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.

In one corner of our exhibit was erected a triangle of grain pictures, three in number, each 8 by 10 feet, and made entirely of seeds.  One picture was that of Abraham Lincoln, another Governor Richard Yates, and a third represented the State seal.

Upon seven large tables were displayed more than 500 glass bottles of seeds, ranging from 8 ounces to 1 gallon each.

But the feature of the agricultural display that attracted more attention than anything else was the immense display of corn grown by the farmer boys of Illinois.  The commission from the very start determined to make this display by the farmer boys a strong feature of the exhibit, and how well their efforts were rewarded is now known by millions of people who visited the Agricultural Building.  The superintendent solicited special premiums to the amount of $3,500.  Circulars describing the farmers boys’ corn contest were placed in the hands of 120,000 farmer boys in Illinois.  Eight thousand entered the contest.