let 

 to the lowest bidder and the original contract and contractor's bond 

 are on file in this department. However, in 1908, after the entries closed 

 in the horse department, August 1st, the management found they were 

 short about 120 stalls and contract was let to J. B. McGorrisk to build 

 brick horse barn No. 2, an exact duplicate of barn No. 1, which was built 

 in 1907, for precisely the same amount. The contract was let on the 



