448 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



(2) Opportunity to secure cooperators in demonstration work. 



(3) Opportunity for the college to conduct agricultural schools and 

 short courses and demonstrations while the exhibition is in progress. 



(4) Opportunity to initiate new movements for the improvement of 

 agriculture. 



(5) Opportunity for the education of fair managers in the conduct 

 of agricultural exhibitions. 



(6) Opportunity for collecting into .one place the results of field dem- 

 onstrations for the inspection of the public. 



(7) Providing a place for the exhibition of the results of contest work 

 by school children and country youth. 



(8) Enabling the college and station to secure the names and ad- 

 dresses of representative farmers and of young people with whom to 

 correspond in disseminating agricultural information, and in securing 

 cooperation in projects for rural improvement. 



THE FAIR REDIRECTED AND ENLARGED. 



All that the present fair association needs for immediate action in 

 the wider field now open is a change of view as to its mission and scope 

 and a practical plan for carrying on its work. Its activities need to be 

 redirected and enlarged to fit the association to take advantage of the 

 opportunities for aiding rural betterment that lie before it. If it is to be 

 a leader in rural betterment its organization and methods must be care- 

 fully outlined in advance to be in accord with the conditions that control 

 success in such enterprises. As careful study should be made by the 

 management, of the needs of farming people as well as of their peculiari- 

 ties and temperament, as if these interested in the fair were about to 

 invest in a department store or engage in the manufacture on a large 

 scale of an article or articles intended for general use. 



The fair even if assisted by the State will be largely dependent upon 

 public patronage for its success. If public patronage is to be secured and 

 held the fair as a whole must be made sufficiently interesting to attract 

 those whose presence is desired. In doing this it can not descend to the 

 use of low or questionable methods or to cheap, vulgar, or tawdry shows, 

 n.o matter how great the crowd these may draw or how remunerative they 

 may be. Its attractions must be of a character that will elevate and in- 

 struct, or if for entertainment the exhibition must be free from every- 

 thing that suggests evil, ridicuU:s purity, or tends to deceive, defraud, or 

 vulgarize the public. 



The fair that is to be a worthy leader and is to meet the needs of 

 contry people must be strong, clean, full of interest, well managed, and in 

 entire sympathy with country life. It must first of all and above all be 

 loyal to its own constituency, the agricultural public, and not be swerved 

 from serving them in the most effective way by any influence or set of in- 

 fluences that it may encounter, however enticing. 



