EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART HI 153 



When I told Mr. Lauer I would come down here and say a few words 

 about publicity, I didn't know that Mr. Corey was going to be here, or 

 Mr. Cameron, or Mr. Whitted, of the State Fair Association, for if I had 

 knowli that I believe I would have declined. 



It might be well to give just a little history of the show I am con- 

 nected with. It is a little bit different from the fair business; it is a 

 dairy show, exclusively a show for dairy cattle, dairy products, and dairy 

 machinery and supplies. It originated about eight years ago on pure air. 

 Some fellows got together and thought they would like to offer the 

 breeders of dairy cattle of the west an opportunity to congregate in this 

 state; they also thought they would like to offer to the manufacturers of 

 dairy equipment an opportunity to exhibit their goods and thereby build 

 up the dairy industry of Iowa. They organized their proposition and 

 offered about $4,000 in premiums the first year. It happened that the 

 Lord was with them and they came out all right. The second year there 

 was a big show organized at Milwaukee; they chose the same dates that 

 we had, and we went in pretty heavy and offered about $10,000 in pre- 

 miums. The Lord wasn't quite so favorable that year and we ran behind 

 $7,500. Since that time, although we have had six shows, and four times 

 out of the six of them were rainy, we have come out quite well. 



In talking of the publicity end of the dairy show in particular, I want 

 to say that it is different from the county and district fair in that we try 

 to advertise as widely as possible all over the United States, and we are 

 limited in the funds we have to work with. The publicity end, as I see 

 it, in fair work is one of the most important parts of the fair. It is im- 

 portant because it brings the attendance, and it is important because it 

 brings our exhibitors. I want just to divide this subject into three dif- 

 ferent parts. I will take only just a very few moments. 



The first is publicity before the show, and I might say that we have 

 already started the publicity for our 1918 show. We have sent out the 

 announcement of the dates of the show to all of the agricultural papers 

 in the United States, and we are going to keep on sending out little arti- 

 cles in regard to the 1918 show from now until the opening of that show. 

 We have found every newspaper that we approached anxious and willing 

 to get behind a movement that is worthy, a movement that will develop 

 the agricultural features of our county, because of the fact that they 

 know the farmers are the real men in this old state of ours, and they 

 know if they cater to the wants of the farmer and foster his development, 

 why, it means progress to them. So we have found the newspapers and 

 the agricultural papers very willing to help us, and in advertising the 

 dairy cattle congress we have sent out news items right along to our 

 newspapers. We have found that in some instances the item didn't take 

 very well, while in others, especially if they had a very catchy heading 

 to them, they were very successful. I remember one heading that went 

 all over the state and outside of the state, which read: "Baccilli will be 

 in large numbers at the dairy show," and that item with that heading was 

 run all over the country and gave us more publicity than any other article 

 we had. And that article just referred to the germs that would be in 

 some of the samples of milk that we expected to have to show the public 

 what poor and good milk was. 



