Apart from the energy that powered the first industrial nation, it produced brass bands, militant politics, male-voice choirs, giant vegetable contests, the hobby of pigeon-racing and, at least in Scotland, a sport called "quoits" where competitors threw iron rings into a distant puddle of clay.
Crops from city gardeners will be judged in a vegetable, flower and herb contest, while the yield from this year's Children's Garden will be on sale.
Mr. McKenna said that the Agricultural Society had always run the main features of the fair -- the livestock and vegetable exhibitions and the contests for everything from best cakes to most perfect dahlia or tomato.
Activities for young visitors will include learning to harvest vegetables, joining a corn-shucking contest, hunting for a mystery ingredient, seeing a European eagle owl and making chefs' hats and harvest bags, along with other crafts.
Petri Piirainen, a Finnish student at the University of Lapland, found a way to improve the vegetable peeler and won a design contest for it sponsored by the Seki Cutlery Association of Japan.
In "Calling All Carnivores.Tell Us Why It's Ethical to Eat Meat: A Contest" Ariel Kaminer writes: Ethically speaking, vegetables get all the glory.
His neatly planted rows have won several trophies for best vegetable garden in the New York City Housing Authority's annual contest.
Hopefully, the supermarkets are beginning to get the message that some cooks are quite happy with vegetables that have lost out in the fresh produce beauty contest stakes.
Have a contest to see who can spell their name with fruit and vegetables the fastest.
There lay the contest within the contest.
