AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS. 227 



There is very rarely a thrifty farmer who could not 

 add to the attractions and merits of a Fair if he 

 would try. If he could send a coop of superior Fowls, 

 a likely Calf, or a first-rate Cow, better yet; but 

 nine-tenths of our farmers regard a Fair as some- 

 thing wherewith they have nothing to do, except as 

 spectators. When it is half over, they lounge into it 

 with hands in their pockets, stare about for an hour, 

 and go home protesting that they could beat nearly 

 everything they saw there. Then why did they not 

 try? How can we have good Fairs, if those who 

 might make the best display of products save them- 

 selves the trouble by not making any ? The average 

 meagerness of our Fairs, so generally and justly com- 

 plained of, is not the fault of those who sent what 

 they had, but of those who, having better, were too 

 lazy to send anything. Until this is radically chang- 

 ed, and the blame fastened on those who might have 

 contributed, but did not, our Fairs cannot help being 

 generally meager and poor. 



II. It seems to me that there is great need of an 

 interesting and faithful running commentary on the 

 various articles exhibited. A competent person 

 should be employed to give an hour's off-hand talk 

 on the cattle and horses on hand, explaining the di- 

 verse merits and faults of the several breeds there 

 exhibited, and of the re'presentatives of those breeds 

 then present. If any are peculiarly adapted to the 

 locality, let that fact be duly set forth, with the 

 simple object of enabling the farmers to breed more 



