Evening star., 1947-09-02
Something New at the Fair
Returning Visitor Finds Changes Which Reflect the
Tempo of Mechanical Age.
By George Kennedy
Second of TDo Articles. }

1t seems that nearly every one along the Lake
Erie shore near Buffalo goes to the fair at
Hamburg. The Indians from the Gowanda
reservation, the horsey people from the Derby
Hunt, the convertible coupe bunch from the
Wanakah Golf Club, the Poles from Buffalo's
east side and the Italians from the city's
Niagara River front, all arrive at the ticket
windows. But the fair still belongs to the
farmers.
They used to start for the fair at dusk as
they did for Buffalo's Elk Street Market.
Only they loaded their wagons with family
instead of produce-ted up and slept on the
floor boards the rest of the night when they
arrived. Now there is no place in the county
more than an hours drive from the fair
grounds.
As in the old days they are greeted by pen
rants flying from the grandstand and the
freshly painted exhibition buildings, punches
Of multicoloEed balloons, and the weirdest
assortment of smells this side of Cairo. There
Is something unforgettabe about the blended
scents of the taffy pull, the cinnamon
apple, the frozen custard, the broiing frank
furter, the French-fried potatoes (now one of
the most popular midway deicacies and selling
at Is cents a conefuD waffles, spun sugar and
the garbage from the food concessions turning
The Good Old Days Have Gone.
No matter how successful the style-twin
system is in providing the farm people with
city clothes, you know them from their wealth
cred necks and hands-men and women, girls
ana boys.
There was day." said one Of the country
men, and he meant the good old days, when
We farmed this land. 1t was good life Then
the boys came back from Cornell full of in
structions and figures on how much could be
made an acre by truck gardening. Pretty soon
the whole family was down in the mud on
hands and knees planting lettuce
The farmer has little interest in the trotting
horses, which are constantly failing to start
together on the track. He has none in the
flve-gaited saddle horses and hunters that tick
the tmbers but still get over with their young
lacy riders. His interest Is in the great black
Percheron stations which arch their necks over
the box stall doors and the fawn-colored Bel
eians whose blonder names gives them singular
beauty in spite Of their big hooves.
That interest may be sentimental The farm
machinery exhibit fills the groove behind the
horse stalls Ford is back with full line COM
peting with Deering and Mccormick. Here he
has tractor with an attachment that will
dig three-foot post hole in two minutes The
earth Is pocked with sample holes. But that's
nothing. The garden tractor in the Interna-
tional exhibit (you walk behind it, has two
forward speeds and one In reverse, plants po-
tatoes, bugs them mows the lawn, sickles tall
grass, and does everything but mind the baby
Giant machinery may be threatening the
family farm in the West, but that on exhibit
here Is designed to strengthen it. Here is
small corn harvester that moves down the rows,
chopping the green stalks into ensilage and
blowing it through an arohed tube into a
wagon. Here Is q small combine reaper and
thresher) that reaps a six-foot swath and
drops full bags Of grain. And the machinery
manufacturers have no intention of eliminating