NEW-YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



liow, if the thing were to be repeated, they | located, and affording abundant accommoda- 



could present it to the public in a far more 

 satisfactory condition. In other words, they 

 have earned a little valuable experience. — 

 But this amounts to nothing. The So- 

 ciety, instead of availing itself of this ex- 

 perience thus acquired at Albany or any 

 other given point, throws it all away, by 

 abandoning that place and holding its Fair 

 the succeeding year at some other point in 

 the State 100 or 200 miles distant. The 

 arrangements are put into the hands of fresh 

 local committees, who are as inexperienced 

 as the first, and therefore almost wholly 

 ignorant of what is to be done and how to 

 do it ; consequently the exhibition is a jum- 

 ble ; articles are carried there and lost sight 

 of, or placed entirely out of view ; 30,000 

 people are brought together in some small 

 town where there is accommodation for 

 only 5,000 ; rail-roads out of the usual 

 routes are overloaded with passengers, who 

 are detained hours where they ought to be 

 minutes, and the consequence is that in- 

 stead of a well ordered, satisfactory, and 

 instructive display of the best products of 

 the soil, four-fifths of the spectators leave 



tion for the thousands of visitors who resort 

 to the Fair : places from which the accu- 

 mulated knowledge may be easily distri- 

 buted to all other parts of the State. Take 

 for example Albany and Rochester, (or 

 Buffalo) — the two most central and acces- 

 sible cities in the great agricultural portions 

 of the State. Let the Annual Fair he held 

 fir 5 years at Albany, and then for the next 

 5 years at Rochester. Let competent, in- 

 telligent working committees be employed 

 and well paid by the Society to ascertain 

 and bring out all the finest products of the 

 State ; and, when collected, to arrange the 

 whole systematically and satisfactorily, so 

 that everything may be seen, and every 

 person shall have an opportunity to see — so 

 that there shall be no fine stock injured for 

 want of shelter, nor fruits nor plants of the 

 commonest sorts left unexhibitedor wrongly 

 labelled, and, above all, no crowd of human 

 beings decoyed to a village where there is 

 neither food nor lodging for one-half their 

 number ! 



We are greatly mistaken if such a plan 

 as we have pointed out, would not speedily 



the ground fully impressed that the State be followed by admirable shows, a most 



Fairs are a "great humbug." 



Now we may be entirely wrong in our 

 opinion, but it seems very clear to us and to 

 others with whom we have conversed, that 

 these miserable exhibitions, which are al- 

 most valueless for practical good, and are 

 certain sooner or Jater if persisted in, to 

 ruin the credit of the State Society, might 

 be exchanged for Shows of which the 

 State might well be proud, and for an influ- 

 ence most decidedly beneficial to the cause 

 of agriculture, by one simple reform, tc wit, 

 in the manner of holding them. 



This is nothing more than to confine them 

 to two central and accessible points, choos- 

 ing the neighborhoods of those cities properly 



decidedly beneficial influence, (at first on 

 the agriculture of that portion of the State 

 nearest the point fixed upon, and gradually 

 on the whole State,) and a large and in- 

 creasing usefulness and popularity of the 

 State Society itself. The Fair being held 

 for 5 years in one place, its managers would 

 soon become experienced, the competitors, 

 breeders of stock, and growers of crops 

 would learn what is the standard of value ; 

 what the criterion of excellence, and would 

 direct their attention, year after year to the 

 attainment of these results. Instead of a 

 miscellaneous assemblage of products com- 

 posed in a great part of accidental excellen- 

 cies, we should see collections composed 



