EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART II 105 



done that will compel the different fairs having a representative at 

 this meeting. As secretar^r of the fair managers' association I have 

 received some very impertinent letters from different fair officials, 

 conveying the idea that "we never did belong and ]iever will, and 

 we will get our state aid just the same ' '. I made a trip this year to 

 the southwestern part of the state and in talking with some of the 

 officers I found that they had never heard anything from our asso- 

 ciation. I have in mind two places in the southwestern part of the 

 state where I sent literature with regard to our association and the 

 annual meeting, where the matter had never been brought to the 

 attention of the fair managers, for the secretary had confiscated 

 the communications and had never brought the matter to the atten- 

 tion of the fair oft'icials. Conse(]uently nothing was done. That 

 being the condition in some places, I hope that everybody interested 

 in fair w^ork will take that into consideration and see if it can't 

 be arranged that every fair receiving state aid should have a repre- 

 sentative attending the state agricultural convention. I have not 

 drafted a law covering this particular feature, but I know that 

 the legislative committee can prepare such a bill and present it to 

 the legislature, and I feel sure that it can be passed without any 

 trouble whatever. 



The Chairman : We have with us today an old-time fair man 

 who never has lost his interest in fair work, or lost his interest 

 in the agricultural interests of Iowa. If we have one proposition 

 in the State of Iowa that is of interest to farmers, it is the matter 

 of seed corn, and I am going to call upon my old friend John 

 Cownie to give us a talk on seed corn. 



MR. JOHN COWNIE. 



3Ir. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: 



I am always ashamed to talk r.eed corn ! It is a very humiliat- 

 ing condition that we are placed in this year with regard to seed 

 corn. It is over twenty years since I had an experience with 

 seed corn and I will never forget, and from that time to this I 

 have been writing and urging farmers to adopt my method of 

 saving their seed corn that would make crop failure impossible. 



When I was connected with the state institutions of Iowa as a 

 member of the Board of Control, I was informed that they al- 

 ways had trouble with their seed corn and I told them that \}iqj 

 were not going to have any more trouble now, I went around 

 to the different institutions and advised them to select a place 



