136 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Ed Allen (Indianapolis, Ind.) : I have been out of the room and don't 

 get the drift of things. What is under discussion? 



The Chairman: We would like to hear from you as to how best to 

 get together on the matter of purses — something that will be satisfactory 

 for all concerned. 



Mr. Allen: I never run any fairs, but I have raced some horses, and 

 I will tell you what I think — we need more money. We cannot race horses 

 now like you could once, with double the expense. Where you put up $300 

 for a race once, you ought to put up $600 now. 



The Chairman: It was suggested, Mr. Allen, here in the forenoon dis- 

 cussion that the entrance fee be eliminated, a certain purse be put up by 

 each of the societies, and to that purse add the $10 entrance fee. What 

 would you think of a plan of that kind? 



Mr. Allen: It is all right, if you make the purse big enough to start 

 with. 



The Chairman: There is a limit to the purse that the fairs can offer, of 

 course. That is the problem. 



Mr. Allen: I don't know how you are going to do, gentlemen, but you 

 will have to do something if you want the horses and get them. Tliere 

 is no other way to figure that out. You will have to change the thing 

 around somewhere different than it has been. They tried that plan, I 

 believe, at Huron, didn't they? 



The Chairman: It was tried last year, and from reports that we got 

 on that, this morning, it was very successful. 



Mr. Allen: That is a state fair, of course. 



The Chairman: That's a state fair, and I was told this morning, and it 

 was right, that the purse was $800 that they offered, in addition to the 

 entrance money. 



Mr. Allen: Well, of course, I wouldn't know what the different fairs 

 could afford to give, but I do know this, that if you want the horses, and 

 expect to have them, the fair associations will have to give the horses a 

 chance to earn some money, because no horse now can pay expenses for 

 $300 purses, even if he wins half the time. 



The Chairman: Well, this is a timely topic, and we would like to 

 hear from any one in the room who might be able to throw any light on 

 the proposition, or offer a solution. 



Mr. George White (Mills): Mr. Cameron made a remark a while ago 

 that it would be a temptation to horsemen if there were two meetings in 

 the state at about the same time. I take it, from the horseman's stand- 

 point, that it would be a benefit. If the racing was conducted as at present, 

 when you enter and don't go, you hold your $20 just the same, and if 

 conducted the other way, you get just as much good out of it as Mr. 

 Cameron had it figured out with a $200 purse. But with two meetings in 

 the same week, I might want to enter at both places. I can enter at both 

 places just as cheaply as I could under the old arrangement at one place, 

 and there might be ten entries at one place and twenty at the other. You 

 might look over the two entry lists and find two or three bear-cats in the 

 one and find none at the other. Wouldn't it really be a benefit for the 

 horseman to have the two meetings the same week, under this new plan? 



