Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-06
| WORD ABOUT THE FAIR SEASON

no escape except By a path of blood.
A WORD ABOUT THE FAIR SEASON.
The State Board of Agriculture has done
| a wise thing in retaining in Office for an
other wear its efficient chief executive Off
Ger, Mr.. Carr. 1t is always wise in such
| organizations, when competency and reli-
| ability are secured, to extend the terms of
their service. The Board is composed of
men of broad and long experience in con-
Quoting the affairs of the Agricultural
Department, and the people are justified,
therefore, in expecting from them pro-
gressive and expanding policy In the mat
ter of the breadth, Importance and widen
ing influence of the annual State EXPOSE
tions.
The time has gone by when any mere
localism attaches to the annual fairs. They
are now representative of the whole State,
and all its industries and productions.
But while this is true, they have not been
as broadly and exclusively representative
as they should be. This is attributable to
no fault of the managing boards, but solely
to the fact that our people have not yet
fully realized the importance and high
character of the expositions. That is q
slow process of education, but it progresses,
and, precisely as it does, the expositions
reflect it. For instance, how brief is the
time within which the several counties
have made grouped competitive exhibits,
and how admirably have those exhibits
served the purposes of this State in de-
monstrating to the world at large the
capacities of our soil and climate. Out of
the county exhibits at the State Fairs
sprang the idea of sending examples of
them to Eastern fairs, and so it came about
that at New Orleans and Louisville and
elsewhere, and even in England, the Sc
lected exhibits of the counties, originally
shown at our State Fair, have become mis-
sionaries to and teachers of far distant
peoples concerning California These re-
suits have been attained through the broad
and liberal policy adopted by the Central
Pacific ard Southern Pacific Railroad Com
panies, without whose activity in the mat
ter the exhibits would not have been sent
eastward or properly shown.
We are now approaching another ex-
hibition season. The call will again be
made for the counties to exhibit and to
enter into generous and praiseworthy COM
petition for money rewards. This is all
well enough, but We wish to again call up
the proposition made by the RECORD
UNION three years ago, that direct effort
be put forth to organize local activities
in the counties where the Changers
will not take hold of the mat
ter, or do not exist, to secure
county representation. The plan devised
at that time was that the State Board
should send one or more agents early in
the season, 10 all the counties, to get the
people in agricultural and industrial cen
tiers organized for the purpose of having
the county properly represented. This
plan proceeds upon the principle that
what is everybody's business is nobody's
business. Two active men could, in three
months time, visit all the counties where
there is not organized effort and put in
motion the necessary machinery to the
desired end. 1t would be good invest
ment for the State Board-money well ex-
pended. II would probably result in
twenty counties exhibiting instead Of five
or SIX. The stimulus of premiums is a
proper thing TO use, but there are counties
that cannot hope to secure premiums; yet
their people may be convinced of the i'm
mediate beneficial results of exhibiting.
Some such exertion, we learn, is being
made by the Mechanics Institute Fair
management, and this renders it all the
more necessary that the State Board should
meet this influence and not be shorn of
the legitimate fruits of its past labers.
One more suggestion--the outgrowth of
experience and observation at the last
State Fair. The awards should be so
scaled as to give to every county exhibit
ing something toward meeting the ex-
penses made necessary by the exhibit.
This done, the county exhibits will over
shadow all others in our fairs.