138 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The chickens and other poultry promised a more savory dish, 

 and I paid what attention I could to that department. I do not 

 remember to have seen any thing very remarkable or superior 

 to many of the breeds to be found among us. A national show 

 in the United States would, I think, appear more striking in 

 this division. 



The implement department was admirably arranged and 

 magnificent in extent, with ample space for machinery in 

 motion. It consisted of locomotives, movable and stationary 

 steam-engines, steam-ploughs, and in fact of all kinds of farm 

 implements. Some idea may be formed of its proportions when 

 it is stated that three thousand machines and farm implements 

 were on the ground, and among them seventy-five steam- 

 engines, representing every variety, many of them of immense 

 size and power. The collection included, also, five hundred 

 ploughs. 



The machinery of Great Britain was, of course, largely in the 

 ascendant. Her ponderous steam-ploughs attracted great 

 attention and received a liberal patronage. Five steam-ploughs 

 were entered, each cutting three or four furrows in a satisfac- 

 tory manner ; but I have nothing to add to my remarks on 

 them in my last report. The Hon. Joseph A. Wright, Commis- 

 sioner on the part of the United States, in his report upon the 

 exhibition to the President, says of them : — 



^' I was convinced that if some modification could be made by which 

 the expense attending the machinery for this operation could be mate- 

 rially diminished, the introduction of ploughing by steam could be easily 

 effected, so as to be highly advantageous to the agricultural interests in 

 many portions of the country. It is most manifest that steam is designed 

 to play an important part in many of the branches of agriculture. In 

 the opinion of your commissioner, we have not been sufficiently mindful 

 of the progress made in Great Britain and other portions of E^urope in 

 the improvements of agricultural implements brought about by the sharp 

 competition of the English manufacturer for the European market. 



" We are content with our unparalleled success, and we may well say 

 we are ahead of the nations of the old world in machinery, in its adapta- 

 tion to the, wants of the people, in cheapness and utility in the great 

 labor-savings machines of the day — threshers, mowers, reapers, grain- 

 cleaners, &c., &c. Yet a few days' witnessing the steam-ploughs and 



