Then the management who permit it, take upon themselves a wondrous responsibility.

But, says some one, the people must have amusement. Accepting this as verity, it does not mean that the vicious are to force upon the order-loving citizen the curse of society, or that their games are pursued honestly; its very object is methods of cheating. In Pompeii ruins, loaded dice were found, proving that such methods are of very remote origin and in keeping with those who follow it.

The real object of agricultural fairs ought to be understood by its managers as an exhibition of all the industries of a community, for which a small reward is offered to the most meritorious, not as a consideration, but simply as a reward of merit, as a stimulus to further improvement. And the class of farmers who criticise fairs because they do not pay the exhibitors in dollars and cents, either misinterpret their object or have yet to learn that fairs cannot be run for the purpose of "money making." It is only in the results which these exhibi tions bring about that farmers are benefited, and results can only be effective to this end-if the management is what it should be. The stock raiser seeks to advertise his business by his showing at fairs, and thus attracts the attention of the purchasing public. As an advertising medium such exhibitions serve every industry. Besides this, another object is the social relations which such meetings cultivate. The agent becomes more fluent and genial as he recommends his wares, farmers meet and compare notes on the success of new seeds, some of which have probably been sent out by their congressman, who may want a re-election and must do something to remind his constituents that he is at Washington-seeds which were at one time all right, but which do not wear their years without losing their germs; but the farmer excuses the congressman, if the seeds do not grow, and is glad that he is remembered. The ladies and children enjoy the scene, and the race horse man is in his glory, because he is quite sure everybody has heard of his particular horse and has come to see him go.

Upon this feature of fairs, I assert that it is the duty of managers to furnish such amusements as are consistent with the well-being of society, and within the limits of its laws. Excluding gambling in every form, and if the laws of the land were rigidly enforced against every society which permits it, fairs would become more interesting and useful to the communities in which they are held. Trials of speed seem to be a necessary adjunct at fairs, but large purses for this purpose is a waste of funds. Moderate premiums for speed will bring out a class of horses which will give as good an entertainment and bring with it fewer of the train of gamblers who follow the race track. The selling of general merchandise on fair grounds during fairs is not in keeping with their object and always interferes with home merchants. Eatables and specialties are a part of the make-up of such exhibitions, and must have a place on the grounds, but the grounds should not be made general market places.

In this age, many things go to make up the education of our people; primarily, our excellent school system, good literature, intelligent leeturers; these, combined with the world of observation, are the edu cators which strengthen our minds and broaden our views. Fairs serve their purpose in this line. They give the opportunity of comparison: they show the result of careful labor; they develop the per

fect breeding of animals, and the growth of vegetables. From county fairs have developed State fairs, and with this closing decade of the nineteenth century, the World's Fair, as a further out-growth, will be one of the historical events of the age, and will add to the wealth of educational facilities with its grand buildings, its displays in every branch of industry-an opportunity never before offered.

Concluding, I assert that the pursuit of agriculture has been largely benefited by agricultural fairs; that stock raising has been advanced to the degree of perfection which it has now reached, and that, if properly managed, will ever be a necessity to the certain development of these pursuits.

ROADS AND ROAD LAWS.

BY HON. R. E. PATTISON, Governor and President of the Board.

(From an address at the Kittanning meeting.)

The road question has been so much discussed, and there has been so much written about it, that it seems unnecessary to add more. There is hardly a day but what I receive an essay, or a paper, or a magazine marked, referring to the road question. I think every shade of opinion, as I have read it, is the product of a sincere thought upon the question of our reaching out for the wisest and best solution of the road question. I am still of the opinion that it is a question associated very nearly with the question of taxation. The roads of our country cannot be improved in a generation without an enormous expenditure of money.

Speakers and essayists are in the habit of comparing our roads with the roads of Europe. The roads of Europe are 500 years old. Centuries have been passed in the construction of the roads of Europe. The traveling to and fro of generations of men and of commerce, has settled the road question of Europe. Then they were built at times when there were large armies, which took part in their construction. The Appian Way, which has endured through these centuries, was a road built largely out of slave labor and out of the armies of that day; and, compare it from that standpoint, the expenditure would simply

be enormous.

