1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



515 



draw crowds. Its 'trotting course' is hardly six 

 hundred feet around, and horses are made to take 

 their true and proper position in the exhibition. 

 It has encouraged no fast trotting, no equestrian 

 exercises by ladies, no balloon ascensions, but 

 has pursued a straightforward, steady course, en- 

 couraging only what was legitimately connected 

 with agriculture. The natural consequence of 

 all this has been the getting up of superior exhi- 

 bitions." 



It is true, that such has been the general fact, 

 and we regret to learn of this old and honored 

 among the honorable associations of this kind, 

 that after the Committee of Arrangements had 

 fixed a price, amounting to a prohibition, of ad- 

 mittance of peddlers, auctioneers, mountebanks 

 and gamblers, to their grounds, that wise restric- 

 tion was re-considered, and all these classes were 

 admitted. The effect of this was, to occupy room 

 needed for the proper purposes of the Exhibition, 

 and distract the attention of visitors from its 

 worthy objects to those of a useless, if not of an 

 absolutely vicious character. We saw hundreds 

 hanging about a brawling razor or cotton whip 

 seller, or the peddler of brass gewgaws, called 

 jewelry. In another instance, we saw for two 

 hours, a group of fifty men and boys either en- 

 gaged in a low species of gambling or looking 

 upon its changes ; while, in passing three or four 

 times by the pens containing many specimens of 

 the most beautiful cattle, we did not see half 

 that number of persons looking at them. It will 

 not do to say that persons will take their choice 

 in these matters, or that if hawkers and peddlers 

 are not admitted on the grounds they vi'ill plant 

 themselves near and draw the people away. In 

 the first place, the Society should present no 

 choice by introducing matter foreign to the ob- 

 jects of the incorporation, and in the next, if such 

 persons plant themselves near enough to become 

 an annoyance, let the power of the law be exe- 

 cuted to remove them. When the legislature 

 granted acts of incorporation to these associa- 

 tions, it did not leave them unprotected and their 

 objects liable to be defeated by the rabble, but 

 extended over them the panoply of its power in 

 the form of law, which is amply sufficient to guard 

 all their rights. 



We have looked upon the Old Middlesex So- 

 ciety as a wise and noble pioneer in all that re- 

 lates to the art of husbandry. We have long 

 felt proud of her men and her products, and have 

 often quoted her arrangements and examples in 

 perpetuating what has now become one of the 

 leading institutions of the Commonwealth. We 

 trust she will purge herself of every error, and 

 lead the way in the future as she has in the past, 

 with that calm, clear light, which will allure, but 

 not mislead. 



We omit the premiums, as they are of a local 



character, and would occupy room which ought 

 to be devoted to the general reader. They will 

 all be given a little later in the publication of the 

 Society. The premiums of the South Middlesex 

 Society were admitted last week during our ab- 

 sence. 



For tlie New England Farmer. 



LETTER PBOM CONCOKD, MASS. 



Corrcspondenta — Mowing Machines — Extra Flour — Hydraulic 

 Rams. 



Mr. Brown : — Every Saturday evening your 

 clean, handsome, entertaining, instructive paper 

 comes to my door. Let me assure you, sir, that 

 it always finds a hearty welcome. You are for- 

 tunate in your able coadjutors. I know that this 

 Mr. Holbrook must be a good farmer. His com- 

 munications are very calm and instructive. I 

 never read many articles before I find what the 

 judge has contributed, when I see his familiar 

 name. 



I have thought a good while of writing to you. 

 I was greatly exercised in hay-time about your 

 neighbor Buckminster. Why, he did publish 

 some extraordinary articles about MoAving Ma- 

 chines. Whether other sections wer3 like situ- 

 ated or not I don't know, but in our part of the 

 town his subscribers were using and applauding 

 the work of the very machines their paper of 

 progress unqualifiedly condemned ! Mowing Ma- 

 chines are doubtless susceptible of great improve- 

 ments yet, but it is idle to cry them down, indis- 

 criminately, and try to show how much better it 

 is to let the horses kick away at flies in the barn 

 all the forenoon, and human sinews do their work. 



It has always seemed to me that an agricultu- 

 ral paper should lead on the farming community 

 in the direction of true progress, and not be 

 among the last to acknowledge the merits of great 

 inventions. 



Has it ever occurred to you that the flour men 

 were rapidly using up the English language? 

 If you were to order a peck of fine peaches or 

 plums, or of your tailor a fine coat, no doubt you 

 would receive of each most worthy specimens. 

 But with flour, the word "fine" is wholly obso- 

 lete. The very sourest, blackest, heaviest, mus- 

 tiest, buggiest, is stamped "superfine !" As you 

 go up the scale you find "Extra Family ;" a tol- 

 erable article ; makes very fair hot biscuit. Then 

 some original marker puts on two x's (xx.) That 

 was double extra. But another more ambitious 

 has a stencil which prints three ! And lately I 

 have seen four x's put on to delude the ignorant. 

 To be sure, the inspector pays little heed to the 

 paint on the head of the barrel. He looks at 

 the flour within, and sometimes there is quite a 

 want of consistency in the manufacturer's opir 

 ion and that of the disinterested inspector. 



I hope that you will find an opportunity soon 

 to call and see the operation of a Hydraulic Ram 

 which I have set up lately. It is a complete ma- 

 chine. It is very simple. Mine is set below a 

 fall of about four feet, and is nearly a thousand 

 feet from the barn, where a copious stream is dis- 

 charged, very much to the relief of the animals, 

 as well as the men who had served faithfully at 

 the pump-handle. Then I have a pretty foun- 

 tain supplied by the same source, which is a con- 



