EXHIBITION OF 1864. 
207 
nigh overwhelmed is to be secured scarcely less through the heroic efforts of 
persistent labor than through victories won by our arras ; and, accordingly, 
trusting in industrial exhibitions as an important means of stimulation and 
information, in February last the resolution was formed, by the officers of 
the State Agricultural Society, to again attempt a State Fair. The Premium 
List was issued in May, and measures were immediately taken to insure a 
success. Since then, however, new difficulties have arisen. A drouth of 
great severity and long protraction, together with unheard-of ravages of 
insect foes, have reduced our crops to less than a third of what the average 
crops should have been, and, finally, a new draft for half a million more men 
for the army has again filled the public mind with thoughts of war, to the 
exclusion of almost everything else. 
Under all these circumstances, the Executive Committee have not felt 
warranted in making preparations such as were made in 1860, and such as 
would have been grateful to their pride. The fruit of their zealous, if not 
entirely successful efforts is before you. 
Upon the Judges, whom we have selected with great care, and upon the 
superintendents of the various departments, very much yet depends. We 
trust they will use their best endeavors to meet the demands of the occasion, 
and that complete success will be the result of our united labors. 
It now only remains to me to delare the Exhibition open, to urge upon all 
the best use of the opportunity it affords, and to express the hope that, when, 
in 1865, we again unite in an annual festival, the victorious armies of the 
Republic will have so thoroughly done their work that henceforth, for many 
generations—yea, for all time to come —the Arts of Peace may have uninter¬ 
rupted progress. 