The old Cumberland road, under the activity of Mr. Clay, who was an advocate of internal improvements and became an advocate of the National road in 1832, was commenced in our State, in Washington and Fayette counties, and, running through West Virginia, the nation expended, in the construction of that road, over $5,000,000. As far as it went in our State, the cost of construction per mile was a little in excess of $9,000 a mile. The road was 66 feet wide. Assuming it of half that width, and we would certainly be put to the expenditure, as far as I can gather, for the expense of a substantial road, to between $3,000 and $4,000 per mile. Now, then, if we are to have such substantial roads at such an expenditure, we must be willing to contribute the money.

15-6-93

I don't believe road building ought to emanate from the State. The State of Pennsylvania had a very unfortunate experience some 40 years ago in internal improvements by which it was involved in forty millions of debt, (and we have nothing today to show for it), and it has passed largely away from it. Of course, there were some revenues received from the canals, but nothing in proportion to the indebtedness incurred. My judgment is that the localities should begin the road improvement. I look upon the road question a good deal like the school question. There is a great deal of similarity between them, if followed out. We tried the solution of the school question before the days of Governor Wolfe, when the school question was like the road question and tax question of today. The question was not even then solved, but subsequently, by beginning at the bottom and estab lishing a graded system of primary, and a secondary, and a grammar and a high school, and then graded it in such a way that the localities freely separated it, because it was public and contributed to the edu cation of all ages and all classes. The appropriations were originally (the older men may recall it), to the academies and colleges and not to the public schools, large sums of money, dependent upon the financial condition at those times, being appropriated to the academies; subsequently the public school system developed, which we have today. That system began by an appropriation, by the State, of about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; it has now reached the sum of five millions and a half annually. To bring about this expenditure so as not to make it oppressive and get the largest results-for I believe today we are having the largest results of any other state-if we are to follow out the same with reference to the road question, then the localities must begin. It cannot be expected of the State to begin the road question at the end of the school question.

You have asked me to express myself. There is no difference of opinion between us about the importance of the road question. There is, however, little difference as to the construction of the roads, but when you come to the financial question, then the whole problem arises. If you assist the citizens in different localities where it is necessary to build good roads, then there will be trouble. We ought to confront the proposition with our willingness to pay for them, but I don't believe that it can be done by one generation, and it comes back, as the road question always does, in a circle. It comes back to the beginning, and that is that we must start with the road problem as we have with every other question. I do not expect that we will be able to accomplish in a day, in a year, or a quarter of a century, or half a century, such roads as we are constantly quoting in other countries, and our National road. Mr. McDowell, of Washington county, is here, and has some connection with it. The foundations of that road are now about as good as when they were put down. Outside of the tolls, I do not think there has been any appropriation by the State, except an appropriation of fifteen hundred dollars for the destruction of a bridge.

I have listened to the tire question. Let me say in reference to that: I have seen the streets of Philadelphia, during the month of March, as bad as any road I ever saw in Pennsylvania-any mud road. There are streets in the northern part of Philadelphia, the new portion of it, which have been recently paved with the old fashioned cobble stone, that, when the following spring would come around, the frost would lift them out and you would have ruts there two feet deep, and

it made it utterly impossible for wagons to go through to transact business. If that is true of a street in a city, how much more is it true in the country. The contractor has gone over it, placing the cobble stones back and filling it with gravel and passing the roller and rammer over it. Without any question of tires entering into it, that street is absolutely thrown up, interfering with the passage of wagons, so that it comes back again; it is not so much a question of tire as it is with the filling, the rolling and the ramming. If you put it down to a sufficient depth and have proper rolling, and all that, you will have very little difficulty about having it torn out by the frost.

POTATO CULTURE.

BY THE SECRETARY.

