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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



uuly persou attenditig the macliina viaa the driver of the horses. 

 To this machine the judges uuaniraously allotted the first 

 prize. The other maehiue of Messrs. Burgess and Key we 

 highly commend for very efficient work. Mr. Croaskill's work 

 was well done, but the swathe was not so well laid, nor so good 

 and even a stubble left as by Messrs. Burgess's ; and this, we 

 believe, was caused by its not being well adapted to cut across 

 furrows, and to make perfect work ; and the scattered straws 

 left on the swathe, we think, were owing to a fault in the con- 

 struction of the endless band for the side delivery. This ma- 

 chine has two men to work it, but cuts fast, though the power 

 required is more than that which is consumed by Messrs. Bur- 

 gess and Key's machine ; we therefore give it the second prize. 

 The third prize we allotted to the machine exhibited by Lord 

 Kinnaird, which worked well, but we thought the horses were 

 driven too fast for farm horses; and the machine, although 

 cheaper than those spoken of above, was not to be compared 

 with them for workmanship. The driver was the only atten- 

 dant neressafily required. Dray's Palmer's machine reaped 

 beautifully, laying the sheaves ready for tying, and not re- 

 quiring instant tying, a3 it delivered them on one side; but 

 the price charged for it would be far too much for us to recom- 

 mend to farmers, but we highly commend it. Two men at- 

 tended this machine. Dray's Hassey's machine worked as it 

 has done for two or three years past, but the sheaves must be 

 instantly tied, to prepare the way for its turning; two men are 

 requisite. We must here observe that those machines to 

 which we have awarded prizes are capable of cutting all sorts 

 of corn, while those of Messrs. Dray are only, strictly speak- 

 ing, ' reaping machines ;' and while the present system so 

 largely practised by farmers, of growing seeds with their barley 

 crops, continues, on those farms Messrs, Dray's machines are 

 not of general utility ; but we allow that when the reaping of 

 wheat only is an object, and if cut when fit for imrtediate 

 tying, Messrs. Dray's are excellent machines, and their 11 usaey 

 is cheap iu comparison with all the others. On referring to 

 the report of the trials at Leigh Court in 1855, we feel per- 

 fectly justified in reversing the decision arrived at last year at 

 Boxted Lodge, when there wns evidently a great fault in the 

 construction of the machine shown there by Messrs. Burgess 

 and Key (and which fault lost them the first prize), but is now 

 rectified by the addition of the spiral screw. We quite agree 

 with the distinction made at Boxted between mowing and 

 reaping machines. We wish, therefore, that the public should 

 fully understand that for general harvest purposes we most 

 highly approve of those machines to which we have now given 

 prizes, each having a side delivery, and commend the machines 

 of Messrs. Dray for reaping only. We conclude by saying 

 that we think auy further remarks needless, for to give any 

 description of the above machines would be only to repeat the 

 excellent report of the judges who attended at Leigh Court." 



THE DINNER 



Took place in the Council Chamber, Lord Portman, in the 

 absence of the Duke of Richmond, presiding, supported by the 

 Eight Hon. Sidney Herbert, M.P., Sir W. Medlycott, Sir E. 

 Hulse, Bart., T. H. Sotheron Estcourt, Esq., M.P., E. Antro- 

 bu9, Esq., M.P., M. H. Marsh, Esq., M.P., W. J. Chaplin, 

 Esq., the Mayor of Salisbury; Monsieur Bortier, of the 

 Agricultural Society of Flanders ; Monsieur Seirys, Monsieur 

 Bellar, — French, Esq., Vice-President of the Agricultural 

 Society of the United States, Monsieur BuUar, Mons. Du- 

 trone (Conseiller Honoraire a la cour d'Appel d'Amiens), 

 Count G. De Wezell, Mons. F. de Guarla, Prebendary Fane, 

 and Messrs. John Cother, Stephen Mills, H. Wilson, 

 Kalph Ettwall, — Lawrence, W. J. Chaplin, — Caldwell, — 

 Druee, &c. 



After the usual Loyal Toasts — 



Lord Portman introduced to the Meeting, Mr. French, 

 the Vice-President of the Agricultural Society of the United 

 States. 



Mr. Frknch, said his mission to this country was prin- 

 C'pally agricnltural, and he had left his own country with the 

 Yankee spirit of inquiry to spy out the land in this country. 

