MISQUAH — The county fair’s entry window closed Saturday at noon — at noon precisely, as advertised, promised, and this year enforced without incident — with 412 open-class entries on file, up from 397 a year ago and the largest field in recent memory. Fair board chair Verna Tho, asked to characterize the final morning, said “orderly,” and then, after reflection, “orderly, which I will believe for the rest of my life.”

The 4-H barn confirmed its record: fifty-eight members enrolled, the most since the extension office started keeping the figure, with livestock led by a strong calf year and the Tho grandchildren’s eleven-project portfolio. Open-class canning came in heavy, anchored as ever by the pickle classes, which drew thirty-one entries across the brine spectrum and which the horticulture superintendent again described as “the deepest field at the fair and the least braggy about it.” Photography closed with a late surge that included, as forecast, the smoke: two entries of the red July sun, both titled some variation of “July,” plus a third, submitted Saturday at 11:58, titled “Also July.”

With entries settled, the fair board confirmed the dates the town has been planning around informally for weeks: the fair runs Wednesday, August 19, through Sunday, August 23, at the fairgrounds. The midway opens Thursday afternoon. Judging begins Wednesday in the exhibit halls; the 4-H livestock shows run Thursday through Saturday; and the giant-pumpkin weigh-in is set for the final Saturday, August 22, at 10 a.m. sharp, on the recertified scale. Both known contenders have confirmed attendance by letter, separately, to this newspaper, each expressing confidence and neither mentioning the other, which is as close to détente as the correspondence has come all summer.

Late entries received after noon Saturday: one, with a pie. Disposition: declined, enjoyed, and invited back next year, in that order.