The Pennsylvania potato grower, who, during the past 20 years, has made the greatest profit out of the crop, has been one of those whose farm is within not less than 10 or 12 miles of a good market in which he can sell direct to the consumer and deliver the crop from his wagon. By this plan he, as much as is possible, avoids the evils of freight discrimination, reduces the profits of the middleman to a minimum, and brings the producer and consumer most closely together. Whether the profits of the coming 20 years shall equal those of the past, is a question which can probably only be decided by the adoption of labor-saving machinery, for we have no reason to suppose that this crop will prove an exception to the rule that the introduction of machinery increases production and lowers prices.

The introduction of planters, diggers and sorters will enable the producer to largely increase the area planted, without very materially increasing the total cost of his crop, and by materially lessening its cost per acre; and it follows that if this decrease in the cost per acre, or per bushel, is proportionate to the decrease in market price, the profits will be as great as heretofore; but if, on the other hand, the substitution of machinery does not decrease the cost, we may expect decreased profits proportionate to the increased crop.

Wheat or grain may be sold in the open market in direct competition with others, but the potato grower, who can dispose of and deliver his crop direct to the consumer, must command a market which his more distant brother, who is compelled to reach the consumer through the commission merchant, and over a line of railroad with no competition, can better appreciate.

Customers want to know who raises the potatoes which they buy; they become used to the crop from certain kinds of soil and would not want the same kind of potatoes by the same grower, if from another soil. They soon gain confidence in the producer and will not object to giving him an advance over the regular market price in return for the certainty which follows the purchase.

Thus, our friend Terry can obtain from 5 to 10 cents per bushel more for his crop, not because they are necessarily any better than

his neigbor Smith's, but because they are raised upon Terry's soil, by Terry's mode of culture, sorted by Terry's men, and delivered in good shape and condition by him. His neighbor Smith's potatoes, if as fine in size and offered by Mr. Terry would, other things being equal, bring as good prices, but Mr. Terry's customers know that he will not offer them any potatoes but his own raising unless he is sure that they are all right. In other words, they are willing to give Brother Terry a bonus for the confidence which they have learned to have in him and his potatoes.

Butter and potatoes are two crops into which the producer may put his "individuality," and make it pay him. He may establish his brand of potatoes just as he can his brand of butter, and his customers will as well appreciate the one as the other, and will just as willingly pay for it.

Much, of course, depends upon the manner in which the potatoes have been handled. A lot of potatoes which, by too early digging, have been scuffed and rubbed, will never bring the top market price; many buy potatoes by the eye, very much as they do fruit, and such will not pay full prices for rough or poorly sorted tubers. This not only extends to the actual product, but goes beyond it and affects the surroundings at the time it is placed on the market. One of our local marketmen, a large producer of vegetables and having many regular customers, ran out of potatoes with which to supply his customers, and purchased a few baskets from the stall of a neighbor in the market nearby. Our friend prided himself not only upon the appearance of his vegetables, but also upon his own appearance and that of his stall. The potatoes, moved from his neighbor's stall close by, were emptied out of the old and ragged baskets into our friend's neat and new baskets, all branded plainly with his name in full, for he was not afraid of it and wanted his customers to know from whom they were buying. Customers, in several cases, approaching the other stall first, would ask the price of the potatoes and pass on and buy the same potatoes of our friend at an advance of 5 to 10 cents per basket. In this case there was no difference in the crop, and the change was entirely due to the man and his surroundings.

Having decided to go into the culture of this crop, the producer should decide upon the area which he will devote to the crop, and make up his mind to continue the production of potatoes in about the same area each year. The farmer who relinquishes the crop because potatoes are low in price, has missed his calling, and will usually miss the larger profits of the crop. He who each year plants about the same area, regardless of market price, will, in a term of years, make by far the greater profits from the crop. With this crop, as with all others produced upon the farm, it is safe to assume that the time to go into it is when others are leaving it. Usually unusually low prices are succeeded by better ones, and vice versa, and he who sticks to the crop is the one who will obtain the greatest average profit; and it is the average, and not the maximum, which counts.

PREPARATION OF THE SOIL.

In the rotation of corn, oats, wheat and grass, as is that usually met with in southeastern Pennsylvania, the place for the potato crop is in stead of oats and after corn; any other position in the rotation will more or less interfere with and disarrange the rotation. Our friend