 He came here to learn, not to teach, and considering his object 

 he was fortunately situated in being present at the meeting 

 of the Royal A.gricultural Society of England. He had 

 scarcely had two months yet to see the agriculture of this 

 country, but he had observed carefully during that tirvie the 



differences that were tnauiiest in this country Lelwetu its 

 agriculture and that of America. He observed here a more 

 thorough, a mora systematic course of agriculture, a better 

 system, a more profitable, a more money-making aystem. That 

 difference was the result of certain facts which he would point 

 out : The first waa, that land in America was very cheap, it 

 could be bought there for five English shillings an acre. That 

 was the price there, and therefore any man in America might 

 have as much of the public domain as he pleased by entering 

 and purchasing from the public land office. Laud being so 

 cheap, was not so well cultivated, and was generally worked 

 for present profit, and as soon as the present profit ceased it 

 was left, and a new piece of land was procured. Another 

 fact was, that for the labour on the land, 2s. was paid in 

 America for Is. in this country. The price of labour in New 

 Euj-'Jand was 5s. a day, that was, he thought, the lowest 

 estimate, and he thought that was double the average price 

 paid for labour in England, so that they would see that the 

 Americans were embarrassed in their operations by the price 

 of labour, but from the mode of cultivation they could not 

 afford to lay out the kiQd ef labour that was laid out in this 

 country. (Hear, hear.) He might be allowed to boast a little, 

 a? they had, he was glad to say, taken the first prize for 

 mowing-machines ; ihat was a proof, not that they had 

 superior and Letter geiiius, but another illustration of that 

 maxim, that " necessity is the mother of invention." (Hear, 

 hear.) If they had been obliged to pay 7s. a day for mowinjBf 

 their hay, as he had done on his farm iu America, he thought, 

 like Yankees, they would have set themselves down and 

 thought a little more sharply upon this subject. (Hear aad 

 laughter.) The Yankee sat down thinkirig he had got 7s. a 

 day to pay, and his acres must be cut, and so he set to work 

 to construct a machine, and beats all England. (Laughter.) 

 Then, again, another principle (he was not going to give auy 

 opinion upon our laws) — aud that principle was, that in 

 America there was no law of primogeniture — they ou!.':ht, of 

 course, to have it, but he did not admit they were wrong in 

 anything. (Laughter.) In America, if a man had a thousand 

 acres of laud, and he had died without a w.U leaving 

 ten children — and they were very apt to have ten children 

 there (renewed laughter) — the laud was divided into ten 

 parts, and the result was very small holdings of laud. There 

 was not that aystem of farming large farms in America that 

 there is iu this country, where the steward of any nobleman 

 has charge of a large estate, and the only way in which they 

 compensate themselves in America was by educating theit 

 people better than we do, and by and by they would compen- 

 sate themselves for the want of the general system of farming, 

 which was very much wanted iu that country, where there was 

 no law of primogeniture and no large estates. In order (o 

 make the land pay, capital was necessary, and the farmers in 

 America had not yet found that out. They had done so here 

 in this country, aud understood that the best investment was 

 in the improvement of the land. In America the farmers 

 invested their money in buying railway and other stock ; in 

 that they were wrong whilst we in England were right (Hear, 

 hear). The position of agriculture in America might be illus- 

 trated by the case of a person who had no money, and whose 

 only capital was a tolerable education : he could read, write, 

 and cipher, or " calculate," as the Yankees call it, and he goes 

 into the wilderness. He could not sit down aud read books ; 

 his business is with the question of how bread is to be pro- 

 vided. He cannot consider what is best for posterity, aud 

 what is the best system of agriculture ; but the question is, 

 how can he get maintenance for the next year for his wife and 

 chilldren. Then he* must build a house, and if he has any 

 neighbours they help him to build a log house, and it is built 

 in a day, which answers his purpose very well. Then he had 

 an occasional fight or brush with the Indians, and, further, he 

 had a variety of matters to attend to, sucli as making his 

 fences, and by and by he gets settled, if he does not go west, 

 as he generally does two or three times, and so he goes on 

 improving the land. The f?rms iu America are one vast set- 

 tlement, and how much land there was he did not know, but 

 when he left home there were 31 States, and how many there 

 were now he really did not know (Laughter aud cheers). 

 To give an instance of the mode of progress, 25 years ago 

 there was a place where there was a wilderness, in which there 

 was nothing but a few fishing houses, and» the other day the 

 inhabitants numbered at least 110,000. Then, too, they 

 made roads— the farmer, pioneer— luid in tlio State of Illinois 



