514 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



fairs a pecuniary success, and who thought that special features detracted from 

 the great object of the yearly meetings. The speaker said : "Church societies 

 and other institutions recognized the necessity of making their services attract- 

 ive by getting the most popular speakers, the best of choirs, and making tne 

 interior as attractive as possible." 



Mr. Winchell was opposed to the employment of speakers at county fairs 

 merely for notoriety. He alluded to such speakers as ''Brick" Pomeroy, Gen. 

 Butler, and others, who were merely used to draw the crowd. Keasonable and 

 decorous amusements or special features he was not opposed to, and believed 

 that they might be advantageously used. 



Mr. Woodman was in favor of an annual address, and referred to the fact 

 that the address of Schuyler Colfax at Paw Paw last fall was a large source of 

 interest and profit. Mr. '\^'oodman wa?, however, rather conservative on the 

 subject of amusements, and both he and Mr. Glidden averred that the exclusion 

 of trials of speed in their county fair had been for the best interest of their 

 society. 



Mr. Davis was emphatic for amusements. He believed that the people want 

 relaxation and diversion. He had but little patience with those moralists who 

 expected all people to move in a straight and narrow line. He indulged in 

 some extended remarks upon the amusement question, even going into the sub- 

 ject of amusements for our sons and daughters. He said if we do not take the 

 pains to furnish amusement for our children they will go in jjursuit of it, and 

 perhaps find the very worst sort. Mr. Davis related what had been done for 

 his society in respect to what might be called "outside features," and they had 

 worked well. He believed in making the annual meetings of the farmers a 

 matter of interest to all, — a holiday for farmer, mcclianic, laboring man, — for 

 all classes, old and young. 



Mr. Luce spoke of the success of the Hillsdale county fair, which, in his 

 opinion, is a model in every resjiect, the most successful of all the county fairs 

 in tlie State. There nothing is done of an ad captandiim nature. It is an 

 agricultural fair, pure and simple, but the people of the county, all classes, 

 seem to make it their fair, and on the la«t two days of the annual meeting the 

 county seems to turn out en ma^sc. The merchant is there with his wares ; the 

 mechanic brings out the best products of his skill ; the stock-raisers, the butter- 

 makers, the gardeners and others select their finest and fattest, and exhibit 

 them ; the ministers are there to pray, tlie lawyers lay aside their business, the 

 2:»rofessional men and the unprofessional, the young and the old, all come, feel- 

 ing that it is their fair, and it is a grand gala day for all. Mr. Luce said that 

 there had sprung up in that county a smart competition in nearly all kinds of 

 products, especially stock-raising, which has enlisted the attention of the whole 

 community. In respect to an annual address, he was in favor of them, but 

 they must be brief, and sliould be made by such speakers as could interest and 

 dignify the occasion. He was not opposed to the use of attractions to make the 

 fairs pecuniarily successful. 



After remarks by Mr. Little and others, Mr. Stearns moved that innocent 

 amusements might properly be encouraged at county fairs. 



The next topic was "Speed Premiums." The discussion here took an ex- 

 tended range, and we regret we have not space to give a more full abstract of 

 the discussions on this and on the other topics, for this talk was good, and 

 showed that mucli thought liad been bestowed upon it as the result of long 

 experience. Mr. Little stated that the feeling among the farmers in this county 



