NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 135 
thousands of others have passed through our state in seeking their new 
location. Attractive literature has playc d no small part in the scramble 
for immigrants. The next Iowa general assembly should provide a fund 
that the advertising of Iowa's great resources and opportunities could be 
properely put before the world. 
COUNTY AND DISTRICT FAIRS OF IOWA. 
New features of educational importance are gradually becoming a part 
of the program at many of the county and district fairs. At one county 
fair held in Iowa the past year a very instructive exhibit of noxious weeds 
was made; at another a tuberculin hog was exhibited by the state veter- 
inarian's department, showing all the diseased organs. Judging contests 
are becoming more numerous. An exhibit from the schools of the county 
or district is gaining a place in the premium list classification at many of 
the fairs. The report of the amount of cash premiums paid would indi- 
cate a larger and more diversified exhibit was made. The number of fairs 
reporting as having paid out over one thousand dollars in cash premiums 
increased from eight in 1907 to thirteen in 1908, with Marshall County 
fair leading with $1,841.00. The others follow: 
2. Union District, Muscatine county $1,579.00 
3. Kossuth county 1,227.00 
4. Columbus Junction District, Louisa county 1,211.00 
5. Wapsie Valley, Linn county 1,185.00 
6. Tipton District, Cedar county 1,160.00 
7. Henry county 1,159.00 
8. Buena Vista county 1,101.00 
9. Jefferson county 1,080.00 
10. Clinton county 1,075.00 
11. Davis county 1,039.00 
12. Clinton District 1,036.00 
13. Jasper county 1,017.00 
Sixty-eight thousand dollars are shown as paid out in premiums by the 
eighty-nine fairs reporting, and the total valuation of fair ground property 
figures up to $615,000.00, or an average of about $7,000.00 for each plant. 
IOWA STATE FAIR AND EXPOSITION. 
It was just fifty-four years ago last October that the first Iowa State 
Fair was held at Fairfield, on a ten-acre lot enclosed with a rail fence ten. 
feet high. The state owes a tribute which it never can pay to the public 
spiritedness, energy and hard work shown by the small band of gentlemen 
who conceived the idea of organizing and holding an annual state fair for 
the purpose of showing the products of soil and factory, and resourceful- 
ness of the breeder, to encourage and advertise the great opportunities open 
to the settlers within the borders of this great commonwealth. The in- 
spiration for the holding of a state fair was gathered from our brothers 
in Illinois, they having organized the Illinois State Fair the previous year. 
Thus from this humble beginning the fair has expanded and increased its 
