TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 457 



affect both the number of exhibits offered and the attendance when the 

 fair is open. A good press agent, therefore, is a necessity if the fair is 

 to surpass the ordinary exhibition of previous years. 



SEASON FOR HOLDIXG FAIBS, 



Successful fairs are being held at all seasons of the year — midwinter, 

 spring, midsummer, and autumn — depending upon the object to be 

 attained and the accommodations. The midwinter fair must, of necessity, 

 be indoors. For this, closed and heated accommodations must be pro- 

 vided sufficient for the exhibits and for the visitors who attend. The 

 exhibits at the winter fair are usually confined to live stock, seeds, 

 grains, poultry, florist's plants, and exhibits along the lines of domesfc 

 science and household art. Those in the spring show implements, ma- 

 chinery, nursery stock, vegetable seeds, hotbed plants, fertilizers, dairy 

 and creamery products, household furniture, and samples of grain, such 

 as wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, clover, and timothy seeds for spring 

 planting, exhibited as specimens of larger quantities held in store for 

 sale. 



The summer fairs exhibit the products of agriculture of the season, 

 as summer fruits, garden vegetables, grain and forage crops, live stock 

 and poultry, household articles, manufactures, agricultural implements 

 and machinery, samples of grains for autumn seeding, berries, school 

 gardens, forest plantations, model samples of school grounds, experiment 

 plats, seed testing on trial plats, stock judging, testing dairy cows, and 

 similar exhibits. The summer fair partakes largely of the nature of 

 a harvest-home picnic or summer outing, and. includes lectures and ad- 

 dresses by eminent agriculturalists and others interested in rural bet- 

 terment. 



The autumn fairs are held in most of the states in the months of 

 September and October, and comprise a collection of the products of the 

 year. They are the principal fairs of the season. 



BREEDING STABLES. 



A vei-y important service that the fair association can render is in 

 g'ving assistance to those who are interested in rearing better stock. 

 The difficulty that confronts farmers in many sections, who wish to 

 improve their stock, is the impossibility of securing the service of well- 

 bred sires. There can be no improvement in our domestic animals until 

 well-bred sires are introduced and their use be had at rates low enough 

 to be within the reach of farmers of ordinary means. 



The county fair association could do no better service for live-stock 

 improvement than to purchase or hire the use of one or two well-bred 

 sires of each of the leading breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, 

 and have them kept for service at moderate rates, and offer these serv- 

 ices at these reduced rates to those only who are members of the fair 

 association, thus inducing the more progressive farmers to join the 

 society and aid in its support. There is no reason why this can not 

 be done, and at the same time make it a source of revenue to the associ- 

 ation. 



