218 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURAL 

 SOCIETIES. 



[Read and accepted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 9, 1901.] 



The committee on agricultural societies report that they 

 have carefully examined, and in some instances have 

 amended, the reports of inspectors, the abstracts of which 

 hav« been read to the Board. These reports indicate that 

 the fairs of the last year have been more successful than 

 usual in the financial results, and that there have been few 

 objectionable features. Still, they show that the business of 

 holding fairs is attended with considerable risk, and your 

 committee can only urge upon the societies their duty to use 

 great care in expending large sums of money in preparation, 

 when there is always uncertainty of return. 



They believe that, the more the neighborhood interest can 

 be encouraged to contribute to the exhibition from their 

 cattle and horses, swine, sheep and poultry and from their 

 own products and handiwork, the greater will be the real 

 success of the fair. And this local interest is the vital 

 point, to be considered beyond any and all others, and that 

 society is likely to be permanent and that fair is well man- 

 aged, when the community about feel and say, "This is 

 our fair," and take credit to themselves in the successful and 

 creditable exhibition that is made, whether its strong point, 

 as at Hillside, is in cattle, or in manufactures, as at the Mid- 

 dlesex North. We desire to encourage these differences, and 

 not to make each fair a copy of every other ; and, in so 

 doing, each society will do the most good, and will be a 

 centre of improvement and of honorable competition along 

 lines best suited to its own neighborhood. 



WILLIAM A. KILBOURN. 

 CHAS. A. GLEASON. 

 HENRY A. HOWARD. 

 GEO. P. CARPENTER. 



