PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS OP AGRICULTURE. 13 



several machines were entered. The most remarkable machine of this kind was a steam 

 "horse" or "tractor," of fourteen-horse power, exhibited by Mr. Boydell. In this, the ma- 

 chine forms its own railway as it goes over the land, thus overcoming one great difficulty in 

 the way of steam locomotion upon the bare earth. It ran itself from the show-yard, over 

 some difficult and steep road, to the trial-field, and there went through the operations of 

 plowing, scarifying, and harrowing, with very fair success. Its performances seemed to 

 stagger some of the old sticklers for things as they are, giving a pretty broad hint that steam 

 was insensibly coming closer to the farmer. This invention, with some others, will be found 

 described in another department of this volume. 



In the trial of power chaff-cutters, the greatest quantity of chaff cut by one machine was 

 1485 pounds within the hour ; the least, 600 pounds, showing a considerable variation. The 

 minimum amount of power required for cutting 11 pounds of chaff, lifting one foot, was 

 1-267 pounds; the maximum, 2-868 pounds. 



In the trial of hand-power chaff-cutters, the greatest amount of chaff cut within the hour 

 was 210 pounds ; the least, 90 pounds : the minimum power required for cutting one pound 

 being 1-284 pounds; the maximum, 3-310 pounds. 



The agricultural department of the Great Exhibition at Paris exhibited little of interest or 

 novelty to American visitors. The plows, with the exception of the English, could not com- 

 pare with the American varieties, either in design or workmanship. The chief anxiety of 

 the contrivers would seem to be, says Mr. Greeley, in the Tribune correspondence, " that each 

 shall be thoroughly guarded, at whatever cost, against running too deep into the ground, 

 though to that excess they manifest not the slightest inclination." 



"Many of the harrows exhibited were constructed with a respect for the truth that the 

 pointed, wedge-shaped tooth is radically vicious, tending to compact the soil which it tries to 

 pulverize and loosen. Harrow-teeth, based on the principle of the plow and me cultivator, 

 cutting easily, lifting and turning over all the soil that they disturb, are evidently coming 

 into fashion." 



A drain-tile, of somewhat novel construction, was exhibited. The novelty consists in an 

 independent collar or broad ring (say three inches wide) which loosely covers each junction 

 of the tile, not so much to prevent their filling up with earth as to keep one from sinking 

 below or rising above the other, so as to stop the flow of water. The material is, of course, 

 that of the tile. 



"It is unsafe," says the writer above quoted, in commenting upon the agricultural depart- 

 ment of this exhibition, " to condemn what you do not fully comprehend ; but many of the 

 European contrivances for mowing, reaping, &c. by horse-power, seem absolutely puerile 

 compared with those known in our country. So the machines for thrashing and cleaning 

 grain here exhibited seem generally such as we have for the last twenty or thirty years been 

 superseding by better, and some of them clumsily made and in bad condition, as if they had 

 been brought here from an old lumber-room, without cleaning." 



The Floral Fete at the London Crystal Palace in June last was probably the greatest 

 heretofore seen in Europe. Five thousand dollars were distributed in prizes. Of course all 

 the skilled gardeners of the kingdom rallied round the head of their order, Sir Joseph Paxton, 

 each vying to excel. In the fruit department, owing to a cold spring, there was a disap- 

 pointment. The show of rhododendrons was most magnificent. 



The last meeting of the National Pomological Society was holden at Boston, September 13, 

 1854, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder in the chair. A most able and practical address was delivered 

 by the president on the Raising of Fruits from the Seed, the Arts of Cultivation, and the 

 Preservation and Ripening of Fruits. The following officers for the ensuing year were una- 

 nimously elected : Marshall P. Wilder, President ; one vice-president from each State ; H. 

 W. S. Cleveland, Secretary; Thos. P. James, Treasurer. The Society adjourned to meet in 

 Rochester, New York, in September, 1856. 



The progress made from year to year in the cultivation of fruit is a marked feature in 

 American agriculture and economic industry. It is stated that at least one thousand persons, 

 in the vicinity of Rochester, New York, alone, are employed in the cultivation of fruit-trees, 

 the sales of the products of whose labor amounted, in 1854, to half a million of dollars. 



