AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS AND INDUSTRIAL FAIRS. H 



corum as any part of the show. I conceive the odium which 

 newspaper correspondents and reporters attempt to cast upon 

 trotting at our fairs to be a principal cause which goes to make 

 such fairs unpopular with that class of persons which we desire 

 above all others to reach ; I mean the sober, quiet, hard-working 

 farmers and mechanics of Maine. 



Not long since I was pained to see in one of my weekly papers, 

 something, as nearly as I am able to recollect, like the following : 

 " It may be all right to offer fifty or one hundred dollars for the 

 fastest trotting horse and only ten for the best acre of wheat, but 

 we can't see it." This gives the impression that we think the 

 trot of five or ten times the importance of the wheat, which is not 

 true. Instead of this kind of talk (which is notliing more or less 

 than "buncombe") I would have something like the following: 

 Men and women, young men and maidens of old York, Cumber- 

 land or Kennebec, as the case may be, please give us your 

 attention one moment ; we are to have, a cattle show and fair, and 

 we mean to have a good time ; we have offered premiums on 

 almost everything you raise on your farms or manufacture in your 

 houses or shops, and the last afternoon we have advertised a horse 

 trot, which will bring in money enough to pay them all. And 

 beside all this we are to have the Hon., Rev., Gen. or Gov. so and 

 so, who is supposed to be able to tell us just what we wish above 

 everything else to know, to give us an address on the occasion. 

 So come on with your noble Herefords and Shorthorns, so sugges- 

 tive of sirloins and porter-house steaks ; your Jerseys, which are 

 in momentary danger of melting away and leaving (I was about 

 to say) not so much as a grease spot, but they are bound to leave 

 that any way ; your Eaton, Morrill and Knox horses ; your Cots- 

 wold, Southdown and Spanish sheep ; your Chester, Suffolk and 

 Prince Albert pigs ; your hens, turkeys, geese and ducks, and the 

 thousand and one articles of utility, ornament and luxury from 

 your field, shop, cellar, pantry and parlor; and let us take the 

 whole thing into our own hands and give to it such a character as 

 we wish it to bear. Please make a note of this ladies and gentle- 

 men, an agricultural society, farmers' club or any other society, 

 bears just such a character as the individuals composing it choose 

 to give to it, so don't find fault because everything is not just as 

 it should be, but take hold of the matter yourselves, and by earn- 

 est effort and untiring perseverance compel that respect which 

 such effort, when well directed, always deserves. 



