26 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



at the conclusion of the address of welcome he alluded most happily to the 

 delicate and responsiljle duties the judges were appointed to discharge. " Be 

 careful," said he, "to do justice without partiality, without prejudice. The 

 world has been invited to this exhibition, and all men who are here as exhib- 

 itors of live stock, of machinery, or of farming implements, are entitled to 

 equal consideration. As I know no fear can intimidate you, so I am confident 

 no prejudice, either individual or national, Avill warp your judgment. The 

 world demands of you deliberate, honest decisions, and I feel assured that in 

 the results of yoar deliberations those demands will be fully met." 



The address, occupying about thirty minutes, was delivered with much 

 earnestness and received with marked satisfaction. At the conclusion of the 

 breakfast the several committees met and organized by the election of a chair- 

 man and secretary. The United States were represented by two committee- 

 men, one on manufactures and one on sheep. The committee on manufactures 

 consisted of eleven gentlemen, representing seven nationalities ; the committee 

 on sheep, of eighteen gentlemen, representing eleven nationalities. The two 

 gentlemen representing the United States were Austin Baldwin, of New York, 

 and Daniel Keedham, of Vermont. 



At the conclusion of the organization of the committee on which it was my 

 privilege to serve, I must confess to a strange surprise at the announcement 

 of the chairman: "The judges will meet at this place to-morrow morning at 

 BIX o'clock to commence their labors." At first I was quite disposed to regard 

 the matter as a joke, but finding no joke had been perpetrated, judging by the 

 looks of my associates, I concluded that I had misunderstood the announce- 

 ment, and, at my request, the hour of meeting was again proclaimed "at six 

 o'clock to-moiTOw morning." Determined that America should be prompt at 

 the committee meeting, I left my lodgings at five o'clock a. m. on the 13th, 

 with but four miles between myself and the fair ground. But my driver was 

 Btupid and his horses dull, and, greatly to my discomfort, the time occupied in 

 reaching the entrance gate was precisely an hour. Alighting at the main en- 

 trance, I hurried to the committee-room, which I reached five minutes after 

 the hour appointed. Every member of the committee, myself excepted, had 

 arrived in time, and five minutes before my amval they had gone to their labors. 

 On the evening of the 13th the executive committee gave a banquet at 

 Street's hotel to the commissioners, delegates, and invited guests. At this 

 meeting speeches of welcome and congratulation were interchanged until a late 

 hour. It was an occasion long to be remembered. The banquet, in elegance 

 and luxuriance, was all that art and culinary skill could make it. It was a 

 banquet — a German banquet. Whoever has had the good fortune to attend 

 one will appreciate the character and interest of this occasion ; whoever has 

 not, could get but a feeble idea of its magnificence from any words of mine. 



On Tuesday, July 14, at precisely ten o'clock in the forenoon, amid the 

 sound of bugles and the beating of drums, a thousand flags, representing all the 

 civilized nations of the earth, were unfurled to the breeze from flag-statis occu- 

 pying every conceivable position on the buildings within the exhibition grounds. 

 From the banquet hall, from every bureau, committee-room, and office, from 

 every shed and stand, from the arch and gate posts of the outer and inner 

 entrances, were these splendid emblems of nationality raised to the bright sun- 

 light, whilst from the gathered thousands there broke upon the air shout 

 upon shout and cheer upon cheer, until, by their own hurrahs, the multitude 

 had made themselves wild with joy ; and this was the opening of the great 

 international agricultural exhibition. The committee cominenced their labors 

 on the day previous to the grand opening, but it was intended that their work 

 should have been commenced at a much earlier day, so that at the time of 

 opening, the decisions could be announced. But on account of the death of 

 Baron Merck, the original arrangement was necessarily changed. 



