AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 25-1 



November 7, 1859. 

 Present, 21 members. Mr. John P. Veeder in the chair. 

 Secretary Meigs read the following translation and extracts from works 

 received since last meeting, from foreign and home, viz.: 



[Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Vol. 20, Part 1, No. XLIII.] 

 Presented to the American Institute, October, J 869. 



AMERICAN IMPLEMENTS, &C. 



America now, by ateara within ten days of us, is beginning to be 

 visited by thousands of Englishmen, for business or pleasure, or for a 

 home. Labor-saving machinery is a peculiar feature of domestic and 

 social life there, and the immense work already done. In three-quarters 

 of a century they have overspread a country little less than all Europe, 

 dug 5,000 miles of canal, 16,000 miles of railway, and a half dozen 

 towns rivaling in size and surpassing in magnificence any city of Eng- 

 land, London alone excepted. Their mercantile marine is not inferior 

 to our own — their lake and river and ocean tonnage included. They 

 begin to rival us in foreign commerce, have supplanted us in the whale 

 fishery. They give three million seven hundred thousand bales of cotton 

 which goes far towards supplying the wants of the world. "Where seek an 

 explanation of all this marvelous result ? Where ! but in the free ener- 

 gies of the vigorous and ambitious race of which they form a branch. 

 Here unskilled labor has ls6d to 23 per day; there, 4s to 5s sterling. 



There is now at Manchester an old rusty machine, constructed years 

 ago, which appears to be identical with one of the most popular of the 

 American sewing machines lately brought out ! American plows, axes, 

 clocks, churns, pegged shoes and boots, take our place at the Cape and in 

 Australia. The American axe, first in importance, so well known in every 

 timber region of the world ! of surpassing effect in the hands of a back- 

 woodsman ! The stump extractor ! The root puller ! The farmer's fur- 

 niture shaped by Blanchard's turner ! an immense saving of labor. A 

 stone breaker ! The horse-power on inclined plains ! The thrashing 

 machine ! a very great saving of labor. The grain cradles ! Hay forks, 

 rakes, dung forks, digging forks, five tine, cut out of a single piece of 

 steel ! The axe shovel ! The scraper ! All superior to ours. Their plow, 

 a brass model of which was sent by their great president, Jefi"erson, to Sir 

 John Sinclair, and which model is now in possession of the American 

 Institute at New York! 



The horses on northern American farms are superior to ours ; have more 

 blood and breeding than the average of English farm horses. His small 

 farmer's team, a well broke, docile pair, drawing his " trotting wagon ;" 

 bis sleigh ; all made light and strong. 



Such is the tone of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, on 

 American work ! The music is agreeable to our ears, for although flatter- 

 ing it is all true. 



