SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IX. 1001 



The state fair is a presentation to the public of the worlc of a great 

 aggregation of artists and scientists, who come from the farm, the feed 

 yard, the orchard, the factory, the work shop, the home and the school. 

 The best of everything is collected into the show rooms and this great 

 state exhibition at once becomes an institute of learning, a school for 

 the eye, the ear, the heart. Men and women are made better in know- 

 ledge and better in spirit by attending a good agricultural fair, con- 

 ducted upon a basis of education and morality. 



THE FARM BOY AND THE .STATE FAIRS. 

 Wallace's farmhr. 



The state fair season is now on us, and thousands of farm boys into 

 whose homes Wallaces' Farmer comes will visit the various state fairs, 

 many of them for the first time. We have a very vivid recollection 

 of our first visit to a state fair more than fifty years ago, and it is 

 fair to assume that the boys and girls attending state fairs for the 

 first time this year will have similarly vivid recollections fifty years 

 hence. 



There is so very much at a state fair that is entirely new to the 

 ordinary farm boy that he is apt to miss the best part of it. In fact, 

 his first visit is quite likely to be given over to getting a general idea 

 of the fair, its strange sights and sounds, and he is not to be cen- 

 sured if he does not give close attention to any one particular thing. 

 There is toe much to be seen to see anything accurately and minutely. 



The people themselves are really the biggest thing at a state fair, 

 and their dress their appearance, the atmosphere that surrounds the 

 various individuals, from the barker at the lemonade stand to the high- 

 toned aristocratic visitor from some large city, is quite likely to inter- ' 

 est the farm boy. There are a great many different sorts of people, 

 more than he even dreamed of before. It is well, therefore, to take a 

 general view of the people and the exhibits and get an idea of the size 

 of the fair; but after this is done it is well to settle down to some 

 particular thing and make it the object of special study. 



Naturally this will be. or at least should be, the things which are 

 most closely identified with the farm. There are cattle on the farm at 

 home. He thinks they are good ones, particularly if he happens to 

 be the fortunate owner of a calf or a pig. He is apt to think they 

 can't be beat; but if he will drift around to the judging pavilion and 

 see the various herds of pure bred cattle of any particular breed, especi- 

 ally the breed they have on the farm at home, he will get a different 

 conception of w^hat a Shorthorn or Angus or Duroc Jersey or Poland- 

 China or Tamworth or Shropshire or draft horse or roadster ought to 

 be. Then if he will notice carefully the judging and see the process 

 by which the judges eliminate first a large per cent of the exhibit and 

 then individuals, until they finally select the one \vhich in their judg- 

 ment is best entitled to the award, it will help him to form an ideal 

 of the perfect animal in his mind which he will retain for many years 

 to come. If a man is to follow the life of a farmer, he must first get 



