S, as we understand it, 

 ere first designed as 

 laces of barter. They 

 easiest and almost the 

 only way of bringing together 

 the producer and consumer. But things have 

 changed, and mere trade is but one of many features 

 of an agricultural fair. We fear that the fair has 

 lost individuality in these modern days. It is little 

 more than a conglomerate show without directness 

 — except to make money for the management. It 

 has been vaguely hinted — and some have even 

 declared it aloud — that in this century the fair 

 should be an educational institution, that its one 

 paramount endeavor should be to instruct the 

 farmer in best methods, best fruits, best stock and 

 best tools. 



But big pumpkins, big apples, big cabbages are 

 not educational. When will our premium lists cease 

 to offer bounty for bigness and grossness ? Or 

 when will judges learn that size does not mean 

 " best ?" We once — when we were fortunate 

 enough to be a judge — pinned a blue card upon 

 what we thought to be an extra fine lot of celery, 

 whereupon a wild-eyed competitor demanded the 

 reason, with the declaration that his celery was the 

 biggest in the hall ! 



Why can we not have prizes for some such entries 

 as these ? — best collection of winter vegetables; best 

 fruits or vegetables for clay or sandy lands ; best 

 collection of plums or peaches for distant markets ; 

 best collection of apples, with methods of handling, 

 for exportation ; best collection of flowers for fall 

 ornamentation, and the like. Here is an endless 

 opportunity to increase the attractiveness and value 

 of a fair. Of course this means that judges must 

 know their business, and this may be so strongly 

 opposed to the policy of fairs as to render our sug- 

 gestions worthless. It is a common thing to hear a 

 judge remark, when complaint is made, that he 

 knows nothing about fruits, for he is a tree- agent, 

 or a stock farmer, or what not. Then why was he 

 a judge ? Judges appear to be minor considerations ; 

 they are picked up from the crowd at the last 

 minute, and if one of them should protest that he 

 knows nothing about "fruits and posies," the 

 superintendent of the division jogs him knowingly 



and whispers, "Never mind, I will stand by your 

 decision." The only radical departure from this 

 abuse with which we are acquainted, was that of 

 our own case, above mentioned, for in this case the 

 fair not only secured a competent judge — although 

 we did get a little mixed on the difference between 

 a sweet pumpkin and a calabash — but he was noti- 

 fied two hours before the opening of the fair that he 

 should serve, and he was given a complimentary 

 ticket — admit one — for judging the fruits and vege- 

 tables and flowers, and with a request to look into 

 the poultry department and to make a "good 

 report " in the journal ! 



THE tree agents — poor souls ! — have been much 

 discussed of late. No end of unsavory epi- 

 thets have been heaped upon them, and their 

 ways of doing are said to be scandalous and libellous. 

 And yet only yesterday one of them called upon us, 

 and in answer to our query — ignorant clown ! — 

 declared that business is good, and never once inti- 

 mated that farmers think him a guy ! And his 

 conversation gave us every assurance that in spite 

 of all this fuss he will go right on selling his deli- 

 cious impossibilities. And he sells them in the 

 same region year after year. His sample-card of 

 paints — known erstwhile as a plate-book — has long 

 since become thumb-worn and old, yet the farmers 

 over on the hills never tire of looking at it, and 

 never cease buying. And the more impossible the 

 fruits the faster they sell ! 



And whom shall we blame ? — the tree agent for 

 selling what the people want ? — and thus snatch 

 a yearly pleasure from the grain and stock farmers 

 over on the rangfc ? No ; we would not deny any 

 bright anticipation to country life ! If we are go- 

 ing to purge the tree agent, let us begin on his pa- 

 trons. A while ago a correspondent, who signed 

 himself an M. D., sent us two plum leaves and 

 asked us to tell him what variety they were. " I 

 bought the trees of an agent," he wrote " who said 

 that they are a new and valuable sort called the 

 Lombard. I paid $i6 for two trees." By all means 

 send more agents to that man ! If we were not so 

 busy in our sanctum just now — all the assistants 

 have gadded off to the country — we should pack our 

 kit and go ourselves. 



