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IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



instruction. Still others will contend that amusement and instruction 

 should be so blended that those who were largely bent upon being in- 

 structed should also be amused, and those who thought only of amuse- 

 ment should be, consciously or unconsciously, instructed. There are 

 those who would sweep away the "Midway" features altogether. 



The idea of a state fair, or any fair, national or international, Is 

 primarily instruction. To educate the people by the interchange of ideas, 

 the displays of natural products, manufactures or the result of human 



Display of vegetables from Lucas county at the Iowa State Fair, 1902. 



thought as expressed in various accomplishments is the work which a 

 fair is supposed to do. In carrying out such an idea, however, it is not 

 necessary that everything should be done upon the lines of severity. 

 Gravity does not accomplish more than smiles, and it is questionable if it 

 accomplishes even as much. People can be instructed better 

 through the medium of laughter than through the medium 

 of tears. And even a little nonsense now and then is relished 

 by the best of men. Let the practical be prominent, but do not discard 

 the ideal merely because it perhaps can never be made practical. Let 



