Maps | Restaurants | Personal Accounts | Company Exhibits | NYS Exhibits | Effect on Buffalo Cookbooks | Culture | Food and Health | Food Firsts and Marvels

Report of the Agricultural Exhibit.¹
By J. H. Durkee, Superintendent.

Agricultural Exhibit - Main Entrance

New York was the only State that made a continuous display of vegetables, and its display was greatly admired and favorably commented upon. From the opening of the exposition in May until its close in November, the tables in the New York State exhibit were loaded with vegetables. Potatoes, beets, onions, pumpkins, carrots, turnips and other standard vegetables of the crop of 1900 were kept in colde storage and brought out and used until the crop of 1901 was ready to take their places.

When the exposition closed in November there were on exhibit thirty-seven varieties of potatoes of the crop of 1900 which looked as fresh as those of the crop of 1901. Among those who deserve credit for making a large and continuous exhibit of a general collection of vegetables are J. M. Thorburn & Co.. New York, Cornell University, Ithaca, and Briggs Bros. & Co., Rochester. Messrs. Thorburn & Co. had in May a fine exhibit of vegetables from their hot-houses on Long Island. They made weekly and liberal shipments through the entire season. Their samples were of the rarest, choicest and best, and many a discussion took place at their tables regarding some unfamiliar specimens. They exhibited water melons, musk melons, cauliflower, cabbage, etc., in June. In September they sent in one shipment more than a ton of squash and pumpkins (forty varieties of squash and eight of pumpkins), making the finest display of those two products ever shown at an exposition. They made twenty-six shipments of vegetables during the season.

Cornell University began in May with a fine display and continued it through the season. Their display of tomatoes was especially fine. They began in May with five varieties; in September they had seventy-five, and closed in November with fifty-one. To Mr. Hunn, the practical gardener at Cornell, much credit is due for the raising and selection of specimens, care in packing. arrangement, etc. Cornell made twenty-nine shipments during the season.

While Briggs Bros. & Co. did not begin quite so early as the others, they fully made up in variety and frequency of shipments. They had the largest variety and the greatest number of entries of any exhibitor. They made thirty shipments during the season. The celery exhibit in October was a special feature. At one time there were on exhibit over 2,000 heads, James Vick's Sons of Rochester furnishing 1,020; Niagara Celery Company, Buffalo, 720; J. Schwingle of Burns, 300. The exhibit was kept up by the addition of fresh stock as needed. About 4,000 heads in all were exhibited. The principal exhibitors of potatoes were Merritt J. Buntin, who had 130 varieties of the crop of 1900, and 97 varieties of the crop of 1901, and C. W. Ford & Co., who exhibited 65 varieties of the crop of 1900 and 110 of the crop of 1901. The others who contributed in making this exhibit both educational and profitable will be found in the tabulated statement.

Agricultural Pavilion

Vegetable Exhibit

Vegetable Exhibit - North Section

Reference
1. Unless otherwise noted, the above text and images are reproduced in full from the Report of the Board of General Managers of the Exhibit of the State of New York at the Pan-American Exposition - transmitted to the Legislature March 27, 1902, (Albany, N. Y.: J. B. Lyon Company, State Printers, 1902) pp.61-62.


Return to top
Return to New York State Agricultural Exhibit