ANNUAL MEETING. 65 



Sinbad, have been cast aside and we now breathe easier. But this is 

 not the sum of our gain— we have erected new buildings, repaired old 

 ones, constructed new barns, stalls and pens, improved our tracks and 

 grounds, and drawn to ourselves a more widespread patronage than 

 we have yet enjoyed; which latter has enabled us to enlarge our pre- 

 mium lists and extended our classifications, and in many ways make 

 it manifest that we are growing larger and stronger than ever before. 



Now fairs, in the great majority of cases, serve more faithfully than 

 any other agencies to reflect the intellectual development and material 

 prosperity of the territory from which they draw their support. There 

 the abundance of our harvests, the qualities and values of our produc- 

 tions, the advances in invention, mechanical construction, the taste and 

 culture, as manifested in artistic and textile creations and selections, 

 were seen to have made remarkable advances over those of former years. 



In the particular of crops, our State stands forth as a marvel of 

 fecundity in the year of grace 1902; value of all crops for this year 

 being $32,000,000 gi-eater than for the year 1901. Of other cereals it 

 is not necessary that I should speak, but a substantial increase is shown 

 in all. 



While productions in this line have made such notable advance, they 

 have also advanced along other lines, and yet prices have kept up, the 

 demand being larger and mOTiey easy. No class of our citizens have 

 prospered to the degree that those have who are engaged in agriculture 

 and, as always happens under like cii'cumstances, their prosperity has 

 enhanced the pecuniary interests of all. Trade has flourished, the wages 

 of artisan and labor have been good and have not failed at any time 

 during the season of labor. 



While a considerable portion of this advance in the material interest 

 of all our people is due to a highly favorable condition at home and 

 abroad, which may show fluctuation at any time, there is one factor 

 constantly at work which must show its potency at all times, and that 

 is the increasing intelligence and scientific knowledge of those engaged 

 in agriculture, which is being stimulated to a degree never before known 

 in the history of the world, through the agencies of higher education, 

 the press, the telegraph, the telephone, the daily mail, which now brings 

 the once isolated farmer into intimate contact with the very center of 

 commercial activity, and the "thoughts that shape mankind." That 

 these in turn will increase production, and procure a better selection of 

 things produced and a highier and more abundant development in all, 

 needs no great foresight to perceive. 



While production, stimulated by good prices, ready returns and vastly 

 increasing knowledge of the scientific principles which underlie produc- 

 tion, is advancing with rapid strides, it is painfully apparent that trans- 

 portation and distribution are not keeping up in the race, nor is the 



« 



5— Board of A. 



