146 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



THE STATE FAIR. 



The State Agricultural Exhibition for 1875, 

 held at Lancaster city a fortnight ago, is now 

 one of the things of the past agricultural his- 

 tory of the C'oniinouwealth of Pennsylvania, 

 and under all the circumstances is an appro- 

 priate precursor to that great event of the 

 near future whicli is destined to distinguish 

 the closing daj's of the first and tlie opening 

 days of the second century of the national life 

 of the American Union, and we hope may 

 be chronicled as the beginning of a new and 

 more progressive era in the agricultural his- 

 tory of our State and county. 



Tlie late exhilMtion perhaps came nearer a 

 success, in all respects, than any heretofore 

 held under the auspices of the State Society, 

 and illustrates the wisdom of its officers in 

 selecting the city of Lancaster as the proper 

 centre for the ultiniation of the agricultinval 

 resources of the commonwealth. It affords us 

 a special gratification in being able to record 

 the co-operation of our local society, our farm- 

 ers, fruit growers and florists, as 'well as our 

 entire people, in endeavoring to bring about 

 that success. We felt convinced from . the 

 very beginning that they could do so, but we 

 had some apprehensions as to whether they 

 would. Of course, no matter where a State 

 Fair is held, it is not expected that every 

 county will be represented, or that those re- 

 motely located will contribute to. the fruit, 

 vegetable or fioral departments as freely as 

 those in the immediate vicinity — indeed, such 

 a thing would hardly be practicable if it were 

 necessary. Many products in these deiiart- 

 ments of Husbandry are too perishable in their 

 natures to bear the " wear and tear" inci- 

 dental to a protracted transportation ; and this 

 is also the case in many articles of domestic 

 production ; hence much depends upon the 

 public spirit and the enterprise of the people 

 in the immediate vicinity of the exhibition, 

 and on the late occasion Lancaster city and 

 county came up nobly to the work of making 

 the event creditable to their ancient reputa- 

 tion and to their social and geographical po- 

 sition. As is nearly always the case on snch 

 occasions, many of those who witnessed the 

 exhibition have indulged in the usual regrets 

 that they had not tlieniselves been active par- 

 ticipants. This only illustrates the power of 

 example, and that nianj- people are influenced 

 in what they do more by what others do than 

 by any original or fixed principles latent 

 within themselves. 



Whether ever the working machinery of 

 our public agricultural and mechanical exhi- 

 bitions will liecome more perfect in their de- 

 tails than thi-y are at the present time, will 

 depend greatly ujion whether ever their re- 

 sponsible heads will possess the ability, the 

 persevering energy, and the determination of 

 character mcessaiy to make them so. To ac- 

 complish this recjuires sometliing more than 

 merely good intentions. "A fig" to good in- 

 tentions if we do not i)ossess the necessary 

 knowledge and two figs to both good intentions 

 and knowledge, if we do not possess the neces- 

 sary viU to carry our good intentions and our 

 knowledge into practical efl'ect. Indeed, so ini-f- 

 fective may only good intentions be, that .some- 

 body has long ago made the harsh utterance 

 that the way to perdition is paved with good 

 intentions. This sentiment seems to ignore 

 the too prevalent popular idea that good in- 

 tentions alone will exonorate a man from the 

 many deliixpiencies which grow out of, and are 

 the legitimate results of, the lack of an ener- 

 getic exercise of the will-principle, or an 

 ignorance of what ought to be done, and how 

 it ought to be done, in order to carry any 

 great enterprise into practical effect, and es- 

 pecially in the proper arrangement and execu- 

 tion of its minor details. 



