1302 New Yokk State Agricultural Society 



same. Of course, last year on the cash system that could not be 

 done. There were no tickets printed of any kind. The course 

 adopted was that the life member presenting himself at the fair 

 should pay his admission and go to the treasurer's office and if I 

 was satisfied that he was a life member his 50 cents was refunded. 

 That was done to 253 who did attend the fair — there were 567 

 admissions, that is, they attended on an average twice, and they 

 were given their 50 cents back for each admission. But quite a 

 nundjer of these j^eople came in with the idea that they would 

 receive $3 j came in Monday, for instance, and they thought they 

 were going to be given 50 cents a day for the six days, or if they 

 came Tuesday they expected $2.50, which of course they could 

 not get. 



The President : You have heard the report of our Secretary. 

 Are there any remarks ? 



Mr. T. B. Wilson : Does Mr. Brown make any recommenda- 

 tion as to what might be done to eliminate this difficulty ? 



Mr. Brown : I could not. If anvonc has a suo-gestion of that 

 kind I am sure it would receive attention because the State Fair 

 Commission wants to adjust that if there is any more satisfactory 

 wav. I do not know how there is inasmuch as these turnstiles will 

 be used another year. They are a success so far as getting the 

 money is concerned, and that seems to be the only embarrassing 

 part of it. The trouble with the old ticket system was that two- 

 thirds to three-quarters of all the admissions to the fair were by 

 people who bought railroad tickets with an admission coupon at- 

 tached. For instance, a year ago last fall, paid admissions to the 

 State Fair in round numbers were $85,000. The railroad 

 coupons amounted to more than $64,000. The cash that we took 

 in was about $20,000, and it was pretty tight squeezing to pay the 

 runiiing expenses during the fair; to pay the racing purses and 

 thin<»s of that kind. Then wo had to wait nine weeks before 

 the New York Central made a settlement. The Xew York Central 

 and West Shore Railroads owed something like $36,000 of that 

 $64,000. We could not pay our bills until we could settle with 

 the railroads, but last fall we had all the cash every night. 



