134 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



everywhere. If you want to go in at 10 o'clock in the morning, you can 

 stay in until tomorrow morning at daylight, if you want to. We consider 

 this a good thing in cutting out objectionable features, in keeping the 

 concession people in line with the crowd and in keeping them in line 

 with the fair. 



The baby-health contest. There is a proposition that any one of you 

 can afford to take up, for it is as good a feature as anything we have. I 

 have watched it around at all the fairs I have attended, and I figure it is 

 one of the best of the new features. I don't believe any of them are over 

 three years old, and they have been very successful. 



Then there is the matter of night shows. Good night-shows are a fea- 

 ture that attract many people. A man pays 50 cents to get in the grounds 

 in the morning, and as long as he stays on the ground he stays for the 

 night show. We don't say that from six o'clock on it will cost this man 

 25 cents more; but that 50 cents entitles him to the day and night show, 

 and he goes and comes as he pleases; but if he goes down town after 3 

 or 4 o'clock then he pays to come back in. 



Our pig clubs, our corn clubs, our baby beef contests, and features of 

 that kind I think most of you have taken up. But one thing that has 

 been the most encouraging to us has been the sheep proposition. We have 

 forty-two acres in our fair grounds at home, and the most income we 

 have ever gotten out of it heretofore has been $125 a year. Last year we 

 thought we would take a shot at the sheep proposition, so we went out 

 and brought fifty natives and fifty westerners. The fifty natives were 

 without lambs and the 50 westerners were with lamb. We put them out 

 at the fair ground about the first of March. We bought fifty bushels of 

 oats and some clover hay, and hired a man at $25 a month to take care of 

 them until September. 



Before I get ahead of my story I want to say this: Heretofore when 

 I went out and commenced to get the grounds in shape about September 

 1, I would find the race track about shoulder high with weeds, all corners 

 of the grounds grown up in weeds, and around the barns and stable was 

 all weeds, and as I would look over that sea of weeds I would say to my- 

 self, "Here's where I want to quit;" but this year I went out on the first 

 day of August and it looked just like somebody had mowed it, for there 

 wasn't a weed in sight, and the fair grounds were never in better condi- 

 tion. 



When we checked up after disposing of that 100 sheep and their in- 

 crease, and after paying our man $25 a month, paying for the hay and 

 feed and everything, we had a balance of $500 to our credit. 



Now, I would like- to have you fellows give more discussion to this 

 than we had on the other subject. 



The Chairman: Mr. Reeves, let's hear from you 



Mr. Reeves: In building up a county fair the first thing you want to 

 consider is keeping it well-balanced. Unless a fair is well-balanced it 

 will interest only a small part of the community. If it is well-balanced 

 every one is interested in something and that will bring everybody there. 

 If you want your fair to be interesting, you will have to have stock of all 

 classes represented, and you cannot have stock represented without per- 