It is true that the duties often involved in 

 such enterprises may be so various, so vast 

 and so complicated, that no single head can 

 have the capacity to compreheiid or grasp 

 them all ; but this is not absolutely necessary 

 to a successful issue of the final result. It 

 only requires the executive ability of the chief 

 to form a proper conception of what is intended 



to be done, and then a judicious delegation 

 of power to subordinates, under methods that 

 have been thoroughly digested through pre- 

 vious reflection, aided by past experiences. It 

 ifc also true that these enterprises belong so 

 unqualifiedly to the " peace establishment " 

 (if the country, and are .so completely under 

 the control of the social relations of the par- 

 ticipants in them, that the rigid rules which 

 obtain in the xwi'ely military or civil powers 

 of the government cannot be generally ap- 

 plied to them ; but they are nevertheless le- 

 gitimate, and being sucli, they could be con- 

 ducted with a greater adherence to fun- 

 damental rule than generally obtains in them, 

 even under the relaxations usually made in 

 accommodation to the conveniences of the 

 public. " A place for everything, and every- 

 thing in its place," is always in "order, under 

 any circumstances. • 



Without intending to be captious or critical, 

 we are led to these cogitations from the fact 

 that, somehow, in the late exliibition, many 

 things got out of their places, and into im- 

 proper ones. For instance, we found some 

 cigars referred to Division 5 — "collections 

 and di.splays " — and others to Division 12 — 

 " miscellaneous entries. " Now it is ques- 

 tional;)le whether manufactnred tobacco or 

 cigars should have been referred to either of 

 these divisions. Tobacco is an ancknowledged 

 staple production of the country, and if not 

 cultivated, at least manufactured, in almost 

 every State of the Union, whether its produc- 

 tion be regarded as a good or an evil. A large 

 and respectable class of our citizens, almost 

 everywhere, earn a livelihood in either its 

 cultivation, its manufacture, or in its com- 

 merce, and it therefore occupies no equivocal 

 ground. The artizans who engage in its 

 manufacture consider themselves as belonging 

 to the mechanical classes, and those who cul- 

 tivate it consider themselves farmers or agri- 

 culturists. Leaf tobacco shouM therefore be 

 classed with agricultural productions, and 

 cigars, snufl', chewing and smoking tobacco 

 with manufactures or mechanical produc- 

 tions. It is too pronounced to be classed 

 "miscellaneous." Bread and meat slicing 

 machines, lioisting machines, gas machines, 

 ironing machines, and even refrigerators or 

 cooling machines, should be placed in a divis- 

 ion including machinery, and in a class includ- 

 ing complex or compound domestic utensils, 

 to distinguish them from simple utensils, as a 

 knife and fork, which should be placed in a 

 different class. The former certainly belong 

 to the category of washing machines, wi-inging 

 machines, mincing machines, etc. A miscel- 

 laneous division should only include collec- 

 tions of coin and medals, collections of miner- 

 als, shells, animals, antiquities, relics, and all 

 ■unique articles that cannot properly be placed 

 in any other divisioti. 



We are aware tliat in classifying and pre- 

 paring a list of premiums, a good deal of com- 

 plicated thought and labor is involved, from 

 the fact that it is not previously known ex- 

 actly what will lie olfered for competition and 

 exliibition. But it is not in that fact in which 

 the chief blunders are involved, but in a lack 

 of judgment in assigning the articles to their 

 projier divisidus or classes when they are en- 

 tered. We consider that the officers who have 

 charge of this function ought to have more 

 practical jud meut than any others. 



The details of classification should be more 

 distiijctly defined and limited than they usu- 

 ally are ; and there should be divisions, classes, 

 sietions, and also, (/roups, where the sections 

 are large ; each section having its separate 

 committee of examination, and the State So- 

 ciety .should only apjioint the chairmen of 

 these committees, delegating to each the 

 power to appoint his colleagues, and said 

 committees in no case should consist of more 

 than three members. Not only men of ability 

 and integrity, but also men of leisure, should 

 be appointed on such committees, if possible, 

 and those who have any reason to believe 

 they will be unable to attend on the second 

 morning of the fair should at once decline the 

 appointment. All the articles or objects be- 



longing to a division, class, section, or group, 

 ought, respectively, to occupy separate and 

 contiguous places, and not be scattered over 

 the whole fair ground ; and if each article 

 was designated in the numerical order that 

 they are entered on the books of the several 

 committees, the labors of said committees 

 wouUl be greatly lessened and simplified. 

