86 
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
interest, however, is an important one, and I would recommend that 
the liberal premiums be continued, hoping that it will stimulate 
manufacturers of this excellent product to compete for them. 
DEPARTMENT Gf.— Horticulture. 
BY G. J. KELLOGG, SUPERINTENDENT. 
The unusual severity of the months of January and February, 
1875, the coldest two months on record, the unfavorableness of the 
spring, the cold and wet summer, with hard frosts the 22d and 
23d of August, throughout the State, almost destroying the grape- 
crop, and the State' Fair coming the same week of the American 
Pomological Society Exhibition at Chicago, at which the Wiscon¬ 
sin State Horticultural Society had made arangements for an exhi¬ 
bition, were combined causes, together with the fact that the State 
Fair was three weeks earlier than usual, in making the prospect 
for the horticultural department of the Wisconsin State Fair 
gloomy indeed. 
After consulting with the officers of the Horticultural Society, 
and the Secretary of the State Agricultural Society, it’was deemed 
advisable to issue a circular, urging all interested to assist by mak¬ 
ing a special effort to make a commendable show. This circular 
was mailed to all former exhibitors and many others. The time of 
the fair arrived, the hall was put in order, two crates of crockery 
ordered, the tables were provided with clean, white paper, and ex¬ 
hibitors began to spread out. Soon it became apparent that they 
must double up, and before the fruit was all out many had to pile 
three plates upon one, and the last to open had to be provided with 
extra room by closing one entrance and building temporary tables. 
The entries probably exceeded anything before made at our State 
Fairs in this department, numbering five hundred and twenty-five. 
The center of the hall, with its. entire table-room, was devoted 
to the floral department, H. W Roby, superintendent. Notwith¬ 
standing the severe frosts, the cut-flowers alone could have covered 
the entire tables. James Vick, Rochester, N. Y., had a splendid 
collection, and this department of the hall was a grand success. 
