American Manufacturer’s Fair—Tussack Grass* 
port these articles from the United States, instead of 
wearing what they now send 4,000 miles to procure. 
The Leather department, especially of the fancy 
kind, was amply represented. Among the numerous va¬ 
rieties, was shown a piece of morocco, which had been 
taken from the living goat, cleaned, thoroughly tanned, 
dressed, and from a part of it, a pair of shoes had been 
made, all within the incredibly short space of 12 hours. 
The stuffed birds were there, in all their rich, and 
gay, and varied plumage; and so natural was their 
appearance, and so spirited their attitudes, that we 
almost listened to hear their merry notes. 
A case of glass eyes, looked life-like enough to ogle 
a timid maiden, or frown terrors into a heart of steel. 
Let those who doubt the effectiveness of this organ 
alone, gaze on these spectral things, and they will no 
longer question their power. We have seen many 
worse in use, and could properly enough advise some, 
as Lear did Gloster, 
“ Get thee glass eyes, 
And, like a scurvy politician, seem 
To see the things thou dost not.” 
In hats, we have nothing left to desire. For forty 
years, at least, we believe America has made as per¬ 
fect and tasteful beavers as the world affords. The 
display of this article was numerous and elegant. 
Some specimens of the Florence braid, and the Tuscan 
and Amazone bonnets, were not to be surpassed in 
beauty and durability. 
The articles of fancy work, embroidery, and all the 
et ceteras of female taste and ingenuity, including the 
half finished forms that adorned the transparent cases, 
whose exquisite mouldings, following the lines of 
beauty, Burke has so justly delineated, and which a 
Phidias or Praxitiles might embody in a more durable, 
but not a more enchanting guise, only served to excite 
a desire that the remaining outlines had been filled 
up; but as in these, and the whole class of female 
adornments, that existed with so much profusion and 
taste, we are but novices, we must glance over them 
in silenee, and confine ourselves to the more substan¬ 
tial matters of interest. 
The display of silver and brittania ware, clocks, 
chronometers, philosophical and nautical instruments, 
cutlery of all kinds, buttons, needles, pins, cut glass, 
&c., leaves us nothing unprovided for in these varieties. 
More tasteful, accurate, or highly finished articles than 
those above enumerated, are not to be found, than filled 
the shelves and show cases. Surely, if we can make 
what was there shown, we can make anything. 
The variety of india rubber articles would seem to 
be nearly perfected, from the display we saw; and con¬ 
sciences can now, we should think, be made to order 
cds’ewhere, than at Washington and our State capitols, 
Wall street and minor places, and much more Chester- 
fieldian, combining the elegant and the graceful, with 
the useful and convenient. 
The submerged, and tide, and current water wheels, 
canal lock gate, iron planing, and screw bolt cutting 
machines, are all inventions of great merit and utility. 
There were splendid specimens of rolled brass and 
copper, and a very successful imitation of Russia sheet 
iron, and many specimens of boiler iron, not to be ex¬ 
ceeded in merit. There were several beautiful sam¬ 
ples of solar, coarse, dairy, and table salt, from Syra¬ 
cuse; also fossil salt from the Virginia mines, and 
beautiful Epsom salts, alum, copperas, and other chem¬ 
icals ; splendid chandeliers, girandoles, astral, oil, 
camphine, and lard lamps. There was a model of an 
improvement applied to bridges, by that veteran builder, 
Capt. Damons, of Northampton, Mass., in which the 
braces stand only in one direction, and an inverted, add¬ 
ed to the usual arch, gives in this combination, a vast 
I additional strength and stability. There was also a new, 
and it appeared to us a peculiarly safe, yet economical 
lock, exhibited by Mr. Wilson from the same town. 
Eli Kirk, 300 Broadway, sent in some beautiful orna¬ 
ments manufactured from Anthracite coal, that rivalled 
the precious gems almost, in glossy