528 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



grown in many years. And the people came from the farm to see the 

 exhibits in numbers larger than ever before. Fifty thousand visitors were 

 hauled to Des Moines in one day by the railroads entering the capital 

 city. Nor were these visitors parsimonious. They had money to spend 

 and they spent it freely. They paid the state fair managem.ent $175,643.29, 

 whereas in the previous year they had paid but $151,933.20. They left im- 

 mense sums in the stores, going on extensive shopping expeditions. Iowa 

 rubbed its eyes. Surely here were not the impoverished farmers of whom 

 it had been prating so glibly. 



And so, to the direct educational value of the state fair held at Des 

 Moines last week, must be added the immense value of the exposition in 

 setting the farmer's condition right before the world. There could he no 

 surer or better criterion of the continued prosperity which is his, of the 

 farmer's ability to buy what he wants and needs and of the farmer's ca- 

 pacity for play as well as for work. 



The Tuesday attendance of 62,699 was the record for the fifty-seven 

 years which Iowa has been holding state fairs, the best mark previous 

 to that being 59,000, reached in 1910. In every way and from every 

 point of view the 1911 fair was an unqualified success and sets a record 

 which it will be hard for Iowa, with all its splendid resources and un- 

 bounded faith in its continued agricultural prosperity, to eclipse. 



Both the state fair management and the city of Des Moines profited by 

 the experience of former years and dispensed with the grievous over- 

 charge practice which was one of the well-founded complaints of visitors 

 to former fairs. Supt. W. C. Brown of the concession department revoked 

 the license of one or two refreshment booths which were found charging 

 visitors more for the mea!s than the price quoted by the announcer, while 

 the Commercial Club of Des Moines refused to send prospective roomers 

 to private houses which charged more than the price which the club had 

 set as reasonable. It is an undisputable fact that in former years Des 

 Moines has taken unfair advantage of state fair visitors and chai'ged ex- 

 orbitant prices for ordinary, routine service. The city has learned, how- 

 ever, that this policy would not only redound to its own disadvantage, 

 but, in the course of time, would cut down the attendance of the state 

 fair, £0 that monetary loss would be inevitable. With the single exception 

 of the Greek proprietors of the shoe shining parlors, no class of public 

 providers acted in unison in raising prices. State fair visitors leave large 

 quantities of money in Des Moines, both for their expenses during the 

 week and on shopping tours, and Des Moines showed this year that it 

 appreciates this patronage and liberality and does not propose to take 

 unfair advantage of its visitors. 



Although the weather at times, might have been considered a trifle 

 too cool to be ideal it was the first time in many years that visitors 

 were enabled to attend the fair in absolute climatic comfort. The days 

 were invariably cool and pleasant so that there was none of the suffer- 

 ing from heat which usually attends the state fair. The nights were cool 

 to the point of chilliness, but notwithstanding this the attendance at the 

 night exhibitions was invariably large. For the first time in many years 



