ANNUAL MEETING. 87 



our gates, and then in the display of interesting and Instructing features 

 of modern progress. The product of the farm, the garden and the orchard; 

 the handiwork of the artisan, the housewife, and the needle- woman; the 

 herds of cattle, the sheep and the hogs, the horses, and the tests of en- 

 durance and speed, all combine to make an interesting study; but "we are 

 now where we must go beyond these to successfully conduct a great insti- 

 tution like the State Fair. We must not neglect these important and 

 dominant features, but add other !ind interesting attractions. Renewed 

 interest in our annual meetings and continued prosperity depends upon 

 continued interest upon the part of the managers of the fair and continued 

 advancement. Nothing in these busy, hustling days has been so well 

 demonstrated as that enterprise meets reward. At no time were our peo- 

 ple less bound by I'ules and precedent, more willing and more able to listen 

 to new claims, to offer a fair field to the efforts that extend the boundaries 

 of knowledge and satisfies the new and the novel. If the Indiana State 

 Fair is to keep its place as a great educator and exposition, we must be 

 quick to adopt new methods. The success of the fair of 1901 ought to be 

 an object-lesson and a starting point for a still greater fair in 1902. The 

 people will support a broad and liberal management, and I believe that 

 the present policy of tlie Board, if maintained, will not only meet their 

 indorsement, but their hearty approval. I do not believe that the farming- 

 interests as well as the stock interest should be at all neglected, or that 

 there should be anything detracted from that part of the display that will 

 interest the stockmen. But I believe that these should be made the pre- 

 dominant features of the Exposition and that the present liberal and varied 

 premiums should be maintained; but I do believe that all efforts should 

 be made in the direction of solving the problem of how to increase the 

 drawing powers of the State Fair, which is another way of saying how 

 best to provide a full and attractive reflection of modern progress. 



Under the statutes, as they now stand, the Indiana State Board of 

 Agriculture has but few duties, if any, beyond the management of the 

 annual State Fair, and the compilation, publication and distribution of the 

 annual report. The wisdom of the acts of the sevei'al Legislatures that 

 have curtailed our powers and duties, and have removed us from the 

 seeming original intention of the framers of the act that originated the 

 Board has been given attention before, and conditions at this time will 

 not allow its discussion. It is a condition, not a theoi-y, that confronts the 

 Board. The statutes provide for an experimental station at Purdue, and 

 that regular bulletins be issued, that the farmers' institutes be managed 

 through and by this same agency; in fact, to this splendidly managed edu- 

 cational and experimental institution, is given powers and functions that 

 were once enjoyed and performed not nearly so well by the Indiana State 

 Board of Agriculture. Statistics of the agricultural resources of the State 

 are now gathered and compiled by the State Statistician. The horticul- 

 tural interests are watched by the State Horticultural Society, and the 



