SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART I. 11 



THE IOWA STATE FAIR. 



I desire to again call attention to the erroneous impression held by 

 some in regard to the Iowa State Fair. There are yet a few people 

 who do not understand under whose auspices the State Fair is held; 

 others deliberately wish to convey the wrong impression. 



The Iowa State Fair was first held in 1854 under the auspices of the 

 Iowa State Agricultural Society. The Iowa State Agricultural Society 

 was afterwards organized under the statutes of Iowa and became a part 

 of the State; the State fair continued to be held under the auspices of 

 this society until the year 1900. By an act passed by the Twenty-eighth 

 General Assembly there was created a new department of the State, 

 known as the Department of Agriculture, and by this same act the 

 Iowa State Agricultural Society was legislated out of existence. The 

 Department of Agriculture is managed by a board which is styled the 

 State Board of Agriculture. The personnel of the Board is as follows: 

 Four ex-officio members, being the Governor of the State, the State Dairy 

 and Food Commissioner, the president of the Iowa State College of Agri- 

 culture and Mechanic Arts, and the State veterinary; a president, vice 

 president, secretary, treasurer and one member from each of the eleven 

 congressional districts. Section 1657-d, Chapter 3, of the Code Supple- 

 ment of Iowa, sets forth how and by whom the members shall be 

 elected. Section 1657-i places the ■ control of the State Fair grounds 

 with the board of agriculture with requisite powers to hold annual State 

 Fairs and exhibits of the productive resources and industries of the State. 

 Section 1657-g makes it the duty of the executive council of the State to 

 annually appoint a committee, consisting of three members, whose duty 

 it is to examine and audit the books of the department and report to 

 the Governor. In addition to an examination of the books by this 

 committee they are annually gone over by an expert accountant regu- 

 larly employed by the executive council, who examines all the various 

 departments of the State. A full and complete statement of the re- 

 ceipts and disbursements is also made to the annual State agricultural 

 convention and published in the Iowa Year Book of Agriculture as a 

 matter of public record. An examination of these sections above re- 

 ferred to will bear out the statements I have made, and should set 

 at rest all thought that the State Fair is not held under the auspices 

 of the State. 



The Iowa State Fair is a creation of the State, and as such is as 

 justly entitled to receive State aid as any other State institution. We 

 believe we can say without fear of contradiction that a larger per- 

 centage of the taxpayers come in more direct contact with the State Fair 

 than with any other State institution. There are thousands upon thou- 

 sands of taxpayers of the State who are just as anxious to secure a 

 broader education and knowledge as the young man ready to enter col- 

 lege. He can send his children to school and to the colleges (I am 

 speaking now of the farmer), but his only opportunity for broadening 

 and further educating himself is through the agricultural press, the 

 farmers' institutes and the county and district fairs, or other meetings 



