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cost — often- far greater than the amount they have received In 

 premiains — sent in their choicest products. Some have taken 

 great pains to exhibit a few vegetables or even specimens of a 

 single variety, feeling, as it would seem, that the Society and 

 the public have claims upon them which they must recognize. 

 Tnis feelhig, it is to be hoped, will become more and 

 more prevalent, not only among individuals, but towns and 

 communities. 



To give additional interest to the exhibition, there might be 

 stands appropriated to different towns or neighborhoods, and 

 premiums offered for the best displays by them. Something 

 of this sort — new features in our shows — should be resorted to 

 occasionally to wake up fresh enthusiasm and bring out more 

 competitors. Old societies are apt to get into ruts in the man- 

 agement of affairs. Agricultural societies are no exceptions to 

 this tendency, as may readily be seen by a glance at their pre- 

 mium lists for a series of years. Some departments admit of 

 little or no variation in their offers of premiums or their rules 

 and regulations, but others do admit of it. It should be the 

 aim of the managers to make such variations as often and as 

 far as it can advantageously be done. 



In order to give more definiteness to the award of premi- 

 ums and to encourage the exhibiting only of the best varieties 

 the premiums might be offered for a given number of each va- 

 riety, just as it is done in respect to apples and pears. Why 

 not ? Surely it is as important to have the best kinds of veg- 

 etables as of fruits, and the Society should help disseminate a 

 knowledge of the former as well as the latter. 



It seems to us, too, that improvement might be made in the 

 way of exhibiting vegetables at our shows. The object should 

 be with managers, as doubtless it is with contributors, to ex- 

 hibit them to the best advantage. They are now placed on 

 tables and huddled together so promiscuously that they cannot 

 be easily or intelligently viewed, either by the Committee or 

 others. Suppose that instead of those tables, there was a se- 

 ries of shelves extending round the sides and through the mid- 

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