TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 321 



great agricultural state fair second to none in America — a show of the 

 resources of your magnificent state. 



To one acquainted with fairs there are many angles if divertisement 

 and I shall only attempt to notice some phases of this great subject of 

 fair management. 



Agricultural fairs hold a unique place in the world. There is nothing 

 like them, neither is there anything that will take their place. They have 

 been in vogue for a century or more in one form or another. They grew 

 out of the conception of men that comparison is a necessary element In 

 forming judgment. By comparing things with like things, a better judg- 

 ment could be obtained than any other method. It was thus that all our 

 improved breeds of cattle and live stock generally was improved. So far 

 as app€arances is concerned, the same may be said of all agricultural 

 products that are produced from the soil. All departments of the fair 

 grew in these respects and grew up in this way, except the speed ring. In 

 that appearances could not, and did not count, because a different purpose 

 other than good looks and good appearances was the objective point. A 

 very good looking horse might be very poor as a road horse. This is one 

 of the mooted questions relating to fairs generally and one with which 

 it is most difficult to deal as a general proposition. All other departments 

 seem to be readily and easily understood by the general public. Not so 

 with the races. This of course is because horse racing has sometimes been 

 abused and the race horses have been used for purely gambling and un- 

 tenable purposes. This department of fairs perhaps needs our attention 

 more just now than any other. Considerable discussion is going on in the 

 horse press of America relative to better racing and making of it a more 

 attractive feature. Too many people of course think the racing means 

 nothing more than a race for the money at the wire. They do not stop 

 to think of the time, patience and expense the breeders have been 

 to in order to produce the very horses before their eyes. Perhaps the 

 entries of no one department of the fair has cost so much. It took a 

 long time to produce a horse that could make an attractive race as we 

 have them nowaday. America has produced what is termed the harness 

 horse. It was done not only by intelligent breeding, but also by trials at 

 speed. It was for the development of this American horse that race 

 courses were built. In speed trials the horse of the best bone sinew, ten- 

 don, muscle, lung power, energy and spirit won. In breeding, these win- 

 ners were mated. The others were discarded. The first three minute 

 horse filled .the hearts of the people of his day with joy and admiration 

 as much as does the two minute horse of today. But it has taken the 

 intelligent mating of the best for many years to produce the horse we 

 have today and it was the men who did this mating that produced these 

 horses, that founded the turf. They popularized the turf, because it had 

 a purpose. Today we tetter understand that purpose than did many of 

 the people along the earlier times or do many people today who will not 

 stop to think of the real purpose of the racing at the fairs. It was the 

 only possible means by which this horse could have been produced. It is 

 the only possible way which premiums could be offered for the best. It 

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