SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART I. 71 



BENEFITS DERIVED FROM THE SHOW RING; BY EXHIBITORS; 



BY VISITORS. 



C. F. CURTISS, AMES, lA. 



Mr. Chairman an'cl Gentlemen of the Convention: The subject assigned 

 me as stated by your president, is one that naturally is of a good 

 deal of concern to people who are connected with fair management, and 

 people who are connected with the agricultural and the industrial 

 interests of the state. I need not say that I believe in fairs and in the 

 educational influence of fairs, and I believe in educational work and 

 that there is no lesson stronger than an object lesson. That has been 

 clearly demonstrated, there is no way by which a lesson can be pre- 

 sented to young men or old in such a forcible, such a lasting and such 

 an impressive way as by the object method. And that is the method 

 of the fair. The fair presents its lessons, its truths, by the object 

 method in such a way that they appeal to the mind and to the judg- 

 ment. Consequently the principle upon which the educational work of 

 the fair is based is a sound one, and so recognized by the best educators. 



Now the fair reaches a large number of people that probably could 

 not be reached b5' any other educational method. Fairs have come to be 

 regarded as the great educators along agricultural lines, and I wish to 

 say in that connection that I do not think there is any fair that reaches 

 as many people from the farms or the agricultural community as this 

 fair, I believe that is generally conceded. There are other fairs that 

 have larger gate receipts on the ground of advantages which they- 

 possess, but I do not think there is a single fair on this continent 

 that reaches as many people from the farm as the Iowa State Fair. I 

 believe that it is a fair which appeals more strongly to the people and 

 draws more largely from the classes of people that it is intended to 

 benefit, than anj- other fair we have. 



The benefits to the visitors are in the way of object lessons and in 

 the way of establishing standards, and of giving judgment bj' compari- 

 son. Now one of the first things essential to success, in the creation 

 •f products of any kind, is the right kind of a standard. That is par- 

 ticularly true in agricultural products. It is true with reference to live 

 stock, with reference to grain and with reference to fruit. It is true in 

 all educational work. The man must first have a right conception of 

 the object to be attained and the standard to be attained, or he will 

 not succeed. The fair is of advantage in bringing together the best 

 representatives of models, in establishing standards of excellence, and 

 the best products are brought together for competition, and in this com- 

 ' petition the best standards are given preference, so that there is a 

 standard of excellence established in competition at the fair that is a 

 starting point, a basis, and a fundamental essential fact for improve- 

 ment. If a man's standards are wrong, if his conceptions of what con- 



