130 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Your committee appointed to look up and report on the advisability 

 of asking the legislature to enable the State Board of Agriculture to sell 

 the coal beneath the surface of the state fair grounds report as follows: 



Firet — That we find the coal vein where mining has been done, near 

 the fair grounds; is from three and one-half to four feet thick; that the 

 roof is reasonably good for this district. 



Second — That from the best information we can get, we find that the 

 coal vein is from one hundred to two hundred feet below the surface of 

 the ground, and that the condition of the roof is such in this district 

 that it would not be advisable to take out any coal from under the build- 

 ings now on the ground, nor from beneath the surface of any ground 

 where buildings are liable to be erected in the future, and further, that all 

 any event no coal should be mined from under any of the low land in 

 said fair grounds. 



Third — "We find that the usual price paid for coal fields where the 

 coal is from three to four feet in thickness, to be from twenty-five to one 

 hundred dollars per acre, and this price usually includes surface rights 

 for railroad switches, and sufficient rights to locate shafts and top works 

 on. 



Fourth — We find that before any offer could be had for the coal un- 

 derlying the state fair grounds it would have to be prospected by boring 

 holes, to find out the quantity and the quality and the nature of the roof 

 overlying said coal vein. 



Fifth — That in all probability the number of acres of coal that could 

 be mined and not interfere with the buildings on the fair grounds would 

 not in any event exceed one hundred and fifty acres, and that it would 

 not bring a sufficient price at this time to justify the sale of the same; 

 that there is no question but what coal will sell for a much higher figure 

 in the near future than it will now. Therefore your committee recom- 

 mends that we take no steps to secure legislation to enable the board to 

 sell the coal underlaying the state fair grounds. 



J. C. FRASIBR, 

 W. W. MORROW, 

 J. C. SIMPSON. 

 T. C. LEGOE. 



Committee. 



Mr. Simpson moved the adoption of the report as read. Motion 

 prevailed. 



Mr. Wragg made an oral report in regard to switching facili- 

 ties on the fair grounds and the progress he had made with the 

 Chicago Great Western people. 



Mr. Packard made the following report from the committee on 

 rules : 



