138 • IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Every effort was made by the management to provide a high, class and 
pleasing amusement program. Some little criticism was heard in regard 
to charging admission for the evening show in the stock pavilion by those 
who thought it should have been free. Had no admission been charged no 
show would have been given. The receipts, with a packed house every 
night, barely paid the expense. The show was provided to take care of 
the overflow from the ampitheater at night and to further provide ad- 
ditional entertainment for tnose desiring it. Indeed, the receipts for 
the whole amusement program are but slightly in excess of the ex- 
penditures. It is not the purpose or intention of the management in 
arranging the amusement program that it will be a source of revenue 
in excess of its cost, but to merely provide such diversification from 
the daily program as the public demands. 
The attendance this year was practically 208,000, showing an increase 
of about twenty-one per cent over the previous pear. This increase can 
primarily be attributed to the loyal support of the country, city and agri- 
cultural press, for never in the history of the state fair had it received 
the support accorded it by the press as during the past season. Many 
thanks are also due to the business organizations of this city that worked 
so faithfully for the success of the fair. To Secretary Botsford of the 
Des Moines Commercial Club and those associated with him, the people 
of Iowa owe a vote of thanks for the assistance they rendered in securing 
from the railways the rate which had always been granted previous to 
1907, viz.: three cents a mile for the round trip from any point in Iowa. 
There is still room for a greatly increased attendance. There is no reason 
why the Iowa State Fair should not equal or exceed the annual atten- 
dance at the Canadian National Exhibition at Toronto, which reached the 
three-quarter million mark the past season. "While it is true that the 
annual exhibition at Toronto is the only one of importance in eastern 
Canada, still, with the population of Iowa, the annual attendance can 
easily be brought up to thribble what it was this year. Before this can 
be accomplished, however, the state must provide proper and adequate 
equipment to shelter the exhibits and facilitate the handling of the crowds. 
In only one or two respects does the National Exhibition at Toronto ex- 
ceed. It has the most modern and up-to-date buildings of any of the great 
fairs, and more of them. The exhibit of manufactured articles in process 
of manufacture at Toronto equals that shown at some of our national 
expositions. The showing of live stock, however, is small compared to 
that of Iowa. In Iowa we have built up a great exposition and exhibit, 
but it is only a question of how long she may continue to grow and hold 
her exhibitors unless the state quickly recognizes the needs of the fair 
and provides more liberally for additional equipment. 
IMPEOVEMENTS. 
There was expended for improvements at the State Fair Grounds the 
past season fifty-eight thousand, three hundred dollars. This added to 
the forty-one thousand four hundred dollars expended in 1907 brings the 
amount for improvements in the past two years, from the receipts of the 
Fair, to ninety-nine thousand seven hundred dollars. In the five years 
preceding 1907 improvements to the amount of ninety-nine thousand were 
