Great Bend Tribune
July 22, 2018
First as usual, a drought update is in order. Again, nothing after 8 a.m. this past Tuesday is included. Most of NW and North Central Kansas are no longer even considered abnormally dry. The drought, while not erased from SW Kansas has eased overall as it has somewhat in parts of South Central Kanas. The worst conditions are found in NE Kansas, however, some recent rains may have helped a bit but are somewhat erased by the recent hot weather. As an aside, while we are fairly miserable outside with the humidity, it does help crops cope better with the heat. With August almost upon us, it seems fitting to take a break from anything serious. This is fair month across Kansas with Barton’s the week before last, Stafford and Reno last week and Pawnee County this week. Most of us know what county fairs are today but where did they come from and why?
The earliest record of what we may term fairs appears in the Bible and occurred over two thousand years ago. Fairs started in Europe as a blending of commerce, agriculture and religion. A sort of free/holy day for people to get together socialize and take a day off. Remember this was long before labor laws, forty hour work weeks, and where the vast majority of people lived on and were involved in agriculture. As time passed these gradually morphed away from being centered on religion and more towards what we understand as a fair. The first record of a fair in North America was 1765 in Windsor, Nova Scotia. The first U.S. fair seems to date from 1807 in Pittsfield Massachusetts by a man named Elkanah Watson, a man who had advised President Washington. In fact many of our first fairs were held by private individuals, organizations and agricultural societies. As these struggled for proper funding, many state governments organized boards and in turn these events. Okay, all fine and good, but why?
- As always there was the social aspect to this. This was a time to take a break, socialize and just have fun. And these fairs often coincided with harvest and were an opportunity to celebrate. Entertainment, whether horse racing or musical, was part of a fairs attraction.
- Commerce, just like today, was an important factor. This was a place to congregate and reach a large pool of potential customers. Customers could be exposed to, look at and even try out new implements, machinery, and the latest and best from the “big city.”
- Competition for the best or most with cash prizes was and is a draw. And part of that was showing off to the community what you had reared, grown, or made. Another aspect to this was evaluating cultivars and breeds, finding the best quality or highest yielding crop or animal.
- However, the primary reason agricultural societies and then states promoted and even help fund them has a deeper purpose. Fairs were a place to disseminate knowledge and educate on everything from advances in animal husbandry and crop production to food preparation and storage. This coincides with the development of the Land Grant University system, the Cooperative Extension Service, and 4-H.
Today’s fairs maintain much of this tradition while adding to it.