164 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Mr. Graves: But let me tell you this, that there are very few of the 

 mutual companies carrying fair buildings, for the reason that the stock 

 company rates are so high on fair buildings that the mutuals are afraid 

 of them, and you cannot get them to carry it in a great many mutuals. 

 I know the mutuals in my county will not carry it. 



Mr. Whetstine (Louisa): Right in connection with this, I made a 

 great big protest on tha rates we had to pay for the insurance, and the 

 agents told me that the trouble was with the fair association very large- 

 ly, itself. I think that about 75 per cent of the associations, when the 

 fair is over, leave all the straw in their barns and stalls and pens, leave 

 them all unlocked, and because no one lives on the grounds it is head- 

 quarters for all the crapshooters and poker games in the community. 

 Isn't that the truth? And I think that is where most of your Are losses 

 come from. I think we are making that rate high ourselves, by our 

 carelessness. If we would take the precaution to close up our barns and 

 clean them out thoroughly, I think our rates will be less — the rate cut 

 down considerably. 



The Chairman: If there is no further discussion on this, we will pro- 

 ceed with the program. The next in line is the election of officers. 



J. P. Mullen (Pocahontas) : Just before we proceed with the election 

 of officers, I would like to know if we all wouldn't like to hear from Mr. 

 John Cownie, a great friend of the state, district and county fairs of Iowa. 



John Cownie (Des Moines) : 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I have taken a great deal of interest 

 in our fairs as far back as I can recollect, and I have acted in many ca- 

 pacities for the various agricultural societies. I acted as director of the 

 state agricultural society, then as director and vice president, and was 

 then elected to the presidency. 



Novir, there is much that can be said in behalf of our agricultural so- 

 cieties. I can remember the time when there was very little interest 

 taKen in stock growing. The first hogs that I raised, I bought the male 

 and sow from a man named Hoover, who had brought a shoat from In- 

 diana, turned her out in the woods and underbrush growing along the 

 Iowa river bottoms and claimed all the hogs running wild in that timber. 

 Well, while working for a neighboring farmer for .50 cents a day, I had 

 earned the princely sum of $2.50, and it was a question with me whether 

 to buy a national bank or buy some hogs. Well, the hogs won, so I went 

 to this man and wanted to buy a pair of hogs. He told me I could have 

 a pair for $2 apiece, and of course I didn't have enough money for that 

 and told him so, so he told me if I would pick out small ones he would 

 sell me a pair for $2.50.| I went into his cornfield and got some corn, 

 took it to the timber and threw it down to the hogs, but I couldn't catch 

 them. I shelled the corn and while they were trying to get it I grabbed 

 a pair of small ones, and I had no more than turned around until an old 

 sow grabbed me. The hog, of course, squealed, but I succeeded in get- 

 ting a pair of pigs, got them on my back and carried them home. I had 

 a litter of pigs the next year, and those of you whose memory goes back 

 will remember that we didn't sell them by live weight and ship them 



