162 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



we now recognize the great good they do, and yet John Coverdaie of 

 Ames had to work unceasingly for them for a long time before he suc- 

 ceeded. Today we have a county agent in every county in the state of 

 Iowa, and the Board of Agriculture is trying to encourage the exhibiting 

 of products by the counties by giving premiums to the counties showing 

 the best exhibits at our state fair. We want the county agent to make 

 the exhibit through the county fairs, for he is the man that is hired for 

 the agricultural interests of the county and he is the ma.^ who should 

 be encouraged to make a success of it. If the exhibit is properly gotten 

 up for the county fair, it is taken down to Des Moines to the state fair, 

 and because of the encouragement to agriculture that the fairs give, I 

 think there is no more opportune time to get laws through the legisla- 

 ture beneficial to the county fairs of Iowa than the present time. They 

 all say that the prices for agricultural products for the next five years 

 are going to be high, and it is to the interest of every country to keep them 

 high. Go to the board of supervisors, through your county agent, and 

 say, "Help us to put on a good exhibit here, and then take it down to 

 Des Moines" and give premiums to enable the county agent to bring it 

 down here in competition with the other counties in the state. I think 

 we ought not to overlook the possibilities of this matter during the next 

 legislature. Iowa has been producing as never before, and the county 

 fairs have been largely responsible. The county fairs are the feeders 

 for the Iowa State Fair. If it wasn't for the county fairs putting their 

 credit behind it, the Iowa State Fair would not be the success that it 

 is today. We used to have a man up in our county who would come 

 down to our county fair when I was secretary there with a bunch of 

 Shorthorn cattle. We were holding a short course and he brought down 

 two or three head of his animals (his name was Powell) and he says to 

 me, "I want to show you a calf I've got here," and when I looked at it I 

 saw that it was good stuff, and I said to him, "I want you to bring that 

 calf down to the state fair." He says, "Pshaw, what's the use?" But I 

 said, "You write me about the first of August and I will send you a pre- 

 mium list," and he did. He had that calf down to th^ fair, and he was 

 the grand champion — he was King Cumberland. It is our county fair, 

 boys, that feeds these things to the state fair, and I believe if you put 

 it before the legislature in the right light, that they must start at home 

 to boom this thing, we can do business with the legislature this winter. 



The Secretary: There will be no special effort required to get that 

 particular part of the law revised. The law at first contemplated that 

 the fair couldn't receive any state aid unless the county owned the 

 property, but it was revised to provide that all fairs might receive state 

 aid for the one year, and it is my opinion that you can get it changed 

 within two hours. After you get it out of the Appropriations Committee 

 you will have no trouble with it at all. The board of supervisors can 

 give aid for an indefinite time, up to ,$1,000, if they feel disposed to, and 

 there should be no trouble getting that rectified, so long as you are not 

 in business for a pecuniary profit. 



George White (Mills): It was my understanding that they could give 

 it each year if they wanted to. 



