54 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



premiums. At the same time a scale of points could be explained, 

 and we have no doubt that in a few years some advance could be 

 made. This could be more easily done if the Board of Agriculture 

 would in some way unite with us in making such recommendations. 

 Now that I am speaking of the county fairs I am also reminded 

 of the meagreness of the premiums offered for fruit. I should be 

 glad if I could give you at this time the figures. The fruit and 

 flower department of the State Agricultural Society costs that 

 organization ^500 and the premiums awarded in the other depart- 

 ments is about $12,000. Local societies give as low as twenty and 

 fifteen cent premiums for single varieties of apples, so small only 

 the most enthusiastic fruit growers will bring out their fruit at all, 

 but for a horse trot that has nothing ennobling or helpful to the 

 farmers the awards frequently amount to hundreds of dollars. The 

 fruit industry is bringing thousands of dollars into the State and in 

 several counties is becoming one of the most important, while the 

 horse industry has ruined the prosperity of hundreds of farmers 

 and at the present time has literally loaded the farmers down 

 with unprofitable hay and grain eaters, that nobody wants to 

 buy at any price, and we fear the worst is not yet reached, for the 

 unprofitable creatures must be fed and cared for until there is some 

 way for the unfortunate farmer to dispose of them. You may call 

 it, if 3'ou choose, an "honest industry," it is proving nevertheless 

 an unfortunate investment for the farmers. There may be some 

 way in which our society could exert an influence that would lead 

 to more liberal premiums for fruit. It is proper that the public 

 should know how little recognition the farmers themselves are will- 

 ing to give one of their own leading industries. This is an injus- 

 tice that should not be continued, and we do not believe any indus- 

 try will suffer by having each receive its full share of premiums at 

 the fairs. 



DISCCSSION. 



S. D. WiLLARD : Mr. Knowlton referred to the fact that your 

 premiums at your State Fair were not what they ought to be. I have 

 recently, as one of the executive officers of the New York State 

 Agricultural Society, been through that mill myself. I know pretty 

 much how it is. Our exhibit of fruit at the state fair got run down 

 so it was almost a sham. Our county and no other county would 

 exhibit what thay had at the state fair, simply because the premium 

 list was not what it ought to have been. I conceive it was, from his 



