266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



I also read a letter from Mr. L. S. Parker, one of the lead- 

 ing citizens of St. Louis. It was addressed to Governor 

 Chamberlain, and was an acknowledgment of an invitation sent 

 him to meet some members of the St. Louis party at his home 

 last night. He said that it was conceded that Connecticut had 

 made a better and more impressive showing at St. Louis than 

 any single State. 



I received word from the secretarv that in regard to the 

 award of prizes Connecticut had received a special on farm 

 products, dairy, and tobacco. Most of them received gold 

 prizes, tobacco, as I am informed by a letter, being granted 

 a grand prize. I do not wonder at it, because I happened to 

 be at the department when Mr. Halliday and Mr. Mead were 

 taking out their excellent exhibits of tobacco, and everybody 

 thought they were beautiful, and they were. The exhibits 

 were perfectly fine. 



The Ohio building at the fair stood a little distance from the- 

 Connecticut State building. Ohio had a very fine commission. 

 One of the members of that commission came over to the Con- 

 necticut State building, and it was noticed that he had his hat 

 in his hand. He was received with some joking remark, " Is 

 your head warm today? Were you out late last night? " He 

 said in reply, " I am coming over here with my hat in my hand 

 because I feel like taking it off to you.'' He said, " We thought 

 we had quite a State building and quite an exhibit here, but I 

 declare, for variety, for variety of industries exhibiting, and 

 for uniform excellence in them all, I do not believe there is a 

 State here represented that equals Connecticut." We thought 

 that was very good testimony, because he was not running for 

 any office in Connecticut, and we thought he was telling the 

 truth. We thought so at the time. 



The educational department was complete and in every way 

 a credit. The oyster industry, showing all the different grada- 

 tions, where the oysters form, and where they catch in clusters 

 on the shells, was shown with great completeness. It was 

 conceded that the showing of the State was universally excel- 

 lent. Of course, in manufactures and in inventions, Connecti- 

 cut does stand pretty well to the front, but I must confess that 

 I was surprised to hear good judges speak in the highest terms 

 of Connecticut agriculture in all its departments, and of our 

 dairy interests in particular. 



