100 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tion of dates; they should be chosen for a time when there is the least work 

 in progress upon the Iowa farms, and at a time of the year when the 

 weather conditions are most likely to be favorable. Second, that our 

 exhibits are not divided. This can only be avoided by selecting dates which 

 do not conflict with those of states near by, for should Iowa and Minnesota 

 hold fairs on the same dates it would certainly divide our exhibit, and make 

 the fair less attractive and educational. To avoid this conflict in dates, 

 there is an association formed among the leading fairs and expositions on 

 the continent, which meets annually in Chicago. At these meetings dates 

 are arranged as near as possible so that adjoining states do not have their 

 fair during the same week. No western State fair belonging to this associa- 

 tion is holding more than one week fair. It is admitted by all fair managers, 

 that there is not to exceed three or possibly four weeks in the fair season 

 that are at all desirable from which to select dates. If we were to hold a 

 two weeks' fair, we would certainly conflict with dates of some of the 

 surrounding states. This would lessen our exhibit, and have a tendency to 

 lessen our attendance as well. 



We are now holding nominally a five days' fair, with an aggregate 

 attendance the past season of about one hundred and twenty-five thousand 

 for five days, or an average daily attendance of twenty-five thousand. Two- 

 thirds, if not more, of these visitors attend our fair on two days, Tuesday 

 and Wednesday or Wednesday and Thursday, as the case may be, and this 

 crowd is handled with but little inconvenience. With an enlarged grand 

 stand that would seat from ten to fifteen thousand people, and the present 

 transportation facilities for getting to and from the grounds, there would be 

 no inconvenience, whatever, in taking care of a crowd of this size on any 

 day of the fair. Now, it seems to me, what we want more than a two 

 weeks' fair, would be to make an effort to increase this average daily attend- 

 ance to fifty thousand. 



I know some of you will say that it is useless to try to make a good day 

 in attendance out of Monday and Friday of the fair; that it has been tried in 

 the past and was a failure. You will remember the time, not many years 

 ago, when it was said that clover could not be grown in northern Iowa. It 

 had been tried repeatedly and was a failure; there was trouble in getting a 

 good stand, and it would freeze out during the long cold winters. Never- 

 theless the farmers kept at it until they have demonstrated that as good 

 clover, and as much of it, can be grown in northern Iowa as in the south- 

 ern part of the State. So it is with the attendance at our State fair. We 

 should make an effort to have five good days of attendance, in place of two 

 or three, and keep at it until it is demonstrated that a good attendance can 

 be had on each of the five days. To do this we must have the co-operation 

 of the railroads, and so arrange the program that one day has as many 

 attractions as the other, and that nothing will be missed by attending the 

 fair on Monday or Friday. I believe this to be a better solution for increas- 

 ing the attendance at our annual State fairs, than by holding it for two 

 weeks, and it would certainly be less expensive and would bring out a bet- 

 ter exhibit. 



