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VIII. — Report on International Agricultural Exhibition at Ham- 
burg. By IoHN WlLSON, Professor of Agriculture in the 
University of Edinburgh, &c. 
The Great Exhibition of 1851 formed a memorable epoch in 
the history of most of our industries ; in none have its important 
bearings and effects been more evident than in those connected 
with our agriculture. Before that period, it is true, the more 
advanced and enterprising agriculturists of the Continent from 
time to time had visited this country, become acquainted with 
our husbandry, and purchased our live stock and our imple- 
ments ; but it needed some great occasion like that which called 
together, in Hyde Park, the representatives of industry from all 
the civilized countries of the world to make that knowledge 
general, and its results productive of benefit both to our visitors 
and to ourselves. 
At that International Exhibition the class of agricultural 
machinery excited the greatest interest. Each country had sent 
its best to meet beneath the same roof, and be compared with 
the best our own makers could turn out. All who went there 
learned a valuable lesson. We learned what our visitors' re- 
quirements were, and they had an opportunity of judging for 
themselves how far we were able to supply them. The stimulus 
then given to the manufacture of our agricultural machines, and 
its rapid and regular increase since, are too well known and too 
generally acknowledged to need any confirmatory evidence ; the 
more widely our machines and implements are exhibited, and 
the more often they are tested by practical comparison with those 
of other countries, the better their real values are seen, and their 
superiority made known. For this purpose no combination of 
circumstances can be so favourable as that offered by an Interna- 
tional Exhibition. By our own great annual meetings the market 
for our implements is extended from the different localities of 
manufacture to the furthest parts of the country ; by an Interna- 
tional Exhibition it is extended all over the cultivated world. 
Since 1851 two great International Agricultural Exhibitions 
have been held,' — both at Paris. The first, in 1855, was in con- 
nexion with the general Industrial Exhibition in that year ; the 
other took place in the following year, and upon a larger and 
more comprehensive scale. To each of these Great Britain was 
a large contributor both of stock and implements, and carried off 
a full share of the prizes. 
It would appear that the benefits resulting from these inter- 
national gatherings are becoming each year more recognised ; 
and other countries have since then proffered, either in whole 
