164 
Wisconsin state Agricultural society. 
ARE FAIRS HUMBUGS? 
BY GEO. J. KELLOGG, JANESVILLE. 
“Yes sir; No Sir; five of them,” as the Irish boy said to three 
questions asked him at once. The result of years of observation bring 
me to the conclusion that fairs are not doing the good they ought, 
and are in many cases genuine humbugs. The objects sought by 
these public exhibitions should be the dissemination of practical 
knowledge to the masses, verified by the exhibition. 
One great difficulty is the selection of judges for the several de¬ 
partments; a horse jockey may do well as a judge on speed, but 
put him in the hall of Fine Arts and he may be a failure. An en¬ 
thusiast in Horticulture might not know anything about machinery, 
while a good judge of threshing machines might not know any¬ 
thing about a churn; and most any one feels qualified about 1 P. 
M. to act on the bread and honey committee. 
After everything has been done by the officers in getting up a 
premium list, appointing judges, obtaining their consent to act, 
and everything works splendidly till the superintendents of the sev¬ 
eral departments look for their men and find but one of them 
on hand ready for work. A. is sick, B. is out of the state, C. has 
come to the fair with a fine bull, and D., his neighbor, has a horse, 
not much to be sure, but if he can recommend C. as a good judge on 
horses, and get him appointed as one of the judges, and by the 
same efforts of C., D. is appointed as one of the judges on cattle, 
how easy it is sometimes for them both to get premiums to which 
neither of them are entitled. If any one has vanity enough to 
think he can correct these errors let him try it. How easy it is for 
men whose integrity is unquestionable, but having a soft spot in 
the head, to favor a friend in making their awards; especially is 
this the case when the contest is very close. 
Another error, frequently, is of otherwise good judges dividing 
up the premiums without regard to real merit. No small difficulty 
arises frequently in the wording of the premium list, for instance: 
“Best 10 varieties without regard to adaptation;” is the word best 
to apply only to quality or size, or both, and these being equal has 
adaptation anything to do in the award? 
