184 



THE ILLINOIS F-A-RMiEIl. 



cording to our friend Taylor, it had not in 

 eighteen years found a place in but few of 

 the gardens of the village, but new when a 

 well known poniologist accidently stumbles 

 upon it, and a few editors drink of the wine, 

 eat of the fruit, and see the plantation of 

 luxuriant and hardy canes, it becomes known 

 and in half a decade will be in nearly every 

 garden in the North-west; such is the value 

 of printer's ink, the great lever that moves 

 the world and which staid sober people call 

 the progress of the age. 



We know that our readers, as well as our- 

 self, will thank Mr. Taylor lor his very 

 interesting letter, touching this fruit which 

 is now in such demand. Ed. 



Since writing the above, we observe that 

 Mr. Downing and the American Pomological 

 Society call this the Purj)lc Cane, or Ameri- 

 can Red Cane and which was pronounced 

 "emphatically the farmer's berry." 



Clark Chatten and his fruit at thp State Fair. 



Editor Farmer : — In your October 

 number in giving a description of Floral 

 Hall and the different exhibitors of fruit, 

 you remark — 



"Mr. S. G. Minkler, of Kendall 

 county, has a fine collection of apples 

 and pears. He took the first premium 

 over Mr. Chatten, on apples, from the 

 fact that he had conformed to the rules, 

 by putting up small, medium and large 

 specimens of each. So far as the col- 

 lection was concerned, that of Mr. Chat- 

 ten was the most extensive and showy; 

 but the committee insisted that the rule 

 "was a most excellent one, and one that 

 should be regarded. On the other hand 

 it was contended that the same rule had 

 been in force before and no attention 

 paid to it; but this did not move the 

 committee, who made up the award ac- 

 cordingly. 



*'In point of show it is useless for 

 northern fruit growers to compete with 

 those of Adams county; but when cul- 

 ture and a correctness of names are a 

 part of the programme, they may stand 

 an equal chance.'' 



At the time the awarded was made, I 

 denounced it as an infernal outrage and 

 the committee a set of fussy nursery- 

 men, who had no more sense than to give 

 the cold shoulder to the first farmer who 

 had the hardihood to compete with "my 

 nursery" for the largest and best collec- 

 tion of apples. Mr. Chatten had a col- 

 lection correctly named of eighty -seven^ 

 forty-seven more than the lot to which 

 the first premium was given, and he bad 

 Bome forty-five other varieties the com- 

 mittee did not know anything about. 

 Here was a pretty kettle of fish, and 

 the "fuss -heads" bothered entirely as to 

 how they were to keep that prize from 

 going out of "my nursery.'' So hav- 



ing the will, the way was found by fish- 

 ing up the following rule: 



"Exhibitors in Lot No. 49 must ar- 

 range their fruit according to its season 

 of maturity. Each variety, not less 

 than three specimens, to be on one plate, 

 labelled true to name and representing 

 the variations in color, size and form 

 usually occurring. A list of the varie- 

 ties shown by him, to be furnished the 

 committee by each exhibitor." 



"Eureka," says the fuss heads, **now 

 it is all plain sailing, and *my nursery' 

 is safe from being beaten by an outside 

 barbarian of a farmer." 



I here assert, without fear of contira- 

 diction, that the lot of fruit receiving the 

 first premium was not ivitldn .the rule. 

 I examined that collection carefully and 

 know the truth of what I state. The 

 rule required all fruit to be so selected as 

 to size, season of maturity^ etc., etc. 

 After this committee had thrown out Mr. 

 Chatten for the first premium, for not 

 coming within the rule quoted, and had 

 saved the "profession,'' they gave Mr. 

 Chatten a second premium. They gave 

 me a first premium. They gave Mr. 

 Chatten four other premiums. .They 

 gave Manlove four more. Elwanger &, 

 Barry, and others, premiums, iv)t one of 

 whom had complied with the rule. That 

 rule, carried out as it was in the case of 

 Mr. Chatten, as against Mr. Minkler, 

 would, and should, have thrown out 

 every other exhibitor of pears, peaches 

 and apples from receiving any premium 

 whatever. Can that committee explain 

 why the rule was not as strictly carried 

 out on myself and others, as it was in 

 Mr. Chatten's case? 



As a farmer and amateur, who has 

 spent time, money and some printer's 

 ink to get out the amateur fruit at our 

 State fairs, I wish it distinctly under- 

 stood, that as far as I am personally 

 concerned and my influence goes, there 

 ■will be no more farmer's and amateur's 

 exhibitions of fruit at the State fair as 

 long as the axe grinders who engineer 

 the Floral Hall insult every exhibitor 

 who owns no nursery. I have no doubt 

 the State Society will survive the with- 

 drawal of my patronage as an exhibitor 

 of fruit. 



I have no fault to find with the rule 

 itself, but did strongly protest that the 

 trap should be for the first time sprung 

 upon a farmer, against a nurseryman, 

 and in every other case disregarded. 



I have written thus strongly, because 

 the case seems to me to demand it. 



I am well aware that all exhibitors 

 cannot bo satisfied and I dislike to find 

 fault, but there is a great evil lurking 

 in that fruit department and I go in for 



smoking it out. 



K. K. 



Tub Pin«8, near Quincy, Oct. 18, 1S60. 



Kemarks. — We print the 



Jones. 

 letter of 



Mr. Jones as sent us, notthafwe al- 

 together concur in its spirit, but as a 

 general thing these discussions lead to 

 good in the end. There is no dis- 

 guising the fact that the award alluded 

 to was received by the visitors with 

 the most perfect astonishment. From 

 our personal acquaintance with the com- 

 mittee, we think that the motives with 

 which they are charged cannot be sus- 

 tained. We believe them to be high 

 minded gentlemen, but like other 

 men, liable to error of judgment. Had 

 the awards been left to us, we should 

 have made them widely different, for 

 we are not a very strict constructionist 

 when equity is in the case, for this 

 reason we have no great reverence for 

 the decision of our law courts, where a 

 person gets plenty of law, but little 

 justice. The rule itself is a good one, 

 and we should be pleased to see it in- 

 forced, not as in this case, in one in- 

 stance, but in all. 



Mr. Jones has made out a strong case 

 against the committee, and one that they 

 will doubtless appreciate in all its force, 

 for if Mr. Chatten's collection was set 

 aside for cause for the first premium, 

 we cannot see why the same rule would 

 not have set it aside for the second, 

 and finally excluded it from competition 

 altogether, and so of others named; this 

 is why we suppose Mr. Jones aims his 

 well loaded gun. Year after year we 

 hear complaints in relation to awards at 

 our fairs, but as a general thing, they 

 are little heeded and Seldom go beyond 

 the email circle in which they are utter- 

 ed. But we think it is time for a reform 

 and that we bring these complaints to 

 the bar of public opinion for discussion 

 and ajudication. We shall therefor 

 give place to all respectful communica- 

 tions of this kind, at the same time the 

 defendants shall be heard, and if they 

 fail to make out a case, it is their busi- 

 ness, not ours. Our aim is to foster and 

 build up, to perfect, not destroy the sys- 

 tem, and we entirely disagree with our 

 friend Jones when he threatens to with- 

 draw his patronage for the cause assign- 

 ed. It is his duty to press forward and 

 to break down the wall of error that he 

 thinks lays in his pathway, let him con- 

 tinue to bring up all such cases on ap- 

 peal to the people, and he will either 

 come off victorious or be convinced that 

 he himself is in error. Ed. 



