INDIANA HOETIOULTUEAL SOCIETY. 463 



sibly everything would be mentioned by the speakers previous to me. But 

 there are things that we can all learn. Possibly some of you would be 

 interested in some things which I shall say. I spent a few days at St. 

 Louis in the opening days of the Exhibition and assisted in arranging and 

 putting out our display ready for the opening of the Fair. We had the 

 assistance of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, and they with the committee, did 

 what they thought best at the time. There was a great deal of con- 

 fusion among the exhibitors at the opening. We had arranged with Chief 

 Taylor for plates of a uniform character, and we paid a big price for 

 them. We had strict orders to have our exhibit in shape at a certain 

 hour on Saturday, the fii'st day of the Fair, but there were no plates on 

 hand and it placed us in a very embarrassing position. What to do we did 

 not know. After discussing the situation with the States which were 

 close to us, and after discussing and talking it over among ourselves, we 

 decided that for the reputation of Indiana we would make the best show- 

 ing possible at the opening with what fniit we had in cold storage, if we 

 had to "pile" it on the tables. Fortunately the Superintetident of the New 

 York exhibit went to the city and borrowed or rented three thousand 

 plates, and I caught a glimpse of them as they were unloading them and 

 we rented about five hundred plates of him, and these we had at the 

 opening. We selected from cold storage stock what we thought would rep- 

 resent fairly each portion of the State. Iowa decided that she would not 

 show her best fruit at the beginning, but would save it and put out some 

 that wasn's so good in the beginning. We did not just know what the 

 character of all of our fruit was; we did not know whether it was all 

 good, or whether there was some poor fruit among it. But we took 

 representative packages irom each district in the State, and as a result 

 we had some very fine fruit at the opening— much better than a great 

 many of the States. I think perhaps this was the best thing that we 

 could do under the circumstances. It gave our State the reputation at 

 the beginning of having fine fruit and a good display. We did not have 

 the fruit that we might have had, for we -did not have the means to 

 send men out to gather up the very best. We had to depend upon 

 contributions, and they were slow in coming in. The fruit was poor in 

 some sections of the State, and we did not get much fruit fi'om those sec- 

 tions. Thus we were curtailed in the amount of fruit that we had, but 

 we were very much pleased with the condition of our fruit. Nearly all 

 of that that was opened at the first was in a first-class condition, and 

 we did not lose out of the entire lot in storage but ten or fifteen per cent. 

 of the fruit, and nearly everything came out in first-class shape. 



As Mrs. Stevens mentioned in her paper last night some varieties 

 scalded and would not keep after being put out there. Pi'ominent among 

 those were the Ben Davis, the Indian, and the Wagner. The Wagner 

 especially was poor. On the other hand we had very fine apples, 

 such as the Northern Spy, Tompkin's King, and numerous other varieties 

 which were in perfect condition and kept for weeks. 



