The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-11-30
FLOR|DA'S GREAT
ANNUAL FAIR
At Jacksonville One of the Biggest
and Best Ever Held in
the State

Mr.. Il. L. ChamblIsS returned last
night from Jacksonville, where he
spent several days at the Florida
State Fair. Mr.. Chambliss went for
the purpose of exhibiting his prize
beef calf as well as to see the general
exhibits and what the balance of the
state was doing.
In a brief interview with Mr..
Chambliss this morning, the Star re-
porter CLEANED the following informa-
ton, and coming as it does from one
of the best posted men in the state on
cattle, hogs and general agricultural
matters, it is of much value to our
readers.
The fair really opened Wednesday,
as it was not ready to open Tuesday,
though that was the date for the
opening. The crowd was very large
and when the rain would drive every
one inside, the big buildings could
scarcely house them. +,
The live stock exhibit is great and
Mr.. Chambliss said there were more
hogs there than he has ever seen ex-
hibited, before at one time in the
state. Most of them are from Flor
ida, but some are from Georgia. There
were so many hogs that more pens
had to be built after the exhibits came
in.
Mr.. Chambliss was particularly
struck with the exhibit of Armour &
Co., two parallel pens. one containing
three Berkshires, the kind of hogs
the company wants to see shipped to
its packing houses, and the other pen
containing three scrub hogs, the kind
they often get but do not want. The
three fine specimens, Mr.. Chambliss
was very proud to see, came from
Ocala and Marion county, being taken
from a carload of meat hogs shipped
the company from her by Mr.. Rube
Redding.
The cattle represented four breeds:
Jersey, Ayrshire, Guernsey and Hol-
stein, for the dairy line and three for
the beef breeds. namely, Shorthorn,
Hereford and Polled-Angus, and there
was a most creditable display of all
and the cattle, as well as. the hogs,
were a revelation to the many north
ern visitors who are seeing the fair
Mr.. Chambliss took to the fair at
his own expense the prize beef calf
raised and owned by 2. C. Chambliss
& Co., on their farm near Ocala. The
calf. is eighteen months old, weighs
1920 pounds and is an Angus-Short-
horn graded up from native Florida
cow. This calf will be sold to the
packers next week, when the fair
closes, and will bring about as much
money as any one ever sold in the
state for beef.
The government building is very
large and contains wonderfully in
teresting exhibit of the governments
warships, battle planes, torpedoes,
munitions of all kinds, tanks and eve
rything used by our government to
prosecute the war on land and sea and
in the air with competent and cour-
teous people to explain the exhibit to
visitors.
The government exhibit along agri-
cultural lines, tick eradication, fores-
try, ETC., is very comprehensive and
is doing much good.
Best of all, perhaps, is the magnfi-
cent exhibit of the thirty counties
participating in the fair, and it looked
like the grand prize lay between Mar
ion, Escambia and DeSoto. Mr..
Chambliss thought Marion's was by
far the best but not as well displayed
as some of the others. In the differ
ent county exhibits is everything from
wheat to cocoanut. from Irish pota-
toes to pawpaws, as the counties COM
peting extend from the red clay hills
of West Florida to the tropic isles of
the Florida keys, and run the entire
scale of vegetable, fruit and plant
life, almost.
Very noticeable, Mr.. Chambliss
said, was the apathy of the business
men towards their own fair. They
not only do not properly appreciate
it's magnitude or its value to the state,
but they are not attending it them
selves, or lending it their aid and
hearty support. The very men who
begged him to exhibit his 'calf'
there, had to be begged themselves
to come out and see it.
All in all, he says, it is great ex-
hibition of the states resources. Our