296 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



In conclusion will say that we handle our business from a professional 

 standpoint and have rro desire to handle or finance the labor or materials 

 involved, except as supervision, not contracting. We do not want to offer 

 a competitive bid for plans, but a compensation that will allow us to give 

 all the time necessary to the success of the work, as one satisfied client 

 is worth more to us than six who feel otherwise, and a reputation for the 

 best work is worth more than half a dozen good sized commissions. 



Yours very truly, 



CHARLES H. RAMSDELL, 

 Representing Mr. Manning. 

 Minneapolis, Minn. 



Mr. 0. C. Simonds impressed the committee with hoth his earn- 

 estness and ability to do the work. He proposed to spend a con- 

 siderable portion of the time the work was under way at the fair 

 grounds, even to placing drawing tables in the Administration 

 Building so that he might be in closer touch and in a position to 

 view the grounds while the plans were taking shape. His written 

 proposition was as follows : 



To the Iowa State Board of Agriculture. 



Gentlemen. — We. will make a topographical survey and plat of the 

 state fair grounds; will study the grounds in connection with this plat 

 and make a plan showing drives, walks, location of present and future 

 buildings, location of woods and plantings; will furnish profiles of roads 

 and walks, and such cross sections as may be needed; will note on the 

 drawings the elevations of the various buildings; make a perspective 

 drawing showing the grounds as a whole; and furnish a report in which 

 the treatment of the grounds will be discussed fully; for the sum of 

 $3,000. 



The above drawings will be on a scale of one inch to one hundred 

 feet. We shall also furnish certain detail drawings on a larger scale, 

 because the arrangement of plantings cannot always be shown in detail 

 on a scale of one hundred feet. 



Yours truly, 



O. C. SIMONDS & CO. 



March 11, 1910. 



Mr. M. J. Wragg not being present, but having a communica- 

 tion to the committee by mail, the same was read by Mr. Simpson 

 and discussed at length. The committee was opposed to making 

 any payments on the plans until the whole had been completed and 

 accepted by the board, as suggested in the formal outline and spec- 

 ifications sent out to the various landscape architects with the invi- 

 tation to meet with the committee. Mr. Wragg 's communicaion 

 follows : 



