226 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



generally desired perhaps to find that his invitation 

 came from an insignificant and odious handful, who 

 had some private ax to grind so repugnant to the 

 great majority that they refuse to countenance the 

 procedure, no matter how great the temptation. 

 Even where there is no such feud, many, having 

 satiated their curiosity by a long stare at him, walk 

 whistling off, without waiting or wishing to hear him. 

 But the speaker at a Fair must compete with a thou- 

 sand counter-attractions, the least of them far more 

 popular and winning than he can hope to be. He is 

 heard, so far as he is heard at all, in presence of and 

 competition with all the bellowing bulls, braying 

 jacks, and squealing stallions, in the county ; if he 

 holds, nevertheless, a quarter of the crowd, he does 

 well : but let two jockeys start a buggy-race around 

 the convenient track, and the last auditor shuts his 

 ears and runs off to enjoy the spectacle. Decidedly, 

 I insist that a Fair-ground is poorly adapted to the 

 diffusion of Agricultural knowledge that the people 

 present acquire very little information there, even 

 when they get all they want. 



What is needed to render our annual Fairs useful 

 and instructive far beyond precedent, I sum up as 

 follows : 



I. Each farmer in the county or township should 

 hold himself bound to make some contribution there- 

 to. If only a good hill of Corn, a peck of Potatoes, 

 a bunch of Grapes, a Squash, a Melon, let him send 

 that. If he can send all of these, so much the better. 



