The prize went to Peter, for he had made the most money out of his garden.

Just a word from a talk given by The Chief about the arrangement of exhibits and matters in general.  He said, “There are as many ways to prepare vegetables and flowers for an exhibit as there are boys and girls to exhibit.  It is not enough to bring the articles to be exhibited.  The real art of showing one’s things comes in artistic and attractive arrangement.

“Vegetables should be thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned.  Dirt clinging to the roots needs sometimes a brush to get it entirely off.  Carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, celery and other vegetables where the edible part is beneath ground, need this sort of attention, not only to make them clean, but to bring out the colours in each case.

“The foliage of a vegetable plant often adds much to its appearance in exhibition.  For instance, the carrot has quite lovely lacey leaves.  Beet leaves have such good red colours in them that they, too, add something to the general effect.  The colours of the leaf and the colour of the fruit itself are a harmony.  When radish leaves are taken off there is no good way of bunching the radishes.  They are cut quite off from kith and kin.

“The only objection to the foliage is its wilting, drooping, tired looking leaves certainly add nothing lovely to the exhibit.  If the exhibition is of short duration there is no trouble along this line; if it is one of several days the problem is different.

“Children’s exhibits, however, usually last but a short time.  But if the products can be put away in cold storage over night, or in water in a cool place, then it is possible to keep them in good shape.

“An outdoor exhibit is not wholly satisfactory because of the effect of the air on the products.  They wilt badly.  A tent is far better than the open-air table for exhibiting.  With care the exhibition may always be made attractive.

“The arrangement of products is one of the main features.  Generally children’s exhibits are pretty messy and mussy looking.  This is because of two things:  first, the children have so many little separate exhibits; second, we do not stop to discuss carefully the matter of arrangement and preparation.  If the children understood fully that no products would be admitted for exhibition unless these were cleaned, were of uniform size, and of the requisite number, there would be little trouble.  With them, arrangement would have to be worked out largely on the scene of action, although colour effects, bunching, and general matters could be taken up beforehand.

“Let us think out a few general directions for exhibiting.  First, all products must be thoroughly cleaned.  Heading vegetables, as cabbage and lettuce, should be cleaned well, and perhaps two heads of each kind shown by the exhibitor.  Radishes, carrots, young onions and small vegetables which are to be bunched should have anywhere from twelve to twenty specimens in the bunch.  Leave the foliage on such bunches.  The large vegetables like beets and parsnips may have from four mammoth specimens to eight smaller ones.  Potatoes are exhibited by the plate and so are tomatoes.  There are supposed to be seven large specimens to the plate.