u. XXIII, Second Series. ROCHESTER, N. Y, AUGUST, 1862. 



No 8. 



THE GREAT ENGLISH FAIR. 



rnK Great Fair of the Royal Agricultural Socie- 

 was held iu Battersea Park, London, the last 

 ek of June and first week of July. It was 

 ibably the greatest agricultural exhibition ever 

 d in the world. 



?he fair grounds comprised about thirty-five 

 es, and these were thronged with visitors from 



nations. It was the ''great international 

 w," at least so far as spectators were concerned. 

 live stock, too, is was "international," for many 

 the imported breeds of cattle and sheep from 



continent were there. The implements were 

 acipally English. There was one American, 

 : Canadian, one Irish and but a few Scotch firms 

 resented. The English agricultural machines 

 [ implements occupied miles of shedding, and 



catalogue filled 439 pages, and contained 5,064 

 arate articles, besides groups not enumerated. 

 ■ the first time, no prizes were offered in this 

 ss, and yet the show of implements and ma- 

 les has never been equalled. The advantages 

 i great market are sufficiently attractive to the 

 aufacturers. 



Iteam plows constituted a prominent feature of 

 exhibition, and the public trials were on the 

 ole eminently satisfactory. "We may form some 

 i of the extent to which steam is used on Eng- 



farms, from the fact that there were at this ex- 

 ition over 120 steam engines— upward of 100 

 lg movable engines. 



'he extent to which oilcake is used for feeding 

 3k, may be learned from the fact that there 

 *e 60 cake-breakers exhibited. There were also 

 i horse and hand-power chaff-cutters. 

 ?here were 16 clod-crushers shown — one of the 

 t implements of modern invention, and which 

 tardly known, if at all, in this country. There 

 re 50 cultivators and "grubbers," and 100 

 rows. 

 )f "hay-tedders" (a machine for shaking out 



the hay, turning it, etc.), there were 25. There 

 were 37 mowing machines, upward of 30 reapers, 

 and 87 threshing machines. There were 200 plows 

 and 14 exhibitors of steam cultivators. 



" Grain crushers " or bruisers are less common 

 with us than they should be. There were nearly 

 200 of these mills and crushing apparatus shown ! 



Some idea of the extent of the show of imple- 

 ments may be formed from these figures. We 

 have, of course, only mentioned a few of the more 

 striking features of this department of the exhi- 

 bition. 



The show of cattle has never been surpassed in 

 quality. There were some 250 entries. For the 

 first time at the Fairs of the Eoyal Agricultural 

 Society, the judges examined the cattle in public. 

 Hitherto they passed judgment on the stock before 

 the visitors were admittled. The process of " weed- 

 ing out," by which the large classes were reduced 

 to a few, and these placed in the first, second and 

 third class, was watched with great interest by 

 great numbers of spectators crowded around each 

 separate body of judges. And especially exciting 

 was it when the prize animals in the different classes 

 of each breed were compared for the award of the 

 gold medal as the best of the breed. 



The Short-horns were more numerous and of a 

 higher average quality than at any previous show. 

 In the competition of the first prize animals for the 

 gold medal, Jonas Webb's ten months old white 

 bull calf was the winner. He must be regarded, 

 therefore, as the best male Short-horn in Europe ! 

 Judges can rarely, with any degree of certainty, 

 predict the future of so young an animal, and the 

 award has given rise to much criticism and com- 

 plaint. 



The Herefords were out in full force. There 

 were 97 entries, against 38 last year. There was, 

 says the Mark Lane JZxpress, "no breed of stock 

 better represented, and none in which recent im- 

 provement is more perceptible." 



There were but 68 entries of Devons. The gold 



