FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART I. 75 



The improvements already commenced, consisting of permanent 

 buildings, sidewalks and other improvements, should be carried on. More 

 brick walks should be constructed, also cinder walks should be laid to 

 and from the different buildings, thereby enabling visitors to reach all 

 parts of the ground with comfort. 



The executive committee have had the grounds surveyed with a view 

 of thorough drainage. The different plats of ground have been measured, 

 a plat of which is now on file in this office. We recommend that certain 

 plats of ground be set aside for permanent buildings to be erected in the 

 future by this society. Also, that plats of ground be set aside for build- 

 ings to be used by the different cities of the State, to exhibit their manu- 

 factured products. Great care should be taken that all buildings should 

 be properly located. 



I also wish to suggest that a fireproof building should be erected for 

 the use of the power house and pumping station, as the present building 

 is not in the proper place for our lighting plant. 



The hay bam should be moved in close proximity to the cattle and 

 horse barns. The three barns numbered 10, 11 and 12 should be moved 

 to some other location, and the ground now occupied by them made 

 attractive. 



The tract of land lying outside and east of the fair grounds proper, 

 consisting of three acres now covered with timber and undergrowth, 

 should be cleared, and the land rented for pasture, or what might be 

 better, the level part of it cultivated and sown to meadow, the hay to be 

 sold during the fair. 



I would recommend that the fences, as fast as they need rebuilding^ 

 be replaced with woven wire, something similar to that now used by the 

 street car company. 



If any excuse ever existed for side shows and fakirs in general, it 

 seems to me that the time is past, ana I want to recommend that all such 

 be excluded from the grounds, and that the Great Iowa State Fair be con- 

 ducted on such a high plane as will meet with the approval of the intelli- 

 gent people of the State. 



Secretary Simpson read his report as f()ll()\\s: 



REPORT OF SECRETARY FOR THE YEAR 1903. 



/. C. Simpson, Des Moines, Iowa. 



Iowa's State fair continues to grow. The exhibition of 1903 was 

 the greatest in the history of the State. Probably no State fair was 

 ever held under more adverse weather conditions, and the financial 

 showing we are now able to make is all the more remarkable for it. 

 What the outcome would have been under favorable conditions, can only 

 be conjectured. That the receipts would have been from ten to fifteen 

 thousand more I believe to be a conservative estimate. Thousands of 

 people who were in the city did not reach the fair grounds, and from 



