EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART IX. 415 



A sample of the projected rebuilding of the horse department is 

 furnished by the new barn, of steel and vitrified brick construction, that 

 now stands not far from the swine department. It is 73x128 feet, and 

 contains 88 stalls, five feet in width, and with oak posts and iron 

 mangers and hay racks. The plans of the board contemplate spending 

 about $100,000 in rebuilding the horse department, and the first new 

 stable is gratifying assurance of the permanency, safety, comfort and 

 convenience of the equipment. 



Water and light, essentials to the satisfactory occupancy of a fair 

 grounds, have received the attention of the board. The old pumping 

 station and tank have been abandoned and connection made with the 

 Des Moines water works system. Twenty-eight fire hydrants have been 

 scattered about the grounds, and around $12,000 expended in bringing 

 in the city water and giving fire pressure protection. An "all-hog" policy 

 on the part of the electric light plant in Des Moines prevented connection 

 with that system, and hence the first section of fair ground lighting 

 plant was installed, at a cost of about $12,000. It is planned eventually 

 to expend about $32,000 on this plant and in wiring buildings, so that 

 each one may be outlined in globes of fire. The profit of this costly 

 system of night decoration has been amply proved in hundreds of 

 electric parks and pleasure resorts the country over, and the value of 

 night performances as gate-receipt pullers has been clearly proved to 

 the managers of this fair, so that they are preparing to make the 

 grounds beautiful by night, in order that they may possess greater 

 drawing power. Counting the $2,000 expended in repairs which are 

 scarcely preceptible to the eye — so hidden, says Secretary Simpson, that 

 he has to point them out to members of the board — the managers of 

 the Iowa State Fair expended in permanent improvements last year 

 approximately $115,000. They evidently got their money's worth. And 

 this is just the beginning. A big, new steel grandstand will prove the 

 greatest dividend payer of any improvement, so far as receipts are con- 

 cerned, and it will be provided by next fair time. This will necessitate 

 moving the race track, as it encroaches on space imperatively de- 

 manded by a rapidly expanding implement department. It is a par- 

 ticularly pleasing operation to watch Iowa State Fair grounds grow. 

 Its managers are men who know how to cultivate its growth. 



Even the most careless visitor must have been deeply impressed 

 by the exhibit of machinery; 1,212 exhibitors covered 60 acres with 

 their displays. This is an increase of more than 100 exhibitors over 

 the 1906 number and many an applicant for space had to be turned 

 away for lack of room. The removal of the race track farther to the 

 north and west will relinquish ground available for the desired expansion 

 of the machinery department. When President Cleveland informed 

 lowans years ago on the occasion of a visit to that State that it was an 

 agricultural State, they were inclined to resent his lack of knowledge of 

 their manufacturing industries, important at that time, but vastly more 

 so now. Many of the towns and cities of the Hawkeye State boast manu- 

 facturing plants, and it has assumed a position of much importance 



