248 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A local fruit exhibit also teaches those who make the display how 

 to work in harmony and in a businesslike way with their fellow men. 

 Every county is entitled to an annual exhibit of its product ; and a fair 

 ground is not at all necessary. 



Our exhibit this fall was held in a hall centrally located in the 

 county seat. It was an object lesson to the one who supports the 

 orchardist, as well as to the orchardist himself. Our success as fruit- 

 growers depends on the consumer understanding certain things in 

 connection with the uses of fruit. He learned many of them at this 

 exhibit. The picture of beatiful fruits that the observer carries home 

 in his mind are not easily forgotten. 



He thinks how nice it would be to have a few bushels of that fine 

 fruit in his cellar. The fruit-grower also seldom forgets the size and 

 form and color of the most perfect specimens, and carries them home 

 and compares them with the kind he raises on his own farm. This 

 tends to help him raise the standard of perfection a little. 



At these exhibits you learn much of the character of trees and 

 fruits in your own locality which you never would otherwise find out. 

 The kind which produces well and the people want is the kind to plant. 

 I need scarcely speak of the social part. People, living in the same 

 county, and knowing of each other for years through the papers, 

 would sometimes seldom meet if it were not for these annual exhibits. 

 As the merchant cultivates acquaintance, so must we. 



As he shows his goods, so must we ; as he greets his customers, 

 so, too, must we. We must learn the business ways of the world in 

 fruit growing and fruit-selling. The exhibit affords a splendid oppor- 

 tunity for this. Then, too, how much more to be desired are the asso- 

 ciations at an exhibit of this kind than at a modern fair where gamb- 

 ling, drinking and horse racing are the principal attractions. The 

 schemers usually get the benefit at such places. The people are get- 

 ting tired of such attempts. They see no material good from giving 

 a thousand dollars to see Nancy Hanks go. 



Let us support these demonstrations which do so much good and 

 out of which grow so little evil. At our exhibits, in no case did any- 

 one give and not receive. If we needed money we sold tickets to get 

 it. If we needed premiums we gave the merchants an equivalent in 

 advertising. If the exhibitor was at an expense to show fine products, 

 he got his recompense in a premium. The people who came to see 

 paid an admission and were rewarded with the pleasure of seeing the 

 finest the community had, all nicely arranged at their convenience to 

 inspect. 



