The Billboard 1913-03-22: Vol 25 Iss 12 (1913-03-22)

‘ | ; ‘ The Billboard MARCH 22, 1913. Many men and women know something about one or more of the country’s big state fairs. Not so many know about the organization and the effort expended in successfully conducting one of these expositions, Only a few know definitely, the how and the why of the state fair of today. Have you ever stopt to think how your state fair has grown into a great, permanent institution of your commonwealth? What part it is playing in your educational system, or why it is entitled to and receives more or less financial support from your state treasury? If you have, you will be glad to reinforce your conclusions with mine. If you have not thought along these lines, you should do so, and I hope you will read what follows, and that it will set you thinking and working to boost your state fair. From the Colonial beginning of this country there has been some appreciation of the fact that our really big development problems were agricultural problems. For many years this appreciation was merely latent. After vast tillable areas had been added to our possessions, and as the possibilities of our billions of fertile acres began to be understood, this appreciation increast amazingly. Long since it has become an activ force in our national life. Yoday, men in all walks of life are studying the farm, farmers, and farming. Giant armies are marching forward under banners bearing such inscriptions as, “Back to the land,” Improve your seed,” “Stop robbing your soil.” ‘Rotate your crops.” ‘“Systematize your farm,” “Raise more and better live stock.” There is an irresistible impulse toward conserving our natural resources and realizing on our greatest asset—the land. This appreciation of the fact that America’s really big development problems are agricultural problems, has inecreast until today the statement is received as axiomatic. Hand in hand with the growth in agricultural understanding, have grown the country’s agricultural fairs. These institutions have year by year mirrored the nation’s progress and the people's idea of the importance of agriculture. The have been the direct means of increasing the value set on production from the soil, and of leading the people into the promist land of corn, live stock and permanent prosperity. In 1809 there was held this country’s first agricultural fair, at Georgetown, D. C., and it was “Mainly devoted to domestic animals and manufacturers.” In 1912 there were held in the United States, over four thousand agricultural fairs and at each of the score or more of the great state fairs, there were shown the best results of man’s thought and work in every line of industry, a vast structure of accomplishment builded upon the land and its products as corner stones. In 1809 but one agricultural fair was held, and it attracted “Several hundred visitors.” In 1912, several thousand agricultural fairs were held, and twelve of these alone entertained and instructed over two and one-half million busy people. ‘In Minnesota, which has a population of 2,075,708, one agricultural fair attracted 364,128, and the total attendance of the state’s eighty-six agricultural fairs aggregated 850.073 people, or nearly 41 per cent of the total population. The oldest existing agricultural society that still holds fairs is the Rerkshire Agricultural Society, of Pittsfield, Mass., which held its first fair in the fall of 1810, one hundred and three years ago. This good example was not, however, followed generally for many years. In fact, it was not more than twenty-five years ago that the United States began to solve its really great de "Wi Is de ae fi. f Today? By J. C. Simpson President of The American Association of Fairs and Exposttions. velopment problem—to find itself agriculturally. In this little quarter of a century the progress has been colossal, and this progre ss has been led and is expresst by the country’s great state fairs. Twenty-five years ago the grounds where agricultural fairs were held, were very limited, and the buildings on them were of a crude and temporary construction. Sidewalks were an unwonted luxury, the lantern was the principal source of light, streets were laid out without any thought of permanency, and such buildings as were absolutely necessary, were scattered over the grounds wthout any regard to convenience or a plan of permanent improvement. I believe it was in Ohio and Illinois where the idea of permanent fair grounds was first appreciated. They began the work which has been followed by states in every part of the Union, until today we find an average property valuation in a dozen fair grounds of practically one million dollars. The human mind is more impresst by one object lesson than by reams of written theories. State fairs have demonstrated this truth, and as they teach by object lessons, they have accomplisht more even than great schoolsand agricultural colleges. Where has the practical farmer been taught the value of better live stock and the types best adapted to his use? At his state fair. Every year he goes there, studies the conformation and types of the best specimens of the various breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry, attracted there from all over the world, and learns what each will do under given conditions. Then he goes home, looks over his own conditions, and is ready to breed or buy intelligently. What agency has introduced into practical use the manure spreader, the hay loader, the silo, and a hundred other inventions that save labor and make for better farming? The state fairs. Books can be written. lectures given and sermons preacht, but the country implement dealer AGRICULTURAL BUILDING MINNESOTA STATE FAIR. Thus we have our present-day state fairs, conducted in most instances by an agricultural society or department of the state. We know they are big, permanent institutions, that attract more and more people every year. We know that they are the outgrowth of insignificant organizations of a few years ago. Let us analyze as carefully as possible what they mean to the people; what they really are; what they are doing; why they are growing and will continue to grow in permanency and power for good. Most important of all, the principle upon which they are founded and are being carried on, is vital. As we have already seen, they are a part of America’s agricultural education and development. They have grown with the appreciation of the importance of agriculture, and they are indispensable to the solving of the problems that are yet before the American people. Former President McKinley once said: “Fairs and expositions are timekeepers of the world’s events, marking progress in agricultural and industrial development from year to year and from time to time.’ He only told half the truth. Our state fairs and expositions do mirror the people's progress, but they do vastly more. They search out the result of each man’s most perfect thought and work, they put this concrete object lesson of progress in an attractiv setting. Then they say to their hundreds of thousands of visitors, “Here is what mind has devised to make your work easier, your life briehter, your profits bigger; help yourself.” They do this, not in one line of’ work, but in every line. They mark progress, but they do more—they direct progress. won't demand a new line until there is a demand, and the practical farmer won't demand a new thing until he has seen it in operation. He wants an optical demonstration. He gets this at his state fair, buys the machine, takes it home, demonstrates it to his neighbors, who in turn buy, and farming conditions in that community are improved. It is hard to convince a man with conversation or tracts, of the value of greater care in seed selection or of different methods of cultivation. The man who visits the agricultural department of his state fair, not only sees the actual results of these methods and the possible gain in dollars, but he hears all about the why and the how of them, and he goes home with knowledge that he can cash the next year. In addition, a stranger or anyone interested in the state, can learn by a visit to this department, all about the climate, the soil and crop possibilities of the commonwealth. At the Minnesota State Fair in 1912 there were 46 counties, or over 70 per cent of the state’s area, represented by complete exhibits of soil crops. Such a display is a composite picture of the state’s resources, that informs and inspires the resident and the prospectiv settler alike. Where does the woman, interested in what her sisters are doing, go for information? To her state fair. At any one of these institutions she wil! find at least one bullding filled with the best things women do, in the kitchen and in the parlor. She can learn there all of the most improve! methods of making her work easier—her home more alluring to young and old. So it is with the children, the manufacturers the scientists, the professional men and women, the laborers in the city as well as in the country There is something that will help each and al! of them: some ideas that, if appropriated and applied, will make them better citizens and their state more prosperous. Is it strange that our state fairs are permanent institutions? No, the strange thing is that institutions that every year give from 17,000,000 to 35,000,000 hours of instruction to citizens free of expense to the state, should have to worry about funds, not for maintenance, but for fitting buildings to house their great educational exhibits The strange thing is that the people’s representativs should hesitate to properly equip the state's only self-supporting educational institution and (Continued on page 148.)