116 



Bj reference to the catalogue of the machines and implements on 

 exhibition at the Crystal Palace, it would appear that, at last, even 

 in the Agricultural Department, labor was about to be nearly all 

 performed by the power of steam or the strength of animals, and 

 that intellect and intelligence, and not muscle, are to be the chief 

 cap tal of the farmer. 



An unnecessary alarm was excited some years ago lest the multi- 

 plication of substitutes for human labor would so cheapen it, that 

 men would find it difficult to gain employment, and if they should 

 chance to find it, the wages would be too little to support them. The 

 prospect of a railroad from the West, sent terror at ono time into 

 the breasts of our farmers, lest the cheap productions of the praii-ies 

 should render those of their own soil valueless ; but fears of that 

 description have long since vanished. The more railroads, and the more 

 labor-saving machines, the higher the prices of agricultural products. 

 It was not uncommon to find flour selling sixty miles from the sea- 

 board, in Massachusetts, twenty years ago, at $5.50 per barrel, 

 while at the same place at this time it will bring $3 more, notwith- 

 standing all the improvements of modern times. There is no danger, 

 therefore, that the products of agriculture will suffer for the want of 

 purchasers, until a new order of things shall dawn, but, on the other 

 hand, there is danger, that owing to the facilities afforded to specu- 

 lators, we shall be forced to pay starvation prices for provisions, 

 while cargoes of flour and corn, of American growth, are selling at 

 half price, or moulding in the overburdened ports of Australia and 

 California. 



E. L. KEYES, Chairman. 



-■& — 



REPORT ON STRAW GOODS. 



Your Committee on Manufactures of Straw have to regret that so 



little interest is taken in the exhibition of that article, as Norfolk 



County is the great centre of the manufacture of Straw Goods in New 



England. 



Your Committee beg leave to make the following report, viz. : — 



There were but two specimens of Straw Bonnets exhibited, neither 