 The iiremiums, medals, diplomas, etc., should 

 be so defined and limited, as to leave as little 

 as possible to the discretion, and hence to the 

 personal responsibility of the committees, but 

 instead thereof to the society. 



It is questionable whether a State fair, or 

 any other public exhibition that is to bo con- 

 tinued for several days, should be advertised 

 to begin on the first working day of the week, 

 or Monday. To open on Monday would in- 

 volve the necessity of having everything in 

 readiness on the previous Saturday, or the 

 desecration of the Sabbath for that prelimi- 

 nary purpose. Four days, with everything 

 amply arranged and in order, are quite long 

 enough if the proper announcement is made 

 to that effect, for any State or county fair ; 

 and if it must be five, it would be better to 

 include Saturday than Moiulay. It is true, 

 this might occupy the Sabbath in effecting 

 the removal of the articles and objects, but it 

 would be very little more for those at a dis- 

 tance to remain until the following Monday, 

 and those living near could effect the removal 

 of their property on Saturday evening. Under 

 any circumstances, remote exhibitors would 

 be apt to occupy Sunday before they reached 

 home, even if the fair closed on Friday even- 

 ing, and at the worst, there is perhaps less 

 harm in ending a journey, or finishing a 

 work on Sunday, than commencing them on 

 that day. It requires a whole day to arrange 

 some collections, even after all the articles 

 are on the ground, and there would be less 

 interruption if the opening took place on 

 Tuesday. 



We have indulged in these strictures, not 

 because they are specially applicable to the 

 late fair, but because we find that in thirty 

 years experience but little progress has been 

 made in perfecting the details of such public 

 exhibitions, and that things are progressing 

 pretty much in the old and unsatisfivctory man- 

 ner. The late exhibition of the State Society 

 was a mammoth affair, and as ably conducted 

 as perhaps it could be under all the circum- 

 stances. It would be folly to expect entire 

 satisfaction with all its results. The masses 

 of the people are, consciously or unconscious- 

 ly, under the dominion of self, and of course, 

 would naturally be dissatisfied with things 

 that were not subordinated to the gratifica- 

 tion of individual selfliood. The nmnber of 

 entries for competition or special notice run 

 up to thousands, aiul it would l)ea great mar- 

 vel if all these should be entirely satisfied. 

 On Thursday, which was the " great day" of 

 the exhibition, the number of visitors was 

 fully twenty-five thousand, a result as gratify- 

 ing to the friends of the society under whose 

 auspices the fair was held, as it was to the 

 responsible managers of it. The state of the 

 weather, except the last day, was all that could 

 have been desired, and in every respect, we 

 reiterate, the twenty-third exhibition of our 

 State Agricultural Society was a success. 



The mnnlier of awards in favor of exhibitors 

 at the late fairwas very large; so large, indeed, 

 that, not wishing to encroach upon the space al- 

 lowed to our usual variety, we find it necessary 

 to add four pages to this issue in order to make 

 room for "the list. A goodlj- number fell to 

 the lot of citizens of Lancaster county. Of 

 frst money premiums there were two hun- 

 dred and fifteen, amounting to eleven hundred 

 and forty-six dollars, namely : Fifty-two of 

 $1.00,- sixty-two of $!2. 00; thirty of »3,00; two 

 of $4.00; twenty-six of $5.00; two of $6.00; 

 twenty-two of $10.00; five of $15.00; five of 

 $•20.00; five of .'SS25.00; one of $.30.00; two of 

 $40.00; and one of $100.00. Of second money 

 premiums there were fifty-four, amounting to 

 two hundred and eighty-nine dollars, namely : 

 Twenty of $1.00; eight of $2.00; six of $3.(m:»; 

 eight of $5.00; six of $10.00; three of $15.00; 



