CLINTON -- The 55th annual Clinton Lions Club Agricultural Fair is an appropriate setting for the Miss Maine Dairy Princess Scholarship pageant.

Clinton, after all, is the self-proclaimed dairy capital of Maine. Its seven farms produce nearly 13 percent of the state's milk on 3,778 acres of farmland, according to the town Web site.

Fair organizers have made a couple of changes in the Dairy Princess pageant. They threw out "Dairy Queen" so it wouldn't be confused with an ice-cream stand, Whitten said.

And this year, there will be a Junior Dairy Princess competition for girls ages 10 to 13.

The Dairy Princess Pageant, for girls 14-17, offers a $1,000 scholarship to the winner and $500 to the runner-up. The junior princess will get $150.

The contestants will compete in the talent show and gown competition at 7 p.m. Thursday, just four hours after the four-day fair begins.

The girls will be judged on their decorum during Maine Farm Days, the talent show, their essays and their appearance in gowns. The coronation in the show tent is at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Regan Casey of China is the reigning Dairy Princess. Casey is a senior at Kents Hill School.

Belinda Stoughton, who with her husband, John, owns Misty Meadows Farm, is pageant director.

"We actually have more cows than people in the town of Clinton," Stoughton said. "This has been a fun project, and they do get a good cash prize."

The crowned Maine Dairy Princess will represent the industry in conventions, expositions and parades. She will appear with other pageant winners in a Blaine House ceremony, and at the Statehouse for a state agriculture day.

The princess and other pageant winners will represent the state in the Eastern States Exposition, which begins Sept. 12 in Springfield, Mass.

This year's fair also features the Julie & Brownie Musical Show, several times daily on the midway green.

The Lions Club has purchased an additional 6.4 acres of land at the rear of the fairgrounds to make more room for the mechanical pulling facility and other events.

Larry Grard -- 861-9239

lgrard@centralmaine.com