PLUMS. Best 3 varieties, Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N. Y....... Rest water-melons, Adam Garlaugh, Alpha................. RASPBERRIES, ETC. Best quart of raspberries, Mrs. E. Davis, Dayton.... Second best quart of raspberries, Ezra Sherman, Dayton.... Best collection uncultivated fruits, Thos. Bushnell, Hayesville... 2 3 2 5 5 Com. do We, the committee assigned class 6th, department 5th, respectfully submit the following remarks, in connection with, and as having a bearing upon the aforesaid department: This department is well represented, particularly in the display of peaches, pears and plums. The exhibition of pears and plums, as to extent and value of varieties, has, we think, never before been equaled by any of our State exhibitions, and certainly never surpassed. We feel impelled, through a sense of duty to four exhibiters, to specify some varieties of the former, which we find here in perfect development, to wit: The White Doyenne, by G. W. Turner and R. W. Steele, remarkable for their smoothness, size and flavor; the Onondaga; Beurre Diel; the little and delicious Seckle; Beurre Bose; Gray Doyenne; D'Anguleme; Dix; Oswego Beurre, and Fulton. These, together with many other specimens of equally valuable varieties before us, demonstrate to our entire satisfaction the adaptability of our soil and climate for the successful culture of this most delicious variety of our fruits. Yet, while we congratulate you upon your success in this branch of your exhibition, we feel that we would fall short of our duty towards you, and that part of the community to whom (as caterers to the public taste and welfare) you owe your well deserved position, were we to close this report without reminding you of the error made in holding out such meagre inducements to the pomologists. Permit us, gentlemen, here to remind you, that for the fruit grower to make such a collection as almost any one of these on your table presents, it requires from eight to fifteen years of patient, hopeful and persevering watchfulness, and no small outlay of cash and discrimination in the outstart. Hence we must say to you, as your committeemen, when we named to the suc cessful competitor (who exhibits some one hundred and seventy varieties of pears), for your first and highest premium "for best display," the sum of ten dollars; also, to the competitor for best ten varieties, the sum of five dollars; also, to the competitor for the best five varieties, the sum of three dollars, &c., &c., it was with feelings of unmitigated humiliation, particularly as we remembered that we were speaking for the noble State of Ohio-that State which enjoys such fair repute abroad for her fine fruits; the birth-place of the "Rome Beauty" apple; the adopted home of so many fine varieties of pears, and upon whose high hills stands the noble Catawba grape, defying the Continent in excellence. And more particularly, gentlemen, when we recur to the fact that had the exhibiter of the first class of fruits, with a better eye to the main chance, expended a little capital, some skill, aud a few weeks' time in breaking in to the yoke a pair of steers, he might have carried off a prize in solid cash, just two and a half times as big as the biggest premium awarded his fruit. Or had he devoted a season in discovering some sukey with a little more than ordinary lacteal propensities, he would have pocketed just four times that sum. Had he expended less time by many years than is necessary to bring forward a fruit orchard, in developing the fattening qualities and silky hide of a shorthorn, he would have been rewarded. for his labor to the tune of ten multiplied by five, in dollars. His merits as a breeder and trainer of horses, with no more time, no more cash, and not much more talent than in the latter occupation applied, would have been equally well repaid. We might here carry such comparisons to an extent almost indefinite, but it is our object only to draw your attention fully towards such disproportions as you will readily see do exist in your premium schedule, trusting that you will take pleasure in remedying the error in your future exhibitions, or that you will frankly say to the people that Horticulture, and particularly Pomology, is not to be a part of the exhibition, as your present premium list would seem to proclaim. Respectfully, ROBERT REILLY, GEO. POWERS, G. W. CAMPBELL, R. J. BROWN, J. T. WARDER. GRAPES. There were 18 entries in this class. The committee made the following awards and report: Best 6 varieties, Charles Carpenter, Kelley's Island. Best 3 varieties, J. Voorhees, Centreville.... Best new seedling, Charles Carpenter, Kelley's Island.. Best 3 varieties grown under glass, G. W. Campbell, Delaware.... Second best display, G. W. Campbell, Delaware........... The committee respectfully recommend to the State Board of Agriculture to award several good premiums for native wines at the next annual exhibition, and to offer more liberal premiums on fruits and grapes generally. A. THOMSON, J. L. STELZIG. PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, ETC. In this department there were 62 entries. The awards and report of the committee were as follows: Best life-sized photographs colored in oil, L. Seebohm, Dayton. Sil. Med. and $10 Second best do do do Sarah Gregg, Springboro.. Diploma and 5 .... 