The Fair's Livestock Superintendent

Henry Black's Week-Long Animal Farm

In addition to thousands of farm animals, the largest independent mid-way in New England, harness racing, and nightly entertainment, the 136th Fryeburg Fair also has superintendents. In the agricultural division alone, a beef cattle superintendent, in addition to an oxen superintendent. There's also a sheep superintendent, horse superintendent, rabbit superintendent, goat superintendent, poultry superintendent, and last, but not least, a swine superintendent.

For the week of the Fryeburg Fair, all these superintendents are busy from dawn to dusk and often long after. What are they busy doing, you ask? Well, they're busy superintending, but it's usually not just superintending all those different animals. No, more often than not, they are busy handling the problems and questions of the people who come with the animals—helping to make sure that men, beasts, judges and ribbons are at the right places at the right times.

This is not an easy job. Some of the departments have upwards of 24 classes without even taking into consideration the different breeds. Shows and judging are ongoing at different pavilions and show rings throughout the week of the fair.

Obviously, this takes quite a bit of organizing between the various superintendents, so the fair has a superintendent who supervises the other superintendents. "I'm the expediter," stated Henry Black, livestock superintendent at the Fryeburg Fair. "We have lots of superintendents here and I head them all up.

I just coordinate things," he added, jokingly, "somebody else usually does the work."

Black, a Maine state senator from Baldwin serving District 25, has been associated with the fair in varying capacities since 1940. He couldn't remember exactly when he was promoted to Livestock Chairman, but as he said, "It's been quite a while."

Just trying to keep things running smoothly is how Black describes the responsibilities of his job. "If everything runs smoothly, then I don't have anything to do," he explained. "But then it never goes smoothly. That's just the way it is at the fair."

Black's "territory" at the fair is vast. Take away the offices, the museum, the midway, and the race track and its adjacent stables, and the rest of the fairgrounds are under the supervision of Black and his able assistants. "I have a good crew," he said. "It isn't just one person who puts it all together, it’s the whole crew.”

Days start early for the congenial Black and his assistants. Weighing animals prior to shows often begins as early as 5:30 a.m. "In the morning, there is always a rush to get things set up," he said. For convenience, and also because their two-week job has no specific hours, Black and his management crew move into quarters above the livestock offices for the duration. Their meals are prepared right on the premises by a kitchen crew so the superintendents are on call and available at all times.

Nothing seems to fluster the easygoing livestock superintendent, a fine asset to have in his position. "It's commonplace for animals to get loose," he explained. "People party and may get a little drunk. We always seem to have at least one fight a year and there will be arguments, too. It's nothing unusual," he added, laughing. ''That's just how it is for the week of the fair."

For the hundreds of farmers who travel the New England fair circuit to show their animals, this is the last fair of the season, and in New England, Maine's Blue Ribbon Classic is second only in size and scope to the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Mass. "This fair is basically an exhibition of breeding stock," said Black, who runs a dairy farm in his home town. "It's an advertisement for these farmers. For a lot of people, however, this week is their vacation. There are always a lot of nice folks here just to have a good time."

Black makes it his job to meet most of the livestock exhibitors. "I like to meet the people," he said. "The division superintendents do meet everyone in their department and I try to also, but mostly it's important for me to make myself available." To do that, Black attempts to go through each barn once each day. Of course, that always isn't possible. "The one thing you'll find out when you hang around here," he said, "is that it's one interruption after another. I don't have to go out looking for problems," he added. "If someone has a problem, he'll come and find me."

Interruptions sometimes involve such mundane things as ordering ribbons, taking care of a car parked in the wrong place, and deciding the best place to unload sawdust. Black is also responsible for lining up all the judges, which he recruits from all over the country, scheduling shows and making sure the show rings are ready to go with a working sound system, and judges and ribbons are on hand, and generally organizing all the activity that goes on throughout a day at the fair.

"It's the same as any business," he said, "someone has to keep it organized. But, it's not so bad because something different happens every day and it is stretched out over a whole week. "There's a multitude of things that have to be done which no one knows about," Black noted. Crews hired and directed by the livestock department are required to clean up after the thousands of animals and people at the fair. "Everyone cleans up after their own animals in the stalls," said Black, "and then they pile the manure up outside of the barn for us to pick it up." At night, after all the fairgoers have left for the day, a different crew comes out and spends hours cleaning up the tons of refuse left in barrels and along the walkways.

Black also has to keep track of the activities at the milking parlor and, together with dairy cattle superintendent George Weston, arrange for it to be picked up by a dairy. Although the milking parlor also houses the Dairy Bar of the Fryeburg Congregational Church, the milk from the fair's dairy cows is not immediately converted to ice cream. "They do real well there," commented Black wryly. "I guess it's a good illusion."

As he walks or rides around the fair in the livestock department's golf cart, Black greets new and old friends and generally enjoys himself. Although he is a dairy farmer himself, he studies to keep up with new breeds of cows, pigs, rabbits, poultry, goats, and horses that are under his supervision. "I don't know it all," he said, "but I try to keep in touch."

For Black, working at the Fryeburg Fair is like attending a Fryeburg Academy reunion. "Many of the people who run the fair are old classmates of mine," he said. "We always have a good time when we get together." Although he doesn't know whether he would recommend getting into farming "at least not just for the fun of it," Black enjoys seeing the children coming up in the 4-H programs at the fair. The fair offers a large 4-H exposition with children from both New Hampshire and Maine participating. "The most gratifying thing to me is seeing the kids working with their animals," said Black, who said that he has witnessed lots of tears from some of the losing children and sometimes had to withstand heated recriminations from the parents, but has also gotten to share in the pride and the sense of accomplishment the young people enjoy.

The tireless efforts of Black and the entire livestock crew have just one purpose—to help things run smoothly so that exhibitors and spectators have an enjoyable week. "The only thing we want to do is just put on a good agricultural show," said Black. "Farmers are becoming rare and so a show like this is good for the many people who don't have a chance to see anything like it anymore."