l6 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



that their freight rates will not be continually tampered with, 

 but that they will be upon a stationary and satisfactory basis. 

 Later in the season the producers demanded more money for 

 their milk and after a severely waged war they obtained a 

 victory. This has also encouraged the milk producers to such 

 an extent that they have organized throughout New England 

 in local units, and it is to be hoped that they will in the future 

 have something to say relative to the price that they will receive 

 for the product of their dairies. 



Fairs. 



The fairs in the State of Maine at the present time are of 

 two kinds ; those known as special appropriation fairs, and 

 those that draw from the general state stipend. The special 

 appropriation fairs are the Maine State Fair at Lewiston and 

 the Central Maine Fair at Waterville, each of which gets 

 $2,500, and the Eastern Maine State Fair at Bangor, which, 

 by special appropriations, gets $1,750. Besides these, there is 

 two cents for each individual in the state, appropriated for a 

 stipend fund to be divided upon a pro rata basis for every 

 fair that is legally organized, under Chapter 51, Revised 

 Statutes of 1916. Some of these fairs are worthy competitors, 

 if not equal, to the state fairs, and their stipend, on account 

 of the amount of premiums awarded, is almost as large as the 

 state fairs. From these they range to a few dollars — forty or 

 fifty. There seems to be no system of holding the fairs, and 

 no accomplishment, except of a minor nature, besides the dis- 

 tributing of the funds raised by gate receipts or by appropria- 

 tions. I think this is wrong. It would seem to me that the 

 minor fairs should be held first, whereas, under the present 

 arrangement, they are held last. Being held first, I would 

 require that those who receive premiums, enter this same pro- 

 duce in competition at the big fairs, and that the big fairs be 

 not burdened with exhibits that had not received a premium 

 from some of the smaller fairs. This would mean that, instead 

 of the large fairs being held first, as at the present time, the 

 small fairs would be held first and the exhibits should be 

 brought in from the neighborhood from the small fairs, that 

 those which received a prize should be forwarded to the large 



