The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-10-08
The Fair.

The Fair.
The 18th Annual Fair of the Van Buren,
County Agricultural Society, held on its fair
grounds in this village, on Tuesday, Wednes-
day, Thursday, and Friday of last week, may
be fairly set down as success The first
day was wholly occupied in receiving and
arranging exhibits, and no admission fee was
charged. The attendance on Wednesday, real
" the first day of the exhibition was meager,
but on Thursday there was q large crowd In
attendance, the grounds and buildings
being thronged. On Friday, the closing day,
there was goodly number of visitors, but
not so great crowd as on the previous day
Had it not been for the threatening weather
and light rainfall, both on Thursday and
Friday mornings, there would have been, with
out doubt, still larger attendance.
FLORAL HALL.
This building was not as well filled as it
has sometimes been in previous years, owing
to the fact that large collection of articles be-
longing to the classes ordinarily shown there
were exhibited in another building. Had the
entire collection been placed in the hall, it
would have been filled to its utmost capac-
ity. The exhibit of fruit, while it was very
good, especially in the line of apples, of
which there were shown probably 100 diff
ferent varieties, was not what it ought to
have been in great fruit county like Van
Buren,, situated as it is, in the very middle
of the noted Michigan fruit belt. We no.
ticed liberal sprinkling of blue cards
first premium-on the plates containing the
collection of that noted Lawrence fruit grow
er, James M. Blowers. Mr.. II. p. Waters of
Antwerp, also exhibited fine lot of fruit
which was similarly decorated. 1t seems to
as that exhibitors of fruit frequently make
a grave mistake, by selecting the largest
specimens, regardless of whether or not
they are altogether perfect and fairly repre-
sent the variety to which they belong. A
plate of overgrown apples showing various
imperfections, such as worm holes III the
ends for instance, or unsymmetrical in shape,
stand no show beside plate of medium
sized fruit, perfect in form and free from de-
fects. We noticed particularly some speci-
mems of q new Russian variety of apples,
grown by Mr.. Waters, called the white
Transparent" 1t is fall apple, medium in
size, very smooth, white skin and white
flesh, and excellent flavor, as we know, hav-
ing sampled one of them while acting as a
kind of "smateur fruit judge" with Mr.. j.
G. Gould who was the real judge. We can tell
the quality of an apple by sampling it even
if we are not sup" on all the various points
laid down in the STANDARD of Excellence"
The only remarkable display of fruit, outside
of the exhibit of apples, was In the line of
melons, of which some very fine specimens
were shown. OF their quality, we cannot
speak, as we were not assigned position on
the "sampling committee"
Potatoes, cabbages, squashes, pumpkins,
and other vegetables were exhibited in great
,.xf
extraordinary size. Our friend Cook of
Southeast Decatur, seemed to "lay over" all
his competitors, with his 103 pound pump
kin, although others were close after him.
This show of vegetables, together with the
fine display of wheat, beans, corn, rye, buck
wheat etc., would have been sufficient to con-
vince everybody unfamiliar with the capa-
bilities of our county, of its great fertility
and large agricultural resources. No better
wheat was ever exhibited in the county, and
perhaps, anywhere, than shown by several
of our prominent grain-raisers.
In the line of domestic productions, such
as canned fruit, dairy products, etc., the display
was not large, but was of quality that
spoke well of the ability of the housewives
who prepared it, and served to remind the
beholder of the many good things that will
grace their tables during the coming winter.
The center of the ball was tastefuly orna-
mented with fine display of house plants
and cut flowers, provided by the ladies of the
village and surrounding country. couple
of very beautiful floral pieces, exhibited by
Miss Lydia Waite, consisting of a cross and
floral album, attracted good deal of atten-
ton, and showed much taste and skill on the
part of the fair exhibitor.
The collection of pictures and fancy work
was large and fine, and contained many ar
ticles which were, no doubt, useful as we'll as
ornamental, but of which the reporter was
not competent judge, not knowing even
the names of many of them. One picture, n
pencil drawing of an ancient Swedish castle,
the work of Lewis K. Towers, lad who has
never taken lesson in drawing, evinced
much skill and was really fine. Young
Towers also exhibited case of insects which
was ornamented with blue card Some
elegant specimens of the taxidermist's art,
the work of j. ID. Allen, were on exhibition.
70 those who know his skill as taxider-
mist, or who have seen his work, as most of
our citizens have, il is needless to say that
they were true to life, and as nearly perfect
as such work can be made.
Our merchants and business men deserve
commentator for the fine display they made
of the various different kinds of goods in
which they deal.
In the line of harnesses and horse furnishing
goods, Mr.. s. Hurlbut had an elegant display,
and that veteran at the business, Mr.. G.. w.
Rooms was also on deck, showing harnesses,
saddles, whips, all kinds of horse furnishings,
trunks, satchels, ETC., specimens from the
elegant stock he always keeps.
John Kelly of Bloomingdale, formerly O
Paw Paw man, exhibited spring bed of
novel design, his own invention, which had
every appearance of being good thing The
principal feature of the bed is that the upper
portion is movable, and can be raised so that
the occupant can be brought into a sitting
posture, or can recline at any desired angle,
fine thing for invalids, and not bad
thing for a lazy man.
G. w. Tyler q Co. had a neat exhibit of
hardware, among which were some novelties
that seemed we'll calculated to save labor for
the housekeeper, something that every one
should be DESTROYS to do.