LIVE STOCK BREEDERS. 79 



speaks the farmers know the truth of his statements, though he may 

 not express himself as artistically as some others. 



Now I come lastly to what constitutes one of the great interests 

 of Missouri, and I wish to secure the hearty co-operation of the peo- 

 ple of Greene county and Springfield, especially, for assistance in that. 

 our State Fair. Missouri has been compelled for years to go and 

 show the stock she produced at various other fairs in our neighboring 

 states. Although we have been first in the Union in a great many 

 lines of stock, still we have been compelled to take our stock to other 

 fairs, having no home place to show them. We have the finest Short- 

 horns in the world. Last year we took 75 per cent of the Hereford 

 premiums in the west. At the World's Fair in Chicago we brought 

 back $35,000 in cash premiums to Missouri; we defeated Kentucky 

 in saddle horses, mules and jacks ; we tore the laurels from Vermont 

 in Merino sheep. Mr. Gentry took ten premiums for Berkshire hogs 

 over the world at large. Seven more went to parties to whom Mr. 

 Gentry had sold hogs, and only one premium got away from the Mis- 

 souri hog. There is no fiction about this, it is a fact. Other states 

 competed for an exhibit of the variety of products, but Missouri was 

 so far in the lead that we outclassed the other states in everything 

 from the cotton plant to an ear of corn. No state in the Union com- 

 peted with us in any measure at Chicago for the variety of farm products. 



Let us go to Omaha. Not one dollar could we beg from our 

 Legislature to make an exhibit. The State Board of Agriculture, in 

 consultation with Governor Stephens, asked him to appoint two hun- 

 dred commissioners over the State — it should be confessed with humil- 

 iation by every Missourian — to beg money for a INIissouri exhibit 

 at Omaha. Li my little town of Richmond wc raised $60. We raised 

 in all $14,000.00 with which Missouri went to Omaha and captured more 

 premiums than all the other states put together. These are facts, 

 gentlemen. 



We had to keep working- and working and doing our very best 

 to get the State Fair started. We succeeded in getting an appropria- 

 tion of seven thousand dollars at the last session of the Legislature 

 to start it at Sedalia. A great many people do not know how the 

 thing was started. The Legislature passed a bill that certain towns 

 that wished to make application for the location of this State Fair 

 should do so inside of twenty days. Six on eight towns made appli- 

 cation. To these was confined the Board's choice of location for the 

 Missouri State Fair. Sedalia was considered the central and largest 

 town. It is not large enough — everybody admits that — to take care 



