672 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



STATE FAIRS. 



By Col. J. B. Killehrew, in Southern Farm Magazme. 



The State of Texas is to be highly commended for the deep interest 

 which it takes in its State fair. For the present year the fair will begin 

 on September 26th and will close on October 11th. It is said that this 

 State fair has already run longer than any similar institution in the 

 world, and its popularity continues unabated. It has been a strong factor 

 in the development of the State, and its influence for good has been 

 manifested in the growth along all industrial and agricultural lines. 



This success of the Texas State fair suggests an inquiry why so few 

 States have kept up these valuable institutions. A State fair is a sign of 

 progress. It is an evidence of a worthy ambition that exists among the 

 people to elevate the agricultural conditions of the State. In the present 

 age advertisements underlie all successful business pursuits, and experi- 

 ence has demonstrated that no method is so efficient for this purpose, 

 from an industrial point of view, as the holding of expositions and fairs. 

 Fairs appeal more immediately to the people of the State than great 

 expositions. Their tendency is to awaken a new ambition among every 

 class, which leads to a healthy development. For the most part, State- 

 fairs are used for the display of those products that originate in the 

 State. They are short, local expositions, intensive and restricted in their 

 plans, rapid in their movements, and successful in their ends. Scene suc- 

 ceeds scene in quick succession, and there is an animation excited that is 

 contagious. People will flock to a well-conducted fair as they come out 

 on special days to an exposition. Where they are held every year 

 thrifty, well-to-do farmers usually look forward to a grand holiday occa- 

 sion where the best things are to be collected for their instruction, edi- 

 fication and amusement. Taken in its broadest sense a fair is a school 

 where the young and old may learn new lessons from the display of con- 

 crete objects. A fair is a great book which all may read and enjoy. It 

 is a living treatise on all products — aesthetic, mineral, vegetable and ani- 

 mal — gathered and classified so as to convey to the observer the largest 

 degree of practical knowledge, A fair is a place where the newest experi- 

 ments in agriculture are exchanged, new ideas disseminated and the 

 best methods of cultivating the various crops are made known. An 

 exhibition of wheat, for instance; how it was fertilized, how the land 

 was prepared, its variety, its time of ripening and its yield, may be the 

 dumb but potent preceptor to a thousand farmers. The same lessons 

 may be taught in varying degree by the exhibits of all other crops that 

 are or may be grown within the boundaries of the State where the fair 

 is held. 



In the improvement of live stock, however, the value of fairs is of the 

 greatest importance. The best animals of every breed are brought for- 

 ward, their good points studied, their pedigrees made known and their- 

 excellent qualities determined. The interest taken in stock exhibitions is 

 the best sign of progress. Wherever the cultivators of the soil are stimu- 



