1862. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMRE. 



267 



as a public one, dwindled down to a private ex- 

 hibition to the members of the Board, while the 

 people ar,d the press were allowed to look on at 

 a distance. To see the Board of the Agricultu- 

 ral Society of the great State of Illinois thus 

 belittle itself was humiliating in the extreme. 

 It was a most forcible illustration of the wonder- 

 ful sagacity of the beleagured Ostrich, but we 

 hope that there was no artise at had to perpetu- 

 ate its memory so that it may soon be forgotten. 

 The stubborn courage of the Board to act as a 

 committee of awards, had, we are assured for 

 its foundative economy in its financial arrange- 

 ments ; but this we may at once mark down one 

 of the grave errors, worthy of no small amount 

 of censure, as we shall show when we come to 

 the real parties who footed the bills. 



THE SCALE OF POINTS. 



In the first place, a scale of points should 

 have been agreed upon and their relative values 

 set forth and these made public. This was not 

 done. It is true that the Secretary or other per- 

 son had marked certain points in the report of 

 the Sycamore tria', which might have been in- 

 tended by one or two of the members for a scale 

 of points, but that the Board had drawn up or 

 formerly adopted a scale of points, we deny. 

 We have heard, though we have not seen it, that 

 the Board, since the trial, published a scale of 

 points, but if they have, it is one gotten up since 

 the trial. At the request of the Board, the ex- 

 hibitors got up a scale of points, but to this no 

 relative value were attached, and the Board at- 

 tached none during the trial. We challenge the 

 Board to gainsay these facts. We therefore 

 charge, that really the Board had set up for 

 itself no guide by which to judge of the relative 

 value presented. That in self defence, they 

 have since fixed upon one we have no doubt, and 

 it is possible that the press may have stimulated 

 them to this and other judicious acts. The 

 truth must stand forth as charged at the time, 

 that a very good reason for not giving the scale 

 of points, with their relative value, was simply 

 that they bad none to give. An editor of one 

 of our agricultural journals, and who we be- 

 lieve has never worked on the farm, much less 

 worked a week in the harvest or hay field, ex- 

 cused the Board for excluding visitors from the 

 new cut grass, for the reason that after raking, 

 the stubble could not be so well compared, from 

 treading that it might receive. This, of course, 

 will prove satisfactory tt) the three or four hun- 

 dred farmers present, when some ten acres o^ 



grass was cut. The gentleman should be sent 

 to the country and be allowed bread and milk 

 for breakfast for a week at least, in return for 

 such a valuable discovery. 



THE DTNAMOlfETOE. 



This instrument, always uncertain in its re- 

 sults, is only valuable as giving a comparative 

 value ; to do this all the machines must be drawn 

 at the same speed, otherwise it is of no value. 

 Every school boy knows that power is measured 

 by raising a given weight in a given time ; it 

 is, therefore, evident that a machine cutting a 

 given width at three miles an hour, will require 

 more power to draw it at four n?iles. From the 

 fact that a different learn and different speed was 

 used on eaoh machine, it may have been well 

 that the power thus mostunscientificaly obtained 

 should have been withheld from the press at 

 least, for in most cases it would have given erron- 

 eous value to the machines drawn by spirited 

 horses, whose drivers did not ballance the speed 

 by a judicious draft on the lines. Some of the 

 machines were new and put in the field for the 

 first time, thus adding to the draft. Mr. Whi- 

 ting who had charge of this instrument, labored 

 most faithfully to do justice in the premises, 

 but from the bad arrangement, was "dable to do 

 so. In one instance we saw him refuse to apply 

 the instrument when gross injustice would have 

 been done. We are quite sure that he had little 

 faith in its value as applied. Under the circum- 

 stances, we would put no faith in the draft thus 

 obtained. 



We have used this same instrument on our 

 farm, and with the same team and same speed, 

 could only make an approximate estimate of the 

 relative draft. 



THK PUBLIC TRIAL. 



We are no advocates of public trials of agri- 

 cultural implements when they are to undergo a 

 severe scrutiny, but on the other hand that they 

 should be put in the hands of a competent com- 

 mittee, who will give their time and attention to 

 the subject, and try each one separately, and 

 thus one by one, compare them by certain stand- 

 ards that shall, at all times, represent constants 

 in the scale of points. To this end, we would 

 not like to be followed by a crowd of spectators, 

 to call off our attention. A trial of this kind 

 would be of more value to the farmer and man- 

 ufacturer than the public ones ; but when an 

 agricultural society advertise a public trial, 

 which is conducted at the expense of inyentors 



