Our Place at tlie Fair. 
BY JOHN M. STAHL,. 
I have been visiting county and state 
fails throughout the fair season for ten 
years past; and at nearly every fair I fine 
a Horticultural Hall and a Floral Hall. 
The first term is sometimes and the latter 
nearly always a misnomer; for rarely is 
either devoted exclusively to those products 
to which its name dedicates it. Neither is 
so very large that we would be expecting 
too much if we thought to see it filled with 
the products of the horticulturist or the 
floiist; but those products rarely, if ever, 
occupy the building exclusively, and usual¬ 
ly they occupy but a small space of it. In 
Horticultural Hall are usually exhibited the 
grains and grasses; while lowers, &c.. 
occupy but an annex or a corner of Floral 
Hall, the balance of the building being fill¬ 
ed with whatever has not a special place 
elsewhere. Now this prevalent state of 
affairs closely indicates that either the hor¬ 
ticulturists and florists fail to properly ap¬ 
preciate the fair or else the fair manage¬ 
ment fails to properly recognize them, or 
both. Perhaps the most apparent cause is 
the failure of the fair management to prop¬ 
erly recognize us. The premium list goes 
far to prove this. I have before me the 
list of one of the most successful county 
fairs in the West, and it will do for an 
example. The premiums for best single 
animals among cattle, range from five to 
fifteen dollars, in class; in sweeptakes, 
from fifteen to twenty-five dollars. Among 
swine, the premiums range from four to 
ten dollars; among sheep, the premiums 
are about the same; while among horses, 
the premiums range somewhat higher than 
those offered for cattle, and the fastest 
trotter gets two hundred dollars. Turning 
to the premiums offered for horticultural 
products, I find the highest to be three dol¬ 
lars (for best collection of apple, not less 
than ten varieties,) while nearly all pre¬ 
miums are fifty and seventy-five cents. 
The highest premiums offered in the floral 
department is five dollars, and nearly all 
the premiums are one dollar. Yet this is 
a good horticultural region. Surely the 
fair management has done the horticult¬ 
urist and florists an injustice; and it is not 
strange that when we are offe; ed such 
ridiculously low premiums, very few of us 
care to go to the trouble and expense of mak¬ 
ing a display. The small amount of money 
offered does not constitute all of the injus¬ 
tice; rather does it only indicate a greater 
injustice. For where such small premiums 
are offered, it clearly indicates that the 
powers which be, consider us of little im¬ 
portance, of even less concern than the 
poultry-keeper. The finest display of apples 
or pears is put on a lower level than a six 
months-old pig. If we have very much 
self-respect, we will hesitate long, before 
exhibiting under such conditions. 
But whose fault is it? Can w r e escape 
the conclusion that we alone are to blame ? 
If the stockmen get the fat plums that 
drop from the premium committee, is it 
not because they are more enterprising and 
wide-awake than we, and are careful to 
have their representatives upon that com¬ 
mittee, and upon the other committees 
which direct the affairs of the show? It is 
an indisputable fact, that if a man does 
not blow his own trumpet, no one else will 
blow it for him; and if we make no effort 
to be reconized by the fair, the fair very 
naturally puts us in one corner and offers 
us premiums which almost amount to as 
many insults. 
There can be no doubt that if we properly 
managed the matter we would receive that 
attention due to the importance of the 
industries we are engaged in. In order to 
secure liberal and just premiums, it would 
be necessary for us to show only that such 
premiums would bring out good exhibits; 
that more money would till more space in 
Horticultural and Floral Halls. For the 
fair managers are always disposed to spend 
money on those which make the fair most 
attractive; to distribute the premiums in 
that way which will secure the largest 
attendance. Surely there can be no exhibits 
more attractive than those which may b©' 
gathered into the floral and horticultural! 
department. It is axiomatic that where- 
the women are the men will be also.. If 
the women go to the fair, the men will fol¬ 
low the fair and go to the fair which the 
fair attend, There are few women who» 
