24 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



the handicraft of the oldest nations of Europe, should not be 

 overshadowed ; and that our American artisans called into com- 

 petition with the workmen of all other countries should have a 

 fair field, and all the encouragement our countenance and patron- 

 age could afford. 



Hence, under these inauspicious circumstances, we opened our 

 exhibition at Castle Garden as aforetime, and though our expenses 

 were nearly $11,000, our gross receipts failed to reach $5,000, yet 

 we did not regret the sacrifice, but distributed our premiums as 

 usual, in fulfillment of the duty we owed to American industry, 

 to which all our means and available resources have ever been 

 consecrated. 



It will also be recollected that in the following year, 1854, for 

 the first and only time in our history we held no exhibition. The 

 State Agricultural Society, a kindred institution of great merit 

 and usefulness, had honored our city by selecting it for their 

 annual fair, not in competition with us, but in co-operation with 

 US. Hence, we cheerfully resigned the field to them, and paid 

 over to them as in duty bound the annual donation of the State 

 for our cattle show, which Avas held by the State Society, aided 

 by the officers and managers of the Institute. 



For the satisfaction of all concerned, and to remove misappre- 

 hensions known to exist to some extent, we here subjoin a tabular 

 statement of the receipts and expenditures of all our fairs during 

 the last eighteen years, viz : from 1839 to 1857 inclusive. It will 

 here be apparent that our revenues from this source yield but an 

 inconsiderable result, even when our exhibitions have been most 

 successful. Hence, though in last year's fair our receipts were 

 nearly $29,000, yet our net proceeds barely exceeded $1,7001 

 And this, when the services of our Board of Managers by day 

 and night for nearly two months continuously, were wholly gra- 

 tuitous, with the exception only of their meals when on actual 

 duty. Had we been obliged to hire the labor they rendered, the 

 expense would have consumed the whole proceeds, and our ex- 

 penses exceeded our receipts. 



Receipts. Expenditures. Surplus. 



12th Annual Fair, 1839, $8,831 41 $7,631 41 $1,200 00 



6,581 25 5,128 30 1,452 95 



7,050 00 5,571 31 1,478 69 



6,741 75 5,825 75 916 00 



8,808 80 6.283 52 2,525 28 



10,249 71 7,484 63 2,765 05 



12,600 43 8,683 49 3,916 94 



