336 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the honest farmer and his family, or any citizen who takes pride in his man- 

 hood? Was it not one of the most demoralizing exhibitions ever held in the 

 New England States? There were some fifty places where liquor was sold, 

 and the society probably realized $1,500 from this source alone." The Ver- 

 mont Freeman tersely and boldly said: "The farmers of New England 

 want neither schools for gambling or drunkenness, under the guise of agri- 

 cultural fairs." The Manchester Mirror, published at the place where the 

 exhibition was held, declared "that the fair was a piece of imposition upon 

 the agricultural people." The New York Tribune's editorial then says: 

 "These representations, and their obvious lesson, ought to excite such an 

 avowed disapproval by fathers and mothers, and other guardians of youth, 

 as will compel a discontinuance of the licensed, official prostitution of agri- 

 culture to such vile uses. Such a protest is all the more important in view 

 of the fact, that the founder and constant head and front of the offending^ 

 New England Society is the nation's official farmer, — the commissioner of 

 agriculture at Washington — better known as the Ishmael of Sorghum ; and 

 thus its doings are made to reflect discredit on the farming interests, not of 

 six States alone, but of the entire country." 



Let us in Michigan be warned in time, and escape, if possible, the odium 

 that seems so richly deserved, that has been heaped upon the New England 

 society. 



At Oshkosh, Wisconsin, last fall, the officers of the fair refused the munifi- 

 cent sum of 81,000 for the exclusive privilege of running a "wheel of for- 

 tune" on the ground. This decision of the officers coming to the knowl- 

 edge of the citizens of the place, a purse of $1,000 was immediately made up 

 and presented to the society. Would that, in like manner, the farmers, 

 business men, and citizens of every county in the State appreciated and were 

 disposed to aid their respective societies ; thereby removing a strong tempta- 

 tion, and leaving officers of fairs without the shadow of an excuse, for leasing 

 the grounds for unlawful and disgraceful uses. 



Speaking of the " wheel of fortune," as a mechanical device to steal money 

 with, it is contrived so that it never revolves upon an even chance, but con- 

 stantly wins more money than it loses — the $1,000 license fee paid proves 

 this — so that the whole thing is a swindle, a cheat, and a fraud from begin- 

 ning to end. 



