§ 31-b. State fair. It shall be the duty of the department to hold a
state fair to be known as the New York state fair at such times as it
may deem proper, and between January first and February fifteenth in
each calendar year to publish the time for holding said fair in such
year. If such fair be held on the first Monday of September, known as
labor day, the department shall designate such day as "organized labor
day." It shall not be lawful for any corporation, association or
individual to hold or conduct any trotting or pacing race or races
during the week in which the New York state fair is held, except upon
half-mile tracks, and except at the fairs held by agricultural societies
which have received moneys from the state, and no corporation,
association or individual holding such races during said week shall be
entitled to any of the benefits conferred by article twenty of the
membership corporations law, or by any general or special law. The
department may make, alter, suspend or repeal needed rules relating to
such fair, including the times and duration thereof, the terms and
conditions of entries and admissions, exhibits, sale of privileges,
payments of premiums, and any other matters which it may deem proper in
connection with such fair. It shall furnish to each person who, on the
seventeenth day of January, nineteen hundred, was a life member of the
state agricultural society, a free admission to the fair ground during
the fair of each year during the life of such member.