10 
SEED-TIME km HARVEST. 
Report of an Illinois Fair. 
BY M. B. DUMBELL. 
Last April I commenced an experiment 
on a much esteemed vegetable, one that I 
never saw in the market, except in early 
spring-time, but owing to the very dry 
summer we have had I cannot determine 
if the experiment is a success or not, and as 
I do not wish to publish anything to mis¬ 
lead, it will have to go over till another 
time. With this I send you a paper 
containing the list of those who drew 
premiums at the Mercer County Fair, Ill. 
For over a dozen years I have been attend¬ 
ing that Fair and must say it was the best 
I have attended. The weather was beauti¬ 
ful and propitious, never more so, the dis¬ 
play of animals and articles generally 
could not be excelled, and such a crowd as 
attended that Fair is seldom seen. Cer- 
tainly the officers of the Fair have every 
encouragement. What interested me the 
most was the show of vegetables. I have 
seen better in some varieties, but taken as 
a whole none so good. This year has been 
exceptionally good for small grains, and 
the show of cereals was very fine. A few 
weeks ago it was said that the frost had 
greatly damaged the corn, but no one 
would think so after looking at the corn 
at the Fair. The show of white and yellow 
field corn never was better. Next in im¬ 
portance was the potatoes, indeed, I might 
have mentioned the potatoes first, for they 
made much the largest display, nearly all 
the kinds enumerated in “Seed-Time and 
Harvest” were there and many others. 
One thing I noticed particularly, nearly all 
the potatoes run to length, while a dozen 
years ago they were mostly round. At that 
time the Peachblow was the staple, for 
some reason now there are few grown. I 
only saw one lot of that kind at the Fair. 
There was a collection of seedling potatoes 
of this year’s growth which interested me 
very much, the more so, as I have been ex¬ 
perimenting this year and last with very 
good results. The show of tomatoes was 
also very fine and, I think, a much larger 
display than I ever saw before. It looked 
as though a greater interest was being 
taken with that vegetable. As I said 
before, some things were not as good as I 
have seen, notably the cabbage. There 
were six as fine heads of cabbage as I ever 
saw, it was a marvel to me how they 
could be so good, with the very hot and 
dry summer; it must be they were “Hen¬ 
derson’s Early;” they were awarded the 
premium and well deserved it. There were 
some onions shown, but with the exception 
of just one, I did not see them;, usually ' 
there are bushels at this Fair. All about 
this region is noted for growing large and 
fine onions; there is a good market for 
them at Davenport, Iowa, on the Miss¬ 
issippi River, where they are shipped 
South by the boat-load. There was only 
one display of celery, and the only thing 
it w T as remarkable for was that it was. 
blanched with drain tile; under no circum¬ 
stances could it have been blanched with 
dry soil as well as it was. These tiles can 
be used twice in a season; they are a great 
saving of time, trouble, and hard work, 
and should be considered in the nature of 
tools and well taken care' of, and if they 
do not pay the first season they will irk 
time. There was something happened at 
the Fair, which I think will not be likely 
tOv occur again. One of the premiums 
offered was for the “Best and greatest 
variety of vegetables from one garden, not 
less than ten varieties.” There was just 
one collection, and such rubbish I never 
saw at any Fair before. I will try and 
enumerate them: Two cabbages, one 
about as large as a medium sized Early 
Favorite, the other the size of my closed 
hand; a water melon and musk melon, 
both of them nubbins; three ears of sweet 
corn, not worth a second look; two pars¬ 
nips, ditto; one carrot as large as a long 
radish; two small turnip radishes, one 
white the other pale pink, and both looked 
as hollow as a drum; two small cucumbers 
as yellow as green; one onion, evidently 
a top onion, about the size of a large hick¬ 
ory nut; a shallow cigar box full of very 
indifferent tomatoes; about half a teacup¬ 
ful of shelled bush-beans, and one or two 
other things too insignificant to mention, 
as indeed was the whole collection altogeth¬ 
er. 1 suppose there were “ten varieties.” 
