HISTORY OF FRUIT EXHIBITS AT STATE FAIR 

 H. E. KNAPP 



Assistant Extension Professor, Department of Pomology, Cornell University, 



Ithaca, X. Y. 



PIONEER AND ITINERANT PERIOD OF THE STATE FAIR 



The First Animal Fair and Cattle 

 Show of the 2s ew York State Agricul- 

 tural Society was held at Syracuse in 

 1841. At that time much more emphasis 

 was laid upon the animal husbandry and 

 dairy branches of farming than upon the 

 production of fruits, flowers, and vegeta- 

 bles, because of the greater importance 

 of the former in the farming industry of 

 the state. Some space was devoted from 

 the first, however, to the exhibition of 

 fruits, interest in which was just awaken- 

 ing among farmers of the state. As this interest grew and the 

 culture of fruit assumed the position of a great commercial in- 

 dustry, proportionately greater attention and space was accorded 

 the fruit grower and his products at these fairs. 



In the early years of its existence the fair had no permanent 

 home. It was transferred from one city to another throughout the 

 entire state, among these being Albany, Saratoga, Utica, Elmira, 

 Rochester, Buffalo, Auburn, Watertown, and Syracuse. This, 

 of course, meant that no durable structures could be erected in 

 which the exhibition might be staged. As a result, the earlier 

 records of the Fair are replete with descriptions of " floral halls " 

 and " horticultural halls " hastily constructed to meet the needs 

 of the occasion, but beautifully adorned, according to these 

 reports, with flowers, plants, and vines appropriate to the nature 

 of the products on exhibition within them. 



[G94] 



