456 BOARD OF AGRICT7LTURE. 



as to awards, number of entries made, or in fact any actual information 

 along this line. The Palace of Horticulture was a very pretty building, 

 adequate in every way and exquisitely arranged for the display of fruits. 

 !t was very unfortunately located, being quite away from the popular 

 thoroughfares, on Agricultural Hill. Early in the season this was thought 

 to be a serious drawback by our horticulturists, but later it proved not so 

 bad after all. Those who really cared to see and study fruits came 

 anyway, and the rabble or "pikers" would have only been in the way 

 and a mild nuisance if they had come. On May 1st, "Opening Day," 

 pandemonium reigned supreme. Hammers and saws, orders and counter- 

 orders, the shrieks of engines outside the buildings, with the rumbling of 

 trucks over floors on the inside, the shrill screech of the venders of wares, 

 ihe hoarse "barkers" beginning the "bark" that never ceased during the 

 entire fair, and the innumerable foreigners who were wildly gesticulating 

 and frantically trying to make themselves understood, all this made the 

 day one long to be remembered. At 10:30 o'clock all was quiet. The 

 order had gone forth. from headquarters the day before that at this time 

 all work should be stopped, all goods must be within the exhibition space 

 alloted to exhibitors. The fair was duly opened with imposing ceremonies. 

 On looking around one saw chaos. Everything seemed at first to be 

 without form and void. The visitor asked "Is everything ready?" The ex- 

 hibitors echoed the question. After a while an official of the Government 

 Building very proudly answered, "Yes, Uncle Sam is ready." Then in 

 a still, small voice a Hoosier piped out, "Yes, Indiana horticulture is 

 fully ripe and ready." And, sure enough, there was Indiana with four 

 other States in first-class shape, in which condition she stayed for seven 

 months. I observed that the casual visitor looked with sympathy, dis- 

 dain or indifference on our display because we had no array of tall bottles 

 containing large or freak fruits; no glitter of plate-glass mirrors and no 

 cases of "wax fruits." Hundreds of people told us that they had much 

 better fruit at home than was on exhibition, to which we replied that 

 our fruit was the very best that was grown by those who had freely con- 

 tributed it. and we alwaj's asked our criticising friends to send us some 

 of their finest, but they never did it. I observed very closely, indeed, 

 the exhibits of our sister States, and want to say right here that no one 

 had as creditable a display for the money invested as Indiana. Some 

 of the States had fifty to seventy-five thoiisand dollars to Indiana's five 

 thousand. Most of them had attendants who were experts in exposition 

 affairs, who received good salaries, while our attendants were just plain 

 fruit growers, who gave their time to the work because they loved their 

 business and were anxious to show their loyalty to their State. 



Our exhibit was nicely located near the center of the Palace, and our 

 near neighbors were Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas and Wisconsin, 

 and no better, more obliging neighbors ever lived. One of the pleasant 



