ACTUAL IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 163 



to the public upon payment of a reasonable entrance fee ; and on 

 Fridays a public sale, at auction, is held of such animals, or imple 

 ments, as their owners are willing to dispose of in this way. The 

 collection of people, on such occasions, from all parts of the coun 

 try, and, I may properly add, from all parts of the world, is im 

 mense. Two large public dinners are given on the occasion ; 

 the one called the council dinner, on Wednesday, and the other, 

 called the society s dinner, on Thursday, when provision is made 

 for fifteen hundred guests, in a pavilion erected for the purpose. 

 These dinners are, in general, seasons of great hilarity, and pro- 

 motive of sympathy in the great cause of agricultural improve 

 ment. If no other good comes of them to agriculture, they serve 

 at least the purpose of consumption, and so quicken price and 

 demand. 



On these occasions, the prizes are announced to the successful 

 candidates ; and these premiums are given either in medals, plate, 

 or money, and are received with no small degree of public and 

 self-congratulation. 



The arrangements, in general, are made with great care. The 

 animals are assorted in distinct classes, with separate committees 

 for the examination of each class ; and the implements are placed 

 according to their different designs and uses. It would be im 

 possible to convey an accurate or adequate impression of the 

 number and variety of the animals o,ifered, in such cases, for exhi 

 bition and premium. I have already given a list and the number 

 of agricultural implements exhibited the last year at the Derby 

 show ; but that conveys no idea of the ingenuity and skill 

 evinced in their construction. One is led to conclude, from the 

 inspection, that there is no operation or function, connected with 

 human life and labor, for which mechanical labor does not attempt, 

 and may not presently succeed in furnishing an instrument or 

 machine. In many cases, a machine is any thing but a facility ; 

 and not a few of the machines, both in their contrivance and the 

 expensive and showy manner in which they are got up, evince 

 pretty strongly the gauge which the contrivers and makers have 

 taken of the understandings and pockets of the probable pur 

 chasers. They are seldom at a loss to put the pail under a full 

 cow. 



In many respects, the arrangements are admirable, and well 



