A PRETTY GOOD SHOW.

New York, 1895

TWENTY-NINTH SUMMER EXHIBITION OF THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

A Delightful Display of Fruits and Flowers, but Early Vegetables Were Not Up to the Standard — The Track Events and the Bicycle Races.

The twenty-ninth summer exhibition of the Agricultural Society was held at Mineola Wednesday and Thursday. The fair in all its departments was interesting, and the flower show was delightful. The professional florists complain that too little attention has heretofore been paid to exhibitors of their class, and a meeting of the florists was held in the exhibition hall Wednesday morning and the managers urged to make an increase in premiums. The florists say that their business is second in importance in the line of agriculture in the county, they having hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in growing plants.

In the department of flowers the displays of peonies and general collection by John Lewis Childs, of Floral Park, pansies and sweet williams by Mr. Ride of Mineola, and orchids and ferns by E. R. Ladue of Glen Cove, P. H. Scudder of Glen Head and G. C. Rand of Lawrence were specially fine.

In the vegetable department the exhibit was not up to the standard of former years, neither in the number of exhibits nor in their quality. Still, considering the backwardness of the season, it is a highly creditable one. The largest exhibits in the department are shown by E. R. Ladue, Glen Cove; Parke Goodwin, Walter R. Willets, John S. Hennessy, and A. A. Ward, Roslyn, and Alfred Burt, Jr., Mineola. Excellent displays are also made by Ferd Boulon, Sea Cliff; J. H. Van Nostrand and A. L. Van Nostrand, Elmont, and P. H. Scudder, Glen Head. The competition in fruit exhibits was confined to less than a dozen persons. All of them have large entries, one man making as many as thirty-one exhibits of strawberries.

Rutherford Hicks, of Old Westbury, besides making twenty-eight exhibits of single varieties, has some excellent collections.

Miss Rachel Hicks of Roslyn and Mrs. John Willetts of Hempstead exhibited fine orange trees, filled with fruit, and A. Burt, Jr., E. R. Ladue, Mrs. H. W. Skinner, Mineola, and Mrs. S. L. Pettit, Hempstead, some lemon trees, with fruit in all stages of development.

Trotting began about noon and was continued until evening. Premiums were awarded in the flower exhibits about the middle of the afternoon. The summary of the races is:
The bicyclists who swarmed over the grounds were greeted warmly on all sides. This is the first season the fair managers have paid particular attention to bicycling, and they found the races one of the most attractive parts of the program.

The bicycle race was a two-mile handicap, run off in two heats and a final. The first four men in each heat were allowed to start in the final. There were seventeen starters in the first heat and nine in the second. Both were very pretty races, but did not create the excitement that came with the final, when the crowd stood and cheered the men every time they passed the grand stand.

The race was held under the rules of the L. A. W. and was open to class A riders resident on Long Island. J. E. Gregoire, of Brooklyn, started in the second heat under protest. It was claimed that he had entered the twenty-four hour race in Madison Square Garden. Eventually he acted as a pacemaker. Two of the contestants in the final were close together in the last turn and one claimed the other crowded him but the protest was not allowed. Summaries:

First Trial Heat — Won by George Schofield, Pequod Club Cyclers, 200 yards handicap, time 4.53; Oscar Hedstrom, South Brooklyn Wheelmen, 180 yards, second, time, 4.54; F. D. White, Liberty Wheelmen, 40 yards, third; H. K. Smith, K. C. W., 35 yards, fourth.

Second Trial Heat — Won by George W. Miller, Red Star Wheelmen, 60 yards handicap, time, 5.11; John P. Warner, Liberty Wheelmen, 100 yards, second, time, 5.12; Nat Roe, Patchogue, 20 yards, third; H. P. Barker, Brooklyn, 150 yards, fourth.

Final Heat — Won by F. D. White, Liberty Wheelmen, 40 yards handicap, time 4.49; Oscar Hedstrom, South Brooklyn Wheelmen, 180 yards, second, time, 4.49¾; H. K. Smith, K. C. W., 25 yards, third; Nat Roe, Patchogue, 20 yards, fourth.

Prizes worth $50, $25, $15 and $10 were presented to the first four men finishing in the final.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 1.