258- AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



and productive work I did for Cornell was in ad- 

 vertising the work we were doing making the 

 college known among farmers and legislators 

 through whom we secured not only buildings but 

 support and sympathy in the promotion of more 

 intelligent husbandry. 



The old and honored Agricultural Society of 

 the State for many years held its annual fair at 

 Albany, Utica, Elmira, Rochester and Buffalo in 

 a somewhat regular rotation. It was so expensive 

 to provide suitable buildings at each of these cities 

 in turn that they were never adequate and as a con- 

 sequence there was a steady decline in attendance. 

 For lack of interest on the part of exhibitors the 

 affairs of the Society had fallen into the hands of a 

 few life members who conducted the annual show 

 to suit themselves and, it was believed by some, for 

 their own profit. In order to save the Society, a 

 few annual and life members joined in securing 

 many proxies on the quiet and at a certain election 

 of officers outvoted the old management and their 

 following. The old ring died hard ; the lock on the 

 office door of the secretary who had drawn a 

 liberal salary for many years had to be picked 

 and removed and a complicated new one sub- 

 stituted for it before the newly-elected secretary 

 could get or hold possession. 