10 Best animal painting in oil, Miss E. C. Jenison, Dayton.. Second best do do Best fruit painting, "flower do do do Edmonson, Dayton.... Mary Forrer, Dayton.... fancy painting in oil, Edmonson, Dayton. ... "lithography, Middleton, Strobridge & Co., Cincinnati.. "crayon drawing, Miss E. Raymond, Dayton.. ....... "design for farm barn, G. W. Ogden, Lexington, Ky............... Your committee find in the collection of paintings at Fine Art Hall, many excellent works. The hall was well filled with paintings, &c., most of them by Dayton artists; besides these, there was a fine landscape by Church-one of his earlier pieces; "A Hawk's Breakfast," by J. H. Beard; and some foreign pictures, of high merit, belonging to gentlemen of Dayton, which were not entered for competition. The exhibition was a very attractive one, the hall being crowded to excess all the time. W. WISWELL, JR., Committee. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. In the class of musical instruments there were six entries. But one award was made, as follows: Best square piano, Charles Ells, Dayton...... .Silver Medal. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. [From the Ohio Cultivator.] THE OHIO STATE FAIR.-Returning from the late Ohio State Fair, held at Dayton, on the day of putting this issue to the press, we have not time or space to give a history of the exhibition, which we verily believe has been the best ever held in America, in the most essential features of substantial excellence. Of the various departments we shall take early opportunity to write out separate descriptions. The magnificent show of Short-horn cattle, was without a rival in any previous field, in this country. The show of thoroughbred horses was much better than any previous display in Ohio, where this class of stock is beginning to be better appreciated; and the other classes of horse stock were of the highest order of excellence. The long-eared tribe was well represented by quite a display of the finest bred asses and mules. Sheep were there in great numbers and unsurpassed in quality, of all the leading popular varieties. And the swine! such glorious porkers never before spread their oleaginous forms upon the boards of an Ohio State Fair. The Cashmere goats were a rare attraction, opening up a new source of production in this country, which promises to be a profitable one. The feathered fowls were very few and of fine quality. The show of power engines was not so good as the grand display we saw at Zanesville last year, still Power Hall was filled with first-class machinery, presenting several new and important inventions. The display of agricultural implements was large and good, embracing several valuable novelties, of which we shall make further note hereafter. There was an endless variety of housekeep ing utensils, furniture, etc., from the cradle to the coffin, and from a full rigged stove to a needle threader. Fruit was shown in tolerable abundance and superexcellent style and quality. Farm and garden products and table condiments were comparatively few, and suffered the usual drenching from that rickety old tent. Any good township fair could beat this department all to pieces. The Floral department presented quite an array of greenhouse plants, but this would have been a lonesome hall, had it not been enlivened by the war of the sewing machines. This last branch of the exhibition was full of interest, and we rejoice to know that our women can now enjoy the facilities of machinery that will work, and at prices which any thrifty farmer can afford. Domestic goods were mostly of excellent quality, but the extent and variety were not large. The Temple of Art would have made a very creditable ice cream saloon, but high art does not expect to be appreciated in a crowd, and so reserves its beauties for the select appreciation of such eyes as are trained to distinguish between a gaud and gem. There were several excellent paintings, and one of the real art quality; but that which the State Board so much desire, viz: animals and rural architectural designs, are scarcely ever to be found. The above comprehends a general view of the material exhibition. The fair opened with fine weather on Tuesday, which so continued through Wednesday, and the attendance on that day was fully up to the average of a second day-say twenty thousand. If this fine weather had held out, the next day would have brought twice as many, but before daybreak on Thursday, came on a cold drenching rain, which continued to pour until nine o'clock A. M., and then threatened a good while longer, so that prudent people at a distance would not think of leaving home, and people who had no particular motive for remaining, took flight for home the consequence was that the attendance was less by one-third than the day before. On Friday the weather promised to be fair, and kept its promise; the crowd poured in, up to the measure of Wednesday, and the fair closed up amid a most perfect expression of satisfaction and delight, except the few cases inseparable from all such occasions, where some people do not get such premiums as they feel themselves entitled to-sometimes justly and sometimes otherwise; but whether justly or otherwise, it cannot be helped, and they might as well quietly pocket their dissappointment. The fair grounds at Dayton were every way the most comfortable, convenient and best arranged of any State exhibition we ever attended between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, and we have been over all that range, besides following the Ohio State Fair from Dan to Beersheba, these last ten years. The general and particular management of the fair, was of the most satisfac |