W is cons in State Agricultural Society. 
361 
to prevent blockades in the crowd. Though not up to the high 
standard of excellence of some other and older states, } r et Wiscon¬ 
sin has reason to be proud of her u fruitfulness.” Five hundred 
feet in length and five or six shelves in height or breadth was Hor¬ 
ticultural Hall ladened with the rich fruits of the state; and many 
were the pleasing comments of fruit cultivators from other states 
as they inspected the display. 
But, what may we truthfully say of the floral exhibit? Surely 
it was grand. Surely it was beautiful, captivating. One who has 
visited and exhibited at the fairs of nearly all the states, said while 
surveying the grand displa}^, u I am amazed that so new a state, 
one whose resources of wealth fire but beginning to be developed, 
should so excel most of the older states in her floral display.” 
That Floral Hall should have been a place of enchantment, no 
one need wonder, when it is borne in mind that the wealth and glo¬ 
ry of the tropics, and the radiant beauty of all lands was there dis¬ 
played in a most charming aggregation. The umbrageous forests 
of Australia, India, South America, and the u Isles of the Sea” were 
laid under contribution to please and instruct the cultivated and 
beauty-loving assemblage. From the inter-space from Palestine to 
the Golden Gate, treasures had been gathered into Floral Hall, and 
there the people of Wisconsin, many of them for the first time, 
saw a miniature of the lierba and flora of the great outlying world 
around them. And deep was the study, and many the questions 
Jisked concerning the foreign plants and flowers on exhibition. 
While the public taste is thus from year to year being cultivated 
and improved as surely and beneficially as is the quality of stock and 
farm products of the state, there is still need of greater effort on 
the part of those who can contribute to that department of our an¬ 
nual fairs, to make it still more a triumphaut success than it has 
hitherto been. Several new features of entry and exhibition need 
to be introduced before the exhibition can be thoroughly harmo¬ 
nious; and a greater spirit of philanthrophy and zeal for the public 
good must be inculcated in those exhibiting, so that less of petty 
rivalry and jealousy shall prevail than has heretofore been the case. 
Also, a better class of premiums should be offered, to induce a high¬ 
er grade of competition. The present premium list signally fails 
to bring out anything like the best display that the state florists 
could and would make, if better premiums were offered. 
