Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

by Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

The titles indicate the character of the contents.

The agricultural committee was organized, and the scope and character of the exhibit to be made by Illinois was carefully considered.

It was determined to devote entire attention to the exploitation of those products which can be grown most successfully and profitably within the limits of this State. While the interests of Illinois were, of course, always given the first consideration, such an exhibit was of just as much interest and value to adjoining States, or, in fact, to any countries of the Temperate Zone where similar conditions of climate and soil exist as in the State of Illinois.

Accordingly it was determined to exploit the principal crop of the
State, which surpasses all other in value—that of corn.

It was also planned to exhibit choice specimens of wheat, oats, rye, millet, sorghum, Kaffir corn, clover, broom corn, and other grains and grasses, and did exhibit those varieties that can best be raised in the different sections of the State. The grains were shown both in the sheaf and thrashed. There were collected over one hundred varieties of native woods from different sections of the State.

The installation and exhibit was completed early in May, soon after the fair opened, except the soil exhibit, which was not finished in all its details until about a month later. A company of Chicago donated to the committee an assortment of some thirty new by-products of corn, which have been manufactured by them in the last few years, including different varieties of glucose, starch, proteins, and different varieties of sugar, rubber, dextrine, corn oils, sirups, etc., which were exhibited in large jars arranged in the form of a pyramid. The entire agricultural exhibit covered 10,000 square feet of space.

During the fair additions were made from time to time as the season progressed, and specimens of grains and corn from the crop of 1904 were added.

The exhibit as completed showed the variety and character of Illinois soil and also showed the elements which they contain and which they lack in various portions of the State. The proper treatment, cultivation, and fertilization necessary to bring each kind of soil to the standard and keep it there; the products that could be raised to best advantage on these soils; the method of raising them, and the appearance and characteristics of these crops at various stages of their growth; the best seed to plant, and, finally, the grown and ripened products and the various articles manufactured therefrom, and the uses to which they could most successfully and profitably be put. Attendants were engaged who were able to fully explain the various features of the exhibit, and as there were so many things that had never been exhibited or shown anywhere before the exhibit appealed strongly to those interested in farming.

And in this connection it might be stated that thousands of schoolteachers from every State came to the Illinois section to study corn in a more scientific manner than they had ever studied it before. This was especially true of the teachers of the East and South.

There was no effort made to collect every known grain or grass or seed that grows upon the farm, but to display such products as were considered most valuable to the different sections of the State. Only the leading standard varieties were installed and such valuable varieties were exhibited in such proportion and in such profusion as to demonstrate their value in different sections of the State. Large displays of wheat, oats, grasses, and grains of all kinds, in sheaf and thrashed, were exhibited, and it was intended to show both the growth of the root and the stalk, as well as the grain. As an example, more than thirty varieties of oats were exhibited, showing root growth, stalk growth, size and length of head, and beside each variety was 1 peck of the oats thrashed.