628 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



alone on, membership fees to pay the premiums and the necessary expenses 

 of holding the fair. Let each of us work to get members (one dollar is all 

 that is required to constitute a membership) , and entitles the member to 

 exhibit any article in either or all of the published classes. - 



''To those who receive the papers containing the list of premiums, I 

 most earnestly invite your co-operation in extending the information in your 

 neighborhoods, by showing it to those who do not take the papers, and 

 urging them to become members of the State society. Do not rest satisfied 

 alone with being members of the county societies. Your county societies 

 you should encourage by all means, but not to the neglect of the State 

 society, for it is at the latter alone where the intelligent enterprise of the 

 whole State can come in competition and honorable rivalry. 



"I hope the officers of all the county societies in the State will take an 

 interest in bringing before their respective communities the objects and 

 prospects of the State society, and endeavor to elicit their interest in its be- 

 half. All the officers in the county societies are authorized to receive sub- 

 scriptions to the State society, and transmit the same to the treasurer, 

 Doctor Chamberlain of Des Moines county (at Burlington) , or to DoctOj. 

 Shafifer, at Fairfield, who will return receipts for the same. 



' 'In conclusion, friends, I must say to. you, that the officers of the State 

 society are determined that no effort on their part shall be wanting to make 

 our Fair on the 25th of October, 1854, an honor to the State; and we most 

 earnestly call upon each, and all of you, to co-operate with us in this new 

 and most laudable enterprise. 



' ' Respectfully yours, 



"Thomas W. Claggett, 

 "President of the State Agricultural Society." 



REPORT OF STATE AGRICULTURAL FAIR, HELD AT FAIR- 

 FIELD. IOWA, OCTOBER, 1854. 



In preparing our report of the First Agricultural Fair ever held in Iowa, 

 we have thought proper to prefix a few historical facts relative to the origin, 

 progress and organization of the society. We do this, hoping it will be of 

 interest, not only to the present membership, but to those also who in after 

 years may compose the society. We furnish its history with the greater sat- 

 isfaction, because from the most unfavorable and cheerless prospect at 

 its commencement, the fair exceeded the -most sanguine wishes of all its 

 friends. 



The first decisive steps were taken by the Jefferson County Agricultural 

 Society. At their annual meeting, held, October 13, 1853, on motion of 

 C. W. Slagle, Esq., it was 



Resolved, That the officers of the society be instructed to make immedi- 

 ate efforts to effect the organization of a State Agricultural Society. 



