Section 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.