OBSERVATIONS ON EASTERN FARMERS AND EASTERN FAIRS. 



most striking one in appearance is what they call the Dome Building, 

 used for the display of agricultural and horticultural products, built 

 of brick and surmounted by the great dome (189 feet in diameter) 

 that ornamented the Agricultural Building at the Chicago World's 

 Fair, admittedly the largest dome on this continent. They also have a 

 splendid live-stock amphitheater, or, as they call it, a coliseum, which 

 is 225 by 325 feet in dimensions, oval shape, and capable of seating 

 6,000 people. One brick building for the exhibit of liberal arts and 

 displays made by merchants, 127 by 340 feet in dimensions, contains 

 very elaborate cases and cabinets all ready for the reception of show 

 material. They have splendid buildings for horses, cattle, sheep, 

 swine, and poultry, all constructed after the most approved plans. 

 The cattle barn is 110 by 220 feet and will comfortably house 300 

 cattle. The poultry house is 90 by 150 feet and will accommodate 

 1,000 coops or about 2,500 birds, besides affording room for feed and 

 a display of poultry appliances. 



The Illinois exhibition buildings all have cement floors, which are 

 durable and easily kept clean. But the feature in which the Illinois 

 State Fair is unique and distinctive is in its Women's Building and 

 women's work. The Women's Building is a neat and imposing brick 

 structure erected at a cost of $25,000. It contains, besides large 

 parlors, a lecture hall, a hospital, a nursery, kitchen, dining-room, 

 storerooms, and a one-hundred-bed dormitory. Here any Illinois 

 farmer's wife or daughter can come one week before the opening of 

 the fair and, by paying $7, have a home for two weeks, including the 

 fair week and all its attractions, and enjoy the benefit of lectures by 

 the best authorities on domestic economy, and the practice of what 

 they are taught. They do their own cooking, make their own beds, 

 and indeed go through as thorough a course of housefurnishing and 

 housekeeping under approved instructors as is possible in the time. 

 They say the girls and women who take the course go home and put 

 their training into practice, and the result is manifest in a marked 

 improvement in the external and internal neatness, as well as the better 

 arrangement and conveniences, of the rural homes of the State. The 

 $7 is intended to cover net cost, and in the opinion of Mr. Garrard it 

 is the most popular work the Society is doing. 



The regular State appropriation to the Society is only $5,000 a 

 year, yet the State has been very liberal in special appropriations for 

 new buildings and other permanent improvements. It is estimated 

 that the improvements alone on the grounds represent an expenditure 

 of $908,000'. . The City of Springfield, where the fair is held, has a 

 population of only about 50,000, but in spite of this small environment 

 their meetings are well attended and the receipts at the fairs are always 

 more than the expenses. They get a very favorable rate for visitors 



