626 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



To the Officers of the Iowa State Agricultural Society: 



The time for decided action has fully come. The address of T. W. 

 Claggett, president of the society, has been largely circulated, and we presume 

 generally read. And seconding his eflEorts and desire to establish the State 

 society on a firm basis, we urge all the officers of the society to meet in 

 Fairfield on Tuesday, June 6th, to arrange a list of premiums, and to attend 

 to the other business of the society. We hope that all the officers, managers 

 and other members of the society will be present. 



We further desire that all persons friendly to the objects of the society, 

 farmers, producers, mechanics, artisans, etc., will write the secretary at 

 Fairfield (postpaid), and make suggestions in regard to articles to which 

 premiums should be awarded, in order that the list may be as complete as 

 possible; for it is not expected that the board of itself should know all the 

 articles that may be produced or manufactured in the State, and which 

 may come in for competition. 



We further desire that the subscription papers, as suggested by Mr. 

 Claggett, be put into immediate circulation in the several counties, and that 

 all papers in the State, favorable to the cause of agriculture, publish this 

 circular. 



J. M. Shaffer, 

 Recording Secretary. 



Fairfield, Iowa, April lOtb, 1854. 



We copy the following, written for the Iowa Farmer and Horticulturist: 



Iowa State Agricultural Society, 

 Keokuk, Iowa, June 14, 1854. 



' ''Editors of the Iowa Farmei'—Th.e officers of the State Agricultural So- 

 ciety who met at Fairfield, on the 6th of June, for the purpose of making 

 out a list of premiums to be distributed at the State Fair, very much re- 

 gretted your absence from the meeting, which, we learned was occasioned 

 by unavoidable circumstances. 



"With the view of making known to the farmers of the State our proceed- 

 ings at that meeting, as well as our prospects in the future, I propose 

 through the medium of our State Agricultural paper, The Farmer, to give a 

 detailed statement, hoping that all the friends of agriculture in the State 

 will direct their attention to aiding the officers of the Society in carrying 

 forward this great enterprise to a triumphant conclusion. This may readily 

 be done if we can but enlist the hearty co-operation of our farmer friends. 



''At the meeting on the 6th of June we made out, for publication, a 

 list of such articles of the production of the State, as we thought most con- 

 ducive to a fulfillment of the intention of the organization, and offered a 

 large list of premiums to be awarded to meritorious articles exhibited at the 

 State Fair, to be held at Fairfield, commencing on the 25th day of October 

 next and continuing three days. 



' 'The list of premiums will be seen by reference to the report of the sec- 

 retary, and amounts to over twelve hundred dollars. This large amount of 

 money must be realized by small contributions (membership fees of one 

 dollar each) . 



