1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



395 



AN AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITION IN 

 ENGLAND. 



Mr. Mechi, formerly a successful London mer- 

 chant, now the most enterprising and liberal im- 

 prover of Agriculture in Europe, annually invites 

 a considerable number of persons interested in in- 

 dustrial pi'Ogress to visit his farm just before his 

 summer grain is ripe, and see what he is doing, 

 and with what success. The London Times gives 

 an account of his gathering this seasan, which we 

 publish this morning in the hope that it will sug- 

 gest and promote improvement in the conduct of 

 our county fairs, now too generally mere shows of 

 mammoth products without giving the assembled 

 farmers any clear idea of what thci/ have to do, 

 if they would rival or exceed those productions. 

 Mr. Mechi's meetings are, for practical purposes, 

 worth a dozen of these barren displays, and we 

 hope they will find imitators here. Twenty good 

 farmers can walk over their own farms and explain 

 their successful experiments where one can make 

 a set speech ; while one such explanation is worth 

 twenty average speeches. — N. Y. Tribune. 



Mr. Mechi's annual gathering at Tiptreeis cer- 

 tainly one of the most agreeable events of the ag- 

 ricultural year. Though the circumstances which 

 fii'st gave a special interest to these meetings have 

 happily passed away, they still continue highly 

 attractive. In endeavoring to stimulate improve- 

 ments in husbandry, the enterprising tradesman 

 of Leadenball Street has created an occasion which 

 every one who partakes of it enjoys. To his visit- 

 ors from town, a reasonable excuse for escaping 

 out of London during the dog-day heats is of 

 course exceeding welcome. To those engaged in 

 country pursuits, there is the feeling of curiosity 

 to gratify as to a system of farm management 

 much talked about, and departing in many re- 

 spects from the routine of agricultural practice. 

 To all, there is the pleasure of inspecting excel- 

 lent crops, and observing how the oldest and most 

 delightful of human occupations is progressing. 

 Man, however much he may be modified by cir- 

 cumstances, never loses entirely his natural taste 

 with refei'ence to the cultivation of the soil. He 

 may know nothing or next to nothing about it, 

 but the treatment of mother earth, so that in due 

 season she may yield her increase, always retains 

 some interest for him. It is therefore little short 

 of the supply of a public w;uit at which Mr. Me- 

 chi now aims in his annual gathering. lie began 

 by inviting inspection in order by the force of ex- 

 ample to give an impulse to improved cultivation. 

 He still perseveres, and not without effect, in the 

 same direction ; but these meetings have acquired 

 gradually an established character, looked for- 

 ward to by numbers of people belonging to differ- 

 ent spheres of life, coming ft-om reuKjte parts of 

 the country, and attracted even from abroad. 



Yesterday the 300 or 350 guests who visited 

 Tiptree included peers and members of the House 

 of Commons, civic dignitaries, men of science, 

 heads of Government departments, engineers, wri- 

 ters on the science and practice of agriculture, a 

 fair sprinkling of the clergy, implement-makers, 

 Commissioners from foreign States, and a large 

 number of fiirmers. It will thus be seen that this 

 year's meeting surpassed in the variety of interests 

 and intelligence composing it that of any former 

 one, and Mr. Mechi may very fairly be congratu- 



lated on the usefulness of a career which, after 

 having exposed him to much ignorant ridicule, is 

 at length applauded and honored by such an as- 

 semblage. He has made failures, as what bold, 

 adventurous man does not occasionally 1 He has 

 gone to work rather expensively sometimes ; nor 

 is it difficult to point out defects even now in his 

 farming. Take for example the old-fashioned 

 plan of laying out the land in beds with furrow 

 drains, thus rendering the application of machin- 

 ery to its surface unnecessarily difficult. Still one 

 is pretty sure to find all the novelties in agricul- 

 tural improvement prominently displayed at Tip- 

 tree, and, if the experience of succeeding years some- 

 times detracts from the value of these as gauged 

 by their sanguine promoter, he at least keeps mov- 

 ing in the right direction. Everybody now ac- 

 knowledges that, whatever be the state of his bal- 

 ance-sheet, he has done an immense deal of good. 

 As far as the public are concerned, that is the 

 main point ; for if a man's mistakes or pecuniary 

 sacrifices benefit them, they are only the more 

 bound to feel obliged to him. 



But, turning from these general considerations 

 to the details of yesterday's visit, let us endeavor 

 to sketch the proceedings and the results which 

 they present. According to his usual plan on 

 these occasions, Mr. Mechi took his guests, after 

 a slight refection, into his fields ; and here, pass- 

 ing rapidly from point to point, he explained with 

 a volubility and happiness of illustration peculiar 

 to him everything that possessed interest, or upon 

 which information was desired. Now, on the 

 confines of his farm, he complacently contrasted 

 his neighbor's wheat with a piece of his own ad- 

 joining it, stating why the one was better than 

 the other, and the probable value of the advan- 

 tage gained. Next he was standing before a fine 

 field of oats, dilating upon the importance of thin 

 sowing, answering vivaciously a sustained fusil- 

 lade of questions, and promising himself a return 

 of from 11 to 13 quarters per acre upon the crop. 

 Then come the liquid manure distributor, Avith its 

 hose scattering around it showers of refreshing 

 aliment for plants. In five minutes Mr. jNlechi 

 had told his visitors all about it — how quickly the 

 fertilizing products of his feeding sheds were on 

 the land — in what quantity he could apply them 

 — how digestible and direct the form in which they 

 were presented — how wonderful the results in vege- 

 tation which they yielded ; the mechanical and 

 chemical details of the process were dashed off in 

 a few sentences, the folly of not utilizing town 

 manures in the same manner inculcated, and im- 

 mediately afterward visiters and hosts were before 

 one of Garrett's best portable threshing machines 

 which the manufacturer proceeded to explain. 



Mr. Mechi had, some time ago, tested at Tij)- 

 tree, an American invention of this kind, and, 

 nothing daunted by the present excellence of Gar- 

 rett's, described its superiormerits in some respects, 

 urging the implement-makers to get rjd, as much 

 as possiI)le, of the reciprocating action in their 

 machines, to produce them lighter and cheaper, 

 to work out the problem of steam cultivation, and 

 generally to go ahead. In this manner ho took 

 his guests fruju field tj field, stopping at one point 

 to show the spring running 4(t,U(.IO gallons a day, 

 with which he licjiiifies liis manure, at another to 

 explain his mode of folding and feeding sheep ; 

 again to read a letter from Mr. Kennedy, the 



