182 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The President : Gentlemen, it affords me great pleasure to pre- 

 sent to yon this morning- for an address upon ' ' The State Fair : Its 

 Economic and Educational Value," a gentleman who has been con- 

 nected with the State Fair of Minnesota for the last fifteen years, 

 and for the last twelve years has been its secretary, and now is 

 dean of the Minnesota College of Agriculture, and I feel he comes 

 to you with experience on this subject. I present to you Mr. E. W. 

 Eandall, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. 



Mr. Randall: While listening to the reports of your treasurer 

 and secretary this morning I was reminded of a family I once knew 

 that lived out in Stevens county, Minnesota, one of the prairie 

 counties of that state. This was a number of years ago, before our 

 worthy president or anyone else found it necessary to caution us 

 against race suicide. In this particular family there were fourteen 

 children. One of the little girls, while visiting at the house of a 

 neighbor, was asked how many brothers and sisters she had. She 

 answered, "I don't know; I have not been home since day before 

 yesterday." It occurred to me that it would be unsafe for the 

 visitor to attempt to tell anything about the growth of your State 

 Fair. It is interesting of course to remember, as your treasurer 

 just reminded you, that but a few years ago you had a deficiency 

 to contend with ; that such a condition has been eliminated and you 

 now have a surplus; that there seems to be money in the treasury. 

 It is gratifying also that this growth has been gradual, and there- 

 fore is substantial — a kind of growth that will continue and which 

 will lead you to expect the same rate of increase in the future. 



With your permission, I will use manuscript this morning, and in 

 doing that I hope to fare better than the clergyman I once heard 

 of. It seems that two Presbyterian ministers exchanged pulpits. 

 One of the ministers was very anxious to know whether he pleased 

 the brother's congregation, and after the sermon he asked one of 

 the elders how he liked the sermon. The elder was rather silent, 

 but finally admitted that there were three things about the sermon 

 which he did not like. The minister, of course, was somewhat per- 

 plexed, but finally asked what the objections were. The elder says, 

 "You read it." The minister braced up a little and said he was 

 sorry that was an objection, but that it was his custom, his own 

 people were used to it, and he hoped they would overlook that part 

 of it, and asked what further objection he had to the sermon. The 

 elder says, "You didn't read it well." Of course the minister was 

 a good deal disappointed, but finally mustered up courage for the 

 third objection, when the elder said, "It wasn't worth the readin'." 



