The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-08-25
HOW TO MAKE EXHIBITS LOOK s
SPIC AND SPAN FOR FAIR
PAIRING Pigs Toenais or Seeing that the Rows Run
Straight on an Ear of Corn May Mean the
Difference Between Success and Failure
information Service U. S. Department of Agriculture)
MANUFACTURING THE PIG
What does it mean to YOU?


What does it mean to you?
"Fair" is a very old noun. With
variations in spelling, it exists in
many languages.
"Fair" is a kin to the ancient "fes-
tus" and therefore cousin in some de-
gree of the more modern "feast" and
festival and the like.
$ Always and everywhere it has car
RED the away-work idea. 1t has
always been pretty much what we
mean nowadays by "holiday," though
not what that word meant originally.
Holiday" was "holy day." and sal
cred "Fair" has always been secu-
lara wholly human sort of thing.
Fair time is playtime. That it al
ways was, that it always meant to
most people, that it always will be.
But for every play there must be
players, and two kinds of them, too
players who play playfully and play
ers who paly laboriously, more or
less, for the entertainment of others.
And "the fair" has a very different
meaning for the two classes. The
big bunch goes to have good time,
to be care free, to drink red lemon
ade and throw confetti and foot tinsel
horns; to get the CLINT of twlnkling
horse heels on saffron track; to see
the broad backed cattle, the prettily
packed jellies and jams, the big
pumpkins, the intricate needle work,
the fulfilled ears of corn, and to
mill around, going nowhere IN parti-
cular and not caring especially II
they never get there.
But, with it all, they are getting a
sugar-coated education. The fair as
university in which the festive stu
dents soak up science unawares.
Then, there must be the other kind
of players-the ones who "put on
the show"-the refrigerators and in
structors and tutors in this most
accommodating of academies. j.
there has to be somewhere sort of
teachers college for those people.
There are, in fact, lots of normal
schools for fair professors, but the
United States Department of Agri-
culture is the graduate college. And
one of the queer things is that any
boy or girl still in the grammar
grades of the public school may be
doing postgraduate work IN getting
things ready for the fair.
MUCH IN GETTING READY
Too. many people, the Department
experts say, do not know how much
depends on preparing exhibits in the
right way, on getting the pig or calf
or corn or canned stuff in just the
right shape to show to the best adj
vantage. One of the boys club
workers tells story in point.
zone of our club boys in MISSISSIPPI
pi," he says, "grew an acre OF
mighty good corn and entered an ex-
hibit in the county fair. There were
four prizes, but he couldn't get even
the fourth one. The judge simply tied
on the ribbons and made no explana-
tions. The boy was disappointed
not rebellious, but he wanted to
know why this good corn couldn't get
prize. | went over it with him,
showed him that some of his biggest
ears had crooked rows and how
others had other defects. Picking
out the best ear, said, IF you had
ten like this, you could win a prize.
"Well, that boy went back home
and carefully examined every ear OF
his corn. He found only nine that he
thought were as good as the one |
had pointed out. He went back
through the whole pile again and ii
nally found the tenth ear. He sent
those ten ears to the state fair--and
won first prize. Do you see? Know
ing little of how to prepare the
exhibit made a State winner out of
a corn crop that was an also ram at
the county fair"