180 I50AHD OF AGRICULTURE. 



:U hiiiiio aiul aliroad, as to its industries and products, the fair has no 

 equal. 



Tht-re is anutlier feature, and iu nowise the least of the benelits of 

 the fair, whicli may be enjoyed in common by every citizen. Most men 

 and women possess a social and helpful disposition. But when the 

 farnu'r. merciiant, artisaii and men and women of every vocation meet 

 only iu the relations of active business life, burdened with its perplexing 

 cares and responsibilities, and only know each other as seen and engaged 

 in the hard lines of barter and trade, in the midst of the fiercest compe- 

 tition, these characteristics are not always apparent. But at the fair, 

 an institution "'of the people, by the people and for the people," the 

 whole community from every avenue, calling and sphere in life, and of 

 every political and religious conviction, can meet on the level, and, laying 

 aside the cares of business, enjoy a season of social and refined recrea- 

 tion. In thus commingling and becoming better acquainted they see 

 developed those virtues which form the base of every noble action and 

 receive a social uplift, such as they never before experienced, elevating 

 them to a higher plane, from which viewpoint they obtain a better insight 

 into life and a better opinion of their fellowmen and better enabling them 

 to deal more generously and more intelligently with the social and busi- 

 ness problems of life. 



These are some of the benefits accruing to the people by reason of tlie 

 wisdom and foresight of the progressive men who instituted and perpetu- 

 ated these great annual festivals. And when it shall be no longer neces- 

 sary to grow two blades of grass where there formerly was but one; or 

 to continue the United States the leading agricultural country on the 

 globe; or Avhen agricultural development and inventive genius have 

 reached, their limit; when social conditions need no farther improvement 

 nor embellishment, and when there are no more victories to be achieved 

 in the sphere of intellectual research and human ingenuity, then the fairs 

 may have lived out the days of their usefulness and be ready to be known 

 onlj- in historj-. 



President Insley: The next paper will be, "In What Departments of 

 the Fair can the Management be Improved?" This paper Avill be read 

 by Mr. II. L. Nowlin, of LaAvreuceburg. 



Mr. Nowlin: Tliis, of course, is a subject that is of mucli interest to 

 every manager of a fair or superintendent of a department, and one I 

 feel myself not competent to handle. However, in the short paper I 

 shall read I shall give you some of the things I have noticed in different 

 places, and how some things may be avoided. 



