I08 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



whatever he may raise upon his farm, and your fair will be a 

 success, and your farmers in the future, in my humble opinion, 

 will have their farms dotted with horses and colts, and their 

 money will not be going out to a country that is not as well 

 adapted to growing horses as this. 



THE PURPOSE OF THE FAIR. 



By Dr. G. M. Twitchell, Aug-usta. 



(Stenographic Copy.) 



Our agricultural fairs were created for two specific purposes, 

 under the law, to promote agriculture and advance mechanics. 

 I take it, Mr. Commissioner and ladies and gentlemen, that we 

 are doing our duty by the State only when we seek to conform 

 to the requirements of the statutes by and through which our 

 agricultural societies have been chartered by the State. I 

 believe that we have been kept away too much from those cardi- 

 nal principles. It has been altogether too easy for us to intro- 

 duce the attractions, to bring in the amusements, and in what I 

 say I am classing myself with everybody else. We have been too 

 well satisfied with the cheap entertainment that has been put 

 upon the platform and have not magnified the importance of 

 promoting agriculture and advancing mechanics. I think no 

 better subject could have been brought to the attention of the 

 people of the State of Maine than this subject which is engag- 

 ing our attention today, because we are seeing all over the State, 

 in all the departments of work, a very marked increase in agri- 

 cultural sentiment. I was very glad when Prof. Hurd told me 

 that he had 19 boys under his direction at the State University, 

 more than at any time during the life of the institution. I wish 

 it was 919 for the good of the State, because you and I must feel 

 that if we are to make progress in the future, in our offices and 

 upon our farms, we must see more, we must know more, and 

 then we can do more. It seems to me that the fairs do a small 

 part of that which they were primarily intended to do. They 

 should help the people to see more, to do more, reaching the 

 brain through the eye, stimulating thought, kindling ambition, 

 provoking enthusiasm through competition, yes, and through 

 education, and competition is the prime essential in promoting 



