PROCEEDINGS. 69 



ever Been at our fair. The display of seeds was in greater variety than usual. 

 There was a finer display of Indiana grasses than ever before exhibited. In vege- 

 tables there was a larger exhibit and in greater variety than usual. The most 

 marked improvement was in potatoes, there being a number of new varieties that 

 could not fail to attract the attention of visitors. The display of dairy products 

 was quite large ; there were fine samples of both butter and cheese. The apiary 

 was also represented with some fine samples of honey. The whole exhibit shows 

 that Indiana is up with her sister States in the production of all the grain, seed« 

 and vegetables, known to this climate. 



HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



p. CUSTER, SUPERINTENDENT. 



As Superintendent of the Horticultural Department, it gives me pleasure to be 

 able to say that the display in this department was very good, possibly not so large 

 ae a few years ago, when the fruit growers were more fortunate in having a full 

 crop of apples throughout the State. The past year the fruit crop in the central 

 portion of the State was compaiatively short, almost a failure. The first specimens 

 came from the north and south sections of the State. 



In the professional list Mr. Fickel, of Cass county, made a very fine display of 

 twenty, twelve and six varieties of apples, with pears, quinces, grapes, etc. 



In the amateur class the competition was very close, with over one hundred and 

 fifty entries of apples, besides pears, quinces and grapes. Among the grapes, those 

 new candidates for public favor, the Prentiss and Niagara, were represented by 

 several plates of fine specimens. The show of melons was unusually fine. 



T. A. Peffer, South Bend ; G. W. Graves, Bunker Hill, Miami county ; W. B. 

 Flick and Peter Raab, of Marion county ; S. A. Hays, of Elizabethtown, Ohio, 

 and J. Hutchison, of Worthington, were the principal exhibitors in the amateur 

 class. 



The State Horticultural Society failed to make the exhibition of fruit that was 

 expected of them, and which they intended to make until a short time previous to 

 the fair, when they abandoned the project entirely. Many of you will remember 

 the fine display of fruit made by that society at the fair of 1877, of which its 

 President, in his annual address, said : " The result proved entirely satisfactory. 

 The display was in every way a success. The exhibition of apples particularly 

 fine, and elicited the highest encomiums of a vast multitude of visitors. There can 

 scar* ely be a doubt but that this exhibition elicited such an interest among the 

 many thousands that witnessed it as will in the future work greatly to the interest 

 of horticulture and pomology throughout the State." 



