The collective exhibits of Connecticut were in the following-named departments: Education, farm products, tobacco, dairy, horticulture (including pomology), herbarium, public parks and residential grounds (photographs), and shellfish. The grounds surrounding the Connecticut Building form part of the State horticultural exhibit.
On account of the limited appropriation it was necessary to abandon the live exhibit of Connecticut in the Fish and Game Building. With the limited amount of stock which the oystermen had, owing to the lack of "set" for a number of years, they considered it a detriment to advertise, and it was only through a regard for the commission that any of the larger cultivators would contribute to the exhibit.
The exhibit was advantageously placed in the center of the Forest, Fish, and Game Building and attracted a great deal of attention from visitors and will undoubtedly prove of material advantage to an immense State industry.
On one side of the booth the strictly State exhibit was placed, showing in the cases the oysters of all ages, their enemies, and various curiosities in growth and development. Over the cases were maps of the oyster grounds, with photographs showing the oyster houses, docks, and steamers. On the opposite side were individual displays of several of the larger cultivators.
Connecticut made a good display. Fifty-eight different specimens of nuts attracted much attention, many of the varieties shown now growing in the West and South, and being seen for the first time by many of the visitors.
Much interest was manifested in flint (Yankee) corn, as it was called by people of the West and South, and many samples were given to people from all parts of the United States and to some from foreign countries.
Samples of grass taken from a field yielding 121 tons to the acre far surpassed any yield of alfalfa claimed from the rich soil of California or any other Western State.
Exhibit of tobacco leaf and the continuous and frequent favorable comment demonstrated clearly that its reputation as a State growing fine quality of wrapper leaf is confined to no small area.
Connecticut has the credit of being the only New England State which made any dairy exhibit, and in this exposition Connecticut did what she has never before attempted. An entry was made for the permanent exhibit as well as for the butter sent for scoring. The lower part of this space was filled with packages of butter, both tubs and prints, handsomely arranged so as to make an artistic display.
This was surmounted with a form like a large open book, on one page of which was the coat of arms, and the other the Charter Oak, both made from the butter from Connecticut and from true models.