EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV. 183 



THE STATE FAIR— ITS ECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL VALUE 



E. W. RANDALL, DEAN MINNESOTA COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE. 



The state fair is constantly growing in usefulness and popularity. 

 Most of the states of the Union have a fair and a number of those states 

 not supplied are planning to organize, locate and promote such a fair 

 in the near future. In some of the states the organization and care of 

 the fair is left largely to private initiative but usually the enterprise 

 is of a public character and is promoted, financed, officered and man- 

 aged under state direction. Usually sites are well chosen, with reference 

 to centers of population and transportation facilities, improvements are 

 carefully made and the management is good. The fairs as a rule are 

 succeeding. The reports of the state fairs for the last dozen years will 

 show an almost unbroken record of growth and success. The largest 

 and most useful fairs of today will be found in the states of Iowa, Min- 

 nesota, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana and Texas. 



The well managed state fair places mile-posts along the pathway of 

 progress and is valuable to the historian. Get a bird's-eye view of the 

 grounds and exhibits of any state fair of fifty years ago. You will 

 find eight-horsepower threshing machines, small plows and crude corn, 

 hay and other kinds of farm machinery. Compare this with a view of the 

 exhibits at any of the state fairs of today and you will have at a 

 glance a better idea than many printed pages will be able to give. Fairs 

 measure and mark eras of development. 



The state fair provides object lessons upon the resources of the 

 state in which it is held. No one can visit your own state fair without 

 learning of Iowa's magnificent agricultural and live stock possibilities, 

 her coal, her manufactures, her commerce and her transportation facil- 

 ities. Your fair is a success in portraying the resources of your state. 

 In like manner any other state fair, if successful, will portray the re- 

 sources of the people who have promoted it. 



The ingenuity, enterprise and energy of people is indicated in a state 

 fair. Decadent, non-progressive communities, states or nations do not 

 organize or hold fairs or expositions. Those lethargic people who are 

 satisfied with mere existence and content with whatever is, have no 

 heed of exhibitions, but where there is industry, intelligence, a spirit 

 of progress and abounding life and energy, fairs will continue to grow 

 in numbers and usefulness. The holding of a good fair in any state 

 means that there are resources worthy of general attention and a peo- 

 ple who know how to improve and utilize them. 



Fairs have educational value. It is conceded that a man, woman or 

 child will learn more of practical and lasting value at a fair in a day 

 than can possibly be learned elsewhere in the same length of time. A 

 fair with an attendance of 200,000 in a week gives more days of instruc- 



