INDIANA HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 355 



EVEl^ING SESSION. 



Thursday, December 5, 7:30 P. M, 



Mr. Hobbs: We will now have the pleasure of listening to a paper 

 by Prof. Wm. Stuart, of Purdue University. 



AGRICULTURAL FAIRS AS EDUCATORS— SOME SUGGESTIONS 



FOR IMPROVEMENT. 



BY WILLIAM STUART. 



That our agricultural fairs should be educative I think none will deny. 

 It is probably fair to assert that the majority of those who attend the 

 fairs do so for the purpose of acquiring information along lines in which 

 they are interested. Should they be breeders of fine animals, the live 

 stock barns and show ring will naturally attract th^m. The horticulturist 

 will be attracted by the fruit and vegetable displays, etc. 



The amount of information to be derived from an agricultural fair 

 depends largely upon two factors, the quality of the exhibits and the in- 

 telligence displayed in their arrangement. With reference to the first 

 factor, quality, no exhibit should be made unless it represented some 

 advance over the ordinary average product of the farm, home or factory. 

 All exhibits should be properly named and products of the same kind 

 grouped together. In this way those wishing to study the exhibit of a 

 certain product may do so in much less time and to much better advan- 

 tage. The suggestions for the improvement of the agi-icultural fairs that 

 I am about to make are wholly along the lines I have just mentioned. 

 They were brought to my attention last fall when, as a visitor at both 

 county and State fair, I attempted to make a study of a certain class of 

 exhibits in which I was particularly interested. It is hardly necessary 

 for me to say that they were horticultural exhibits. At the county fair 

 I did not find above half a dozen exhibits of either fruit or vegetables that 

 were named; in fact, there was little to indicate what the exhibit was. If 

 one found certain exhibits of merit there, unless he was able to identify 

 the variety of fruit or vegetable, the information that exhibit conveyed 

 was of little practical value. Hence, from an educational standpoint, it 

 was a failure. 



While this example may not be a true picture of the average county 

 fair, it nevertheless illustrates the need of greater care in making exhibits. 

 At the State fair, as one would naturally expect, the exhibits were found 

 to be much more generally named. This was especially true of the fruit 



