The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1909-05-06

seemed discouraging task, but, after
many years, the dream is being realized.
There is encouragement for renewed eff
fort in the future.
Encourage the County Fair.-The
county fair spirit is extending over Mis-
sissippi at a gratifying rate. Tupelo,
Corinth, Holly Springs, Ripley, Eupora
and possibly other towns in North Mis-
sissippi, will hold fairs this fall for the
first time. The South end of the state
is not behind in this movement also,
and the Central section is in line. Vicks-
burg had good fair some years since,
and gave way for a large manufacturing
plant, but proposes to hold six-day
event this fall. Natchez announces a
week of exhibits, and has good prospects
of permanent organization to be fos-
tered by the Chamber of Commerce and
the Mississippi-Louisiana Agricultural
Association. A number of other towns
will be in line for next year.
Agricultural fairs are educators and
builders. They develop a section of
country as nothing else will. A friendly
spirit of rivalry is created that brings
out the possibilities of the soil in a
marked manner. 1t is time the great
state of Mississippi was recognizing
these institutions in q substantial man.
ner. A little money spent on them
would come back an hundred fold. 1t
would be money spent directly for the
interest of the agricultural, horticultural
and live stock people of the state, and
they compose more than so per centum
of the total.
The fairs played most important
part in the making of Iowa the banner
corn state of the Union. In Kentucky
they materially assisted in establishing
the thoroughbred horse from that state
as the best animal in the world. The
largest attended fair in the world is at
Toronto, Canada, and it is making of
that country the granary of the uni
verse. The South possesses advantages
and possibilities equal to any of these
sections, that are unknown today, and
only require the influence of our own
people to bring them to light. The leg
islature could not do better than to rec
ognize the fairs by making a small APP
preparation to be used for agricultural,
horticultural and live stock exhibits.
Other states have done this long ago
and found it a good investment. Louis
lana is very liberal; Florida gives sub
stantial aid; Arkansas has just passed
a law to that effect, and others could be
named in the South that are doing these
things, and it is appreciated by the
farmers. If the Mississippi legislature
would do this, in a few years there
would hardly be county in the state
without its annual fair. Consider this
matter, Mr.. Legislator, and see ii
little economy cannot be practiced some
where so that small sum can be set
aside to help the fair, without increas-
ing the rate of taxation.
1t might be well to authorize the
boards of supervisors to appropriate
small sums for the benefit of properly
conducted fairs in their respective coun-
ties. The last session authorized them
to appropriate as much as fifty dollars
to encourage the corn clubs, and thirty
have complied with the request of their
people to do so.
Mississippi is pre-eminently an agri-
cultural state, and money economically
spent for the development of her re-
sources along that line cannot be but
well spent. The farm is the foundation
for our future prosperity, and the more
prosperous the farmer, the better off will
be Mississippi.