184 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tion than a school with an average attendance of 1,000 per day running 

 nine months of the year. Compare the cost of maintaining such a school 

 with the amount usually expended by a state for its fair, and the 

 fair becomes a paragon of cheapness as well as utility. The state re- 

 ceives no better returns for any of the money spent for education 

 than for that invested in the fairs. But few people realize the high 

 relative position which a properly conducted fair should occupy among 

 educational institutions. 



State fairs provide holidays for the people. State fair week should 

 be known as the holiday week of the year. There is a beneficial mingling 

 of the people. Prejudices between city and country disappear and a feeling 

 of mutual interest and respect takes their place. Acquaintance is 

 greatly extended. All classes of people need respite from labor. Fairs 

 are particularly beneficial to country people in this respect for their 

 opportunities for recreation are not numerous. Since the days of free 

 rural delivery and telephones farm homes are not isolated as they once 

 were, but the need of such an outing as a fair affords will always exist 

 and can hardly be overestimated. An institution which causes a con- 

 siderable proportion of the people of the state to take a holiday once 

 a year and spend a few days enjoyably, in study, in observing and touch- 

 ing elbows with their fellows and in wholesome recreation is worth while 

 for this reason alone. 



State fairs stimulate and encourage all lines of production. Well 

 managed fairs reach and benefit all avenues of industrial life. There 

 is no home, farm, factory or commercial enterprise that is not benefited, 

 directly or indirectly. No farmer can examine the agricultural, horti- 

 cultural, dairy and other products without feeling an impulse to make 

 the results of bis own labor equal as far as possible to that which he 

 is inspecting. It is not too much to claim that farm methods are better 

 and that crops of grain, corn, vegetables, fruits, etc., are increased from 

 year to year because of the comprehensive exhibits made annually at the 

 fairs are broadened in their scope and others become fittingly repre- 

 and study the best types of all the breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and 

 swine as shown at the fairs and again look with complete complacency 

 upon a lot of scrub stock at home. Initial steps toward improvement 

 are sure to be taken and the aggregate influence of the fairs in the up- 

 building of the live stock of the country is beyond computation. As 

 fairs are are broadened in their scope and others become fittingly repre- 

 sented in the exhibits, there are the same benefits for the miner, in- 

 ventor, manufacturer or other producer as for the farmer or stock- 

 man. In stimulating industry, fairs are exerting an ever widening influ- 

 ence. 



State fairs broaden and improve markets. The general exhibition 

 of any article of merit increases popular knowledge and demand for it 

 and enhances price accordingly. A few years ago butter frequently sold 

 for six to ten cents per pound. Not half as much butter was made 

 then as now. Today creameries and good home dairies can hardly 

 keep up with their orders and good prices are the rule. Production and 

 price have both doubled. Improved quality is the prime reason for this 

 wonderful change, but the steady exhibition at the fairs of the best 



