Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-24
COUNTY FAIR WEEK.
Allegheny's Only Agricultural Ex-
hibit for the Present Year
FAR IN ADVANCE OF LAST SEASON.
The Display of Fine Cattle Never rEqualed
in This Region.
OPENING DAY OF THE FAIR TOMORROW

grounds of the Tarentum Agricultural and
| Driving Park Association. 1t will open to-
morrow morning and continue until Friday
evening. This is only the second year of
the parks existence 1t is beautifully stu
ated, high up on the Harrison township
plateau, commanding magnificent view OF
the windings of the Allegheny river, and
overlooking the old town of Tarentum, a
mile distant. Fast trains on both the West
Penn and Allegheny Valley Railroads reach
| Tarentum in 80 and 40 minutes from Pitts
burg, so that from the very first the fair had
crowds of visitors from town. City people
| generally enjoy an opportunity of seeing a
1 genuine, old-fashioned country fair, and
1 here was one right at their doors.
But the first fair held on the Tarentum
grounds last summer not only sprung into
favor with the city folk as rustic counter
part of the Coney Island idea-it had vastly
more useful results. In one brief year it
has led to a revival in the agricultural pur-
suits of Allegheny county. They had un-
questionably been on the wane for many
years. They had been overshadowed and
blighted by the Importance of municipal in
terests. The two big cities in Allegheny
county seemed to absorb all its prosperity,
and as their wealth and population in
creased the more the farmers of surrounding
townships were forgotten. There was no
hue and cry about the finer grades of
fertility being attained in our Allegheny
county soil; or of any increase in the num-
Der of blooded live stock imported into our
| Allegheny county barnyards; or of the big
cabbages, giant pumpkins or elegantly
| favored canteloupes grown bv Farmer GA"
| or Farmer "B." Of course there were not
| any columns of newspaper exultation along
| these lines, because it was doubtful whether
| extra fine soil, blooded stock or prodigious
garden truck could have been found in AL
1egheny county without microscope.
THE PRIDE OF EACH COUNTY.
, Washington county had her fine sheep;
Westmoreland her beautiful stock farms,
from whence come Pittsburg's powerful
draft horses; Butler, Beaver and Indiana
counties the garden truck, butter and
milk with which to supply the wants of
Allegheny county's two large cities. With
the immense increase in the population of
Pittsburg and Allegheny, there was pro-
portionate increase in the demand for food
For some reason the farmers of Allegheny
county never met this demand. If every
farm along the West Penn Railroad be-
tween Sharpsburg and Freeport had been
turned into gardens for the finer grades of
products, if the. farmers along the Alle-
gheny Valley Railroad, the Ft. Wayne and
Chicago, the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Rail
road, or the Pittsburg, Virginia and Charles
ton Railroad-in short, if farmers all over
Allegheny county had let the great West
take care of the corn, wheat and oats, and
bod fhair int fin
fruits, garden truck, dairy products, etc.,
how easily and proftably all of it would
have found ready sale with the $50, 900 peo-
pie clustered about the junction of the
Rivers Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio.
Some Allegheny county farmers will give
an excuse for what looks like their want of
foresight and enterprise. They will tel
you that they are woefully neglected by the
county government because the corporation
interests of Pittsburg and Allegheny claim
all the attention and public money, and
because sufficient encouragement is not
given the rural residents of this
county for the perpetuity of agri-
cultural pursuits. They will say that the
only interest Pittsburg economists ever
take in the agricultural land of the county
is to test it for natural gas, oil or coal, and
fit for farming" They will declare that
they, the farmers, are never cajoled by the
citizens of Pittsburg, unless there be a
particular set of county officials to be elected
by the farmer vote, or new Court House
to be erected by farmers taxes.
ALLEGHENY'S GREAT WANT
Be all this as it may, it was the testi.
mony of the members of THE DISPATCH
County Road Expedition, last year, that
whenever they missed finger-boards from the
trees at crossroads they always put it down
that they had once more crossed over into
Allegheny county; that when they found
ram-shackle wooden bridges over creeks,
they knew the difference at once between
them and the substantial iron bridges of
Armstrong or Westmoreland counties, and
they found their guess correct, viz: that |
they had struck Allegheny county again.
The summary of the exploring party's in
vestigations ranked localities with wretch |
edly kept up roads in the following order: |
First, oil fields; second, Allegheny county; |
third, and last, unusually rich agricultural |
regions
Perhaps the strongest evidence of all that |
something was lacking in the agricultural |
interests of Allegheny county was the fact |
that every other county in Western Penn
sylvania held fairs regularly every year.
They resulted in competition, and the other
counties thrived in their agricultural inter-
ests in consequence. But Allegheny had
none. There again the farmers complained
They said the Pittsburg Exposition and
Homewood Driving Park knocked out all
hopes of success for a rural exposition.
Notwithstanding all this, though, the
first agricultural tair at the Tarentum Park
last year was success. A reporter of The
DISPATCH has taken some pains during the
past week to investigate the more substan-
tial results of the rivalry set on foot there
among Allegheny county. farmers. Here
are few significant instances:
Mr.. 2. Quinette, farmer along Deer
creek, had his enthusiasm aroused by the
fine exhibit of sheep he saw at the fair. He
made up his mind to go the exhibit one bet
ter, and not let Allegheny county be beaten.
So he went up to Torento and spent $500 in
fine sheep, paying S4S head for his ewes
and $50 for the bucks.
IMPoRTATIoNS OF FINE STOCK.
Mrs. Hugh Barr, of Tarentum, made a
study of the cattle exhibits, and brought to
this country Jersey calf. A staid old
farmer from Sarver station has also i'm
ported bull. A farmer at Spripgdale had
a couple of heads of cabbage Take pre-
MUM on them and I'll give you $40 for
your trouble" said friend who had
coaxed him to exhibit. Sure enough
he won the premium for cabbage,
pocketed the $40 besides, and since then has
found it hard to satisfy the demand of farm
ers in all that part of Allegheny county for
seed to raise that now famous cabbage
Turnips, pumpkins, apples, fine garden
products exhibited last year by the wives of
Allegheny county farmers excited the jeal-
ousies of other Allegheny county farmers
wives, and daughters too, and the writer has