WHAT AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS SHOULD BE 

 EXHIBITED AND HOW THEY SHOULD BE SHOWN. 



By Wm. D. Hurd^ Professor of Agriculture at University of 



Maine. 



I have been told by the person who had charge of the dealing 

 out of these subjects, that I might digress if I chose from the 

 one given me, and talk on some things which seem to me to be 

 vital considerations when a Fair Association is to be organized. 

 The financial side of the question is always, of course, of pri- 

 mary importance. 



I am speaking from more than theoretical knowledge on this 

 subject, it having been my privilege to spend six or eight weeks 

 out of each of six or seven years in attendance as an exhibitor, 

 at several of the best fairs of the Middle West. I have tried to 

 look into the workings of the different associations with which 

 I am familiar, from both the practical and ethical standpoint and 

 it is such observation that leads me to make the following 

 remarks. 



I suppose the fairs in this country were a direct outcome of 

 those of our mother nation across the sea, which in the begin- 

 ning were nothing more than market days, at which time people 

 from the surrounding country brought their produce, exhibited 

 it for comparison, and finally sold it in a competitive way. Such 

 a gathering gave a stimulus to those present which said to them 

 ''Grow better products or your goods will not sell on these days." 

 From such crude beginnings as this, the fairs of this and other 

 countries have sprung. 



About twenty or twenty-five years ago, the popularity of fairs 

 reached its greatest height. Nearly every county of the states 

 of the ^liddle West, has boasted of its county fair association. 

 Several counties banded together founded District Associations, 

 and every state supports a State Fair of more or less wide 

 renown. Since the time of which I speak, many fairs have been 



