Genesee County Fair.—Fairs in the West. 
hibited some boxes of excellent roll butter, and re¬ 
ceived two premiums. There was but one single 
cheese offered. This county is not a dairy county. 
Prior to the division in 1841, of what was then Gen¬ 
esee county, there were many daries in the county and 
large quantities of cheese produced, but the division 
formed the territory into two districts, the grazing, 
now Wyoming, and the grain growing, and at present 
it is a fact that there is not in Genesee county, a single 
large dairy. 
The President, Theodore C. Peters, Esq., was to 
have delivered an address on the first day, but owing 
to the late hour at which the Fair ended, being quite 
5 o’clock, it was omitted to be spoken, but will be pub¬ 
lished. It should have been delivered on the ground 
while the Committees were viewing; and it is sug¬ 
gested so to do whenever the weather will admit. This 
at once secures the largest audience. 
On the second day the plowing took place, and was 
well done. The number of spectators was large, and 
the interest great; indeed the plowing here as every¬ 
where, constituted one of the main features of the fair. 
Immediately after the plowing was over, there was 
a large assemblage at the Court House, to hear an ad¬ 
dress from Mr. Colman, the editor of the New Genesee 
Farmer. His address was capital, was listened to with 
pleasure, and will no doubt produce good. Its object 
was to show, and it did show, the necessity and facility 
of progress in agriculture. Mr. Colman’s personal ap¬ 
pearance and manner, gave force and attraction to his 
address ; indeed he is a very agreeable speaker. 
To this succeeded the reports of committees and the 
election of officers. T. C. Peters was re-elected pre¬ 
sident. 
The fair was characterised by a spirit that ensures 
success; all seemed animated, interested, and satis¬ 
fied. D. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Fairs in the West 
Gent. —Will it interest your readers to hear how we 
“ do up” things in the prairie region of the west ? I 
have just attended two:—The first at La Porte, la., 
Oct. 13, 14. La Porte is one of the new counties of 
Northern Indiana, which have sprung into existence 
within the last ten years. It adjoins Lake Michigan, 
and has a port and unfinished harbor, called Michigan 
City, from which an immense quantity of wheat goes 
down the lakes; mostly to the Canada market. The 
county has an extensive prairie called “ Door Prairie,” 
one of the very finest for all kinds of grain, but not 
equal to those of a more clayey soil for grass. The 
county, although destitute of mountains, hills, and 
dales, yet abounds in good mill seats, upon never-fail¬ 
ing streams, many of which are improved by fine flour¬ 
ing mills. 
The show of stock was small, but indicating that the 
spirit of improvement has at length begun to show 
itself in the west. There were some good Durhams, 
and improved native cattle, and several fine samples of 
Merino, Saxon, and South Down sheep—and the gen¬ 
tlemanly Berkshire was there in his pride and beauty. 
The exhibition of butter, and cheese, and household 
manufactures was such as plainly to show, that that 
portion of the community which is the life of all our 
agricultural societies, had here lent their good works 
to promote the good cause in good order. 
There was also a show of fine fruit, such as no one 
could expect in so new a country, unless he well knew 
the remarkable productiveness of our soil. 
But the proudest part of the show was of the human 
species—men, women, and children—old and young, of 
all classes and occupations, turned out to make this 
what every agricultural fair always should be, a most 
joyous farmer’s festival—an annual public thanksgiv¬ 
ing. And as public drinking is out of fashion, a pub¬ 
lic dinner was substituted. The tables being arranged 
in one of those beautiful Bur-oak groves which are 
only to be found in this country of groves and prairies, 
were covered with a profusion of good things furnished 
by the hundreds of fair hands who graced the feast by 
their presence. The whole scene being enlivened by 
what should always accompany such a festival, a fine 
band of music, volunteered for the occasion. 
It was a day, as all such should be, well calculated 
to promote and increase the general stock of human 
happiness. 
I reached home from the La Porte Fair on Saturday, 
and on Monday I started again to attend the Fair of 
the “ Union Agricultural Society,” of Northern Illi¬ 
nois, held at a place called Aurora, on Fox River, 40 
miles west of Chicago, on the 19th and 20th October. 
This “ Union” is formed out of nine of the northwest¬ 
ern counties of the state, almost the entire population 
of which, has been made up of eastern emigrants since 
the time of the almost forgotten “ Sack War,” of 1832, 
when General Scott struck terror to the Indians, and 
the cholera struck terror to his army. 
“ What a change” in ten years! Those of the 
magic lantern are scarcely more magical. Then the 
food of the little army had to be brought from the lower 
lakes and carried upon pack horses across the great 
desert between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. 
Then a steamboat had never visited the little garrison 
and trading post of Fort Dearborn, now the flourishing 
city of Chicago, whose harbor is crowded with steam¬ 
ers, ships, and schooners, full freighted up with emi¬ 
grants and merchandize, and down with wheat and 
other products of the rich soil of the vast land of un¬ 
surpassed fertility, lying around the head of Lake 
Michigan. 
Now every grove is surrounded with highly culti¬ 
vated farms. The streams abound with fine mills, 
manufactories and villages. The country is intersected 
with roads, and the streams are crossed with bridges, 
while splendid stage coaches career over them in every 
direction. 
While addressing the audience at the late Fair, I 
could not avoid drawing the comparrison between the 
encampment of Indians upon the same ground ten 
years ago, who never broke the soil in search of suste¬ 
nance, and the six thousand happy, healthy, smiling, 
intelligent cultivators of the earth then gathered to¬ 
gether to enjoy the u farmers’ holiday.” 
Talk no more about the magnitude of your eastern 
fairs, unless at such a time as your late one at Albany, 
you can muster at least one hundred thousand. 
Here too, some plan in regard to a public dinner was 
adopted as at La Porte ; and I had the satisfaction of 
sitting down to a most sumptuous dinner with three 
thousand guests; one-third of whom, were the wives 
and daughters of Illinois farmers. This, sirs, is a spe¬ 
cimen of the spirit that is abroad upon the prairies of 
Illinois. And this too, in a country that is still looked 
upon by your eastern readers, as a vast wilderness, 
sparsely settled by a demi-civilized race of inhabitants. 
I presume after what I have said of the “ gathering 
of the people,” I need not assure you that the other 
part of “ the show” was highly creditable to the socie¬ 
ty. I must not forget, as I have been a strong advo¬ 
cate of having music at all agricultural fairs, to tell 
you that here too, the company were enlivened not 
only by one but two bands of music, both cheerfully 
volunteered for the occasion, while in the procession 
