OBSERVATIONS ON EASTERN FARMERS AND EASTERN FAIRS. f 



that have any objectionable features. In six years they have put 

 $119,000 of Society earnings into new and permanent improvements. 

 They have beautiful grounds and good buildings. Their building for the 

 display of agricultural, horticultural, and dairy products cost $47,000. 

 It is 125 by 275 feet in dimensions, and designed specially for the 

 purpose intended. Their women's building, intended mainly as a 

 resting place, includes a nursery and accommodations for a doctor, with 

 rooms for cots for whoever may be accidentally injured or taken 

 suddenly sick. Their poultry house is 100 feet square (too small), with 

 an annex for poultry appliances and poultry supplies. Their coops 

 are partly home-made and partly patent. Their building designed for 

 the display of liberal arts and the exhibits of merchants has fine 

 permanent cases, supplied by the Society, and these materially lessen 

 the cost of installation to the exhibitor. There are cases for the house- 

 wife's bread, biscuit and cake; for the daughter's painted china and 

 needlework; for the harnessmaker 's output; for the beekeeper's honey 

 and for his live bees; for the merchant's silk and the mother's jelly. 

 These set off the interior of the building, and once built, and well and 

 neatly built, they are there for this year and next year, and future years. 

 In the dairy department, Iowa has a refrigerator for butter and 

 cheese that might be taken as a model. I saw other refrigerators on 

 the same general plan, but none better for the cost, which was $480. 

 In size it is about 10 by 20 feet, and about 12 feet high, including the 

 heavy molding cornice. In the center is a large ice box, with an 

 opening through to the roof to receive the ice. The sides are glass, in 

 plates about 4 feet wide and 5 feet high, beginning at a paneled base 

 about 18 inches above the inside floor. Against the glass on the inside 

 are slatted shelves for the display of dairy products that require a cool 

 atmosphere. This refrigerator stands as an ornament in the center of 

 the dairy department, while across from a 12-foot passageway around 

 it are low-railed apartments for the exhibit of separators, churns, and 

 the multitude of other modern dairy appliances. 



They have fine stock display buildings, independent of their racehorse 

 stables. Their exhibition buildings have no floor except the packed 

 earth, which they cover with ground bark or sawdust. They claim they 

 can keep them clean this way at less expense and that they are more 

 sanitary. 



They encourage farmers to bring their families and camp on the 

 grounds during fair week, and they have a beautiful park-like section 

 set apart for this purpose, with sanitary provisions and water for man 

 and beast. 



Outside of their machinery sheds a large piece of ground is set aside 

 for the display of wagons, farm machinery, fencing, windmills, and 

 other articles that will not suffer by exposure to the weather. This 



