354 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



at a lavish expenditure of money. The most careful observation has failed to develop 

 any just cause for complaint in any direction. The awards seem to have been made 

 with entire Impartiality, and were, as a rule, accepted as fair and equitable. In 

 carefully reviewing the proceedings of the society, with whicli I have been familiar 

 for the entire thirty-five years of Its existence, it appears to me that the fair of 1883 

 is fully entitled to the rank accorded by the press, and recognized by all who visited 

 the exhibition, in contradistinction from all others, as "The Great Fair." In many 

 respects there was a want, which might have easily been supplied by local 

 interest and effort, but as a whole it more fully reflected the growth in material 

 resources, varied agricultural and industrial improvements, and evidences of increas- 

 ing wealth and luxury, than any preceding exhibition. No intelligent citizen 

 looking through the great display, in which was concentrated at one point the pro- 

 ductive energies of industry, in agriculture, mechanical skill, and the fine arts, in the 

 extent and varied character of the exhibit and its great excellence, could fail to 

 recognize just cause for personal gratulations and pride. 



And you, gentlemen, in witnessing the universal, unqualified approval of the 

 multitudes in attendance, must have experienced a sense of individual reward for all 

 your unwearied, unpaid, and too often unrecognized toil in secui'ing a success so 

 grand and satisfactory. The magnitudeof the enterprise, and the vast labor involved 

 in the preparation for so large an exhibit, are not appreciated by the multitude. 

 They look at results, and criticise if the least fault is apparent. Regret has been 

 often expressed that the annual fair could not be of longer duration, partaking in 

 some measure the character of an exposition. But when the demand for the daily 

 supplies of so large a number of animals involves so great cost, it would be imprac- 

 ticable, so say the least, were no other impediment in the way, to extend the time 

 beyond a week. 



In St. Louis, where the model fair of the country has been held annually for 

 twenty-three years, originated and controlled by her own citizens, of which they 

 may be justly proud, appropriating as they do fifty thousand dollars annually, for 

 premiums, making the occasion a brilliant holiday in everyway possible, closing their 

 places of business one day during the fair, chat the whole people may see and 

 appreciate the growth and development of that which makes a community rich and 

 great, the Society finds that it is impossible to hold the multitude more than one 

 week. It may be also stated that longer periods have been tried in other places, but 

 as the time was extended, interest has flagged and the conclusion has been reached 

 by experience that an enthusiastic meeting of five or six days is wiser and better 

 than any longer period. 



A State agricultural and mechanical show, even though it may include numerous 

 and varied works of fancy and utility in manufacture and fine arts, cannot be con- 

 sidered and is not intended as a general exposition. The fair, embracing in its 

 best aspects, a living picture of superior excellence in our domestic animals, the dif- 

 ferent and distinct families of breeds — the advances made in valuable specimens, 

 improved or imported — brought together in their perfected character, for compari- 

 son and criticism, as well as admiration, must be the leading feature of interest and 

 attraction; not only on account of the vast amount of money involved, reaching 

 seventy-five millions of dollars for this State, but also as object lessons, stimulating 

 to the highest endeavor. 



To the practical farmer and political economist the display of farm machinery in 

 its great variety all tending to lighten labor and promote better cultivation of soil 

 or more rapid security of ripened harvest, affording as it does in the presence of 

 competing examples, opportunity for practical tests, must be a means of instruction 

 and advantage not otherwise attainable. 



The numerous productions of the farm, the garden, the orchard, and the dairy con- 

 centrate at the annual meeting of the State Agricultural Society in its fair, au 

 interest which should bring together practical farmers in much larger numbers from 

 every section of the State. 



There is still a class of farmers among us who are slow to adopt improved animals 

 or modern methods. They travel in the paths of their ancestors, using tools made 

 sacred bj'^ early association, and recognizing native animals as meeting their full 

 requirements. But the influence of our annual fairs and the great flood of light 

 which is thrown upon the varied operations of the farm, and its capabilities for 

 production by other organizations throughout the State is so pervading in its char- 

 acter, that slow-going farmers must resort to frontier life or fall in the race of com- 

 petition. 



Our immense annual outlay for buildings which are of little value unless the fair 

 is held continuously at one place has come to be a question of serious importance. 



