1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



483 



For the New England Farmer. 



U. S. AGllICULTURAL EXHIBITION. 



M\ Dlar Brown : — I came here in the hope 

 of Seeing j'our pleasant countenance lighting up 

 the President's tent, on this annual jubilation of 

 Agriculture, and am disappointed at not meeting 

 you. It would do your eyes good to look upon 

 this splendid exhibition, and your heart good to 

 partake of the never-seem-to-do-enough hospitality 

 of the people of Old Kentucky. They took good 

 aim at the hearts of their enemies down there at 

 New Orleans one day, when 



"It would have done you good, I think, 

 To see Kentucky drop 'em," 



and they take the same direct aim at the hearts of 

 their friends here, and we shall all remember Ken- 

 tucky hospitality as long as our present friends 

 across the water remember Kentucky rifles ! 



The exhibition opened with great eclat on Mon- 

 day, and Col. Wilder surpassed himself in the brief 

 but most appropriate and eloquent address with 

 which he delighted us all. But you will see all 

 that in the newspapers of the day, and I need not 

 encumber your colums with a repetition. 



The first and second days have gone off glori- 

 ously, and the third has opened upon us with a 

 cloudless sky and perfectly transparent atmosphere. 

 If the heavens smile, what more can be wanting ? 

 If you v/ere here, we would lock arms and circum- 

 ambulate the grounds, and admire together the in- 

 teresting things that are to be seen. As it is, 1 

 must go alone and point out to you in spirit what 

 I see to interest you. And first, because most 

 prominent, there is the immense Amphitheatre, 

 standing in the centre of some 40 acres of Fair 

 ground, a building some thousand or more feet in 

 circumference, surmounted by a projecting gallery 

 covered by a roof which commands a view of the 

 entire field, and from which slope down inwardly, 

 seats surrounding a circle of say six hundred feet 

 in circumference, where cattle are shown, horses 

 trained, speeches delivered, &c., and from a lofty 

 stand, in the midst of which a band "discourses 

 most eloquent music." This Amphitheatre is capa- 

 ble of seating comfortably from six to eight thou- 

 sand people. Beneath the extended gallery, which 

 is supported by pillars, there is a shaded walk, and 

 inside the walk are the offices of the company. 

 Take it altogether, it is an imposing and elegant 

 structure, combining beauty with great utility. 



The next permanent structure is "Floral Hall," 

 recently erected; a large, pentagon-shaped and 

 beautiful building, at the present moment present- 

 ing, within, as gorgeous a spectacle of fruits and 

 flowers as I have ever seen. If Eve couid "revisit 

 th© glimpses of the moon," and just "pop in" to 

 Floral Hall, she would almost believe she had re- 

 turned to that Paradise, where she was cut out of 

 Adam's side ; for, as Tom Moore expresses it, 



"If there is a Heaven upon earth, 

 It is this, it is this." 



These are the permanancies ; now for the tern- 

 porariums. And up there, on the height, near the 

 entrance, is the Hall for machinery, where all sorts 

 of human-labor-saving contrivances ate set in mo- 

 tion by a very fine portable steam engine, made by 

 a company at the Newark Machine ^\ orks, Ohio, 

 and a beauty in its way. A line of shafting, the 

 entire length of the building, is set in motion by 

 this engine, from which, by bands, all the gimcranks 

 on exhibition there are put in operation ; and when 

 in motion, the mildest term I can apply to the in- 

 fernal din, is "hell broke loose." I think I never 

 heard such an immense uproar as they all make, 

 as you may well imagine, when I tell you that 

 among other mild noises is that of sundry reap- 

 ers and mowers in full motion, with nothing to 

 "chaw upon," as a friend of mine used to forcibly 

 express the idea of mowing where there was no 

 grass — "it was master hard work," he said, "coz 

 his scythe had nothing to chaw upon !" 



The machine that seemed to be the "observed of 

 all observers," yesterday, was Sawyer's improved 

 hoop machine — a Massachusetts invention — from 

 Fitchburg. To see it split and then shave the 

 hoop, fit to be set upon the barrel, would make an 

 old fashioned cooper's shave cry its eyes out, I 

 suppose it would prepare 40 hoops ready for the 

 "lap and lock," while an expert cooper was pre- 

 paring one, in the old way. 



Another new invention, the like of which I nev- 

 er before saw, is "Hennington's patent apparatus 

 for feeding fuel into the furnaces of steam boilers." 



Then there was "Wyckoff's patent boring ma- 

 chine," busily at work boring 4 inch joist for water 

 pipe, at the rate of ten feet per minute ; and when 

 you want to lay a line of pipe from some of your 

 hills to J our house, or a suction from Concord river, 

 by all means send to Elmira, N. Y., and get some 

 of Wyckoff's; it is very cheap, and if made of 

 proper wood, will be very durable. You know I 

 am great on water works, and this struck my fancy. 



Then there is a machine for cutting screws, which 

 works admirably; corn shellers, winnowing ma- 

 chines, sawing machines, and "forty more" too nu- 

 merous to mention, but all worthy of being exam- 

 ined carefully and thoroughly. 



The tent for Agricultural implements is near the 

 above building, is several hundred feet in length, 

 and well filled with all sorts of curious contrivances 

 for farming made easy. One thing I saw .there 

 that not only much interested but amused me. It 

 was H. Strail's "lightning busker." A boy turns a 

 crank, and as the machine revolves, several of the 

 boys or girls, men or women, stand around it and 

 each apply with each hand, the butt of an ear of 

 corn with the husk on, to the machine, and so quick 

 that no eye can detect it, the husk is cut off, the 



