42 BOARD OF AQEICULTUEE. 



agricultural aud live stock State. Spread this word, I say, until iu time 

 it will ring in the ears of those who should give it greatest heed— tin,' 

 General Assembly of Indiana. I say it iu sincerity aud iu kindest spirii. 

 that the General Assembly will awaken to the worth of your cause, when 

 it will become imbued with a spirit of generosity and place your enter- 

 prise where it will be safe from linancial storms and where it will take 

 rank with the State fairs of Illinois, Ohio and the larger ones of othei' 

 States. 1 believe the Legislature will awaken to the fact that yours is 

 a wgrk for the greatest good to the greatest number; that it is not an 

 enterprise for private greed or gain; that you have a school for the 

 grower of grain and the breeder of live stock— a clearing house where 

 buyer and seller may meet on common ground. Through this school of 

 instruction you are improving the farmer, and he in turn is spreading 

 his gains with beneticent hand among the people about him. In due time 

 these blessings turn into commercial channels which supply our cities 

 and towns with their very lifeblood. I believe the time will come iu 

 the counties of Indiana, as it has already come in the counties of Illinois, 

 when a seeker after a seat in our Legislature Avill have to pledge his 

 material support to the Indiana State Fair before the people will elect 

 him. 



Year by year it becomes more apparent that your Board should look 

 to the interests and entertainment of fair visitors who are not directly 

 interested in agriculture aud its allied branches. The farmer from year 

 to year finds his eyes and thoughts centered upon the live stock and 

 products of the soil which exhibitors have to offer. They lose none of 

 their freshness for him. But it is the element of people who are not 

 so jclosely identilied Avith these things which you should encourage in 

 every possible way to come to the fair. The Board should be ever on 

 • the alert for fresh attractions of high quality, of good moral tone— the 

 kind that are not i-egarded -as a waste of time by visitors who would give 

 them attention. I doubt if in all the years that Indiana has had a State 

 Fair it has offered a feature which aroused such general enthusiasm 

 as the parades of horses and cattle at the exhibition of last September. 

 These parades held the attention of the raiser and buyer of live stock, 

 they won warm favor from the transient visitor, and in many ways was 

 demonstrated their worth as a leading attraction. I urge that these 

 parades be continued from year to year and that methods for broadening 

 them in as many directions as possible be found. I recommend that 

 the parades and the general attractions of the fair be placed under the 

 directions of a chief marshal, who shall be a member of the Board. 

 It has been demonstrated that the General Superintendent is too much 

 involved in other important duties to give attention to the parades and 

 similar shows about the grounds. 



The gravest question which will confront you during the year will 

 be that of whether, in view of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, an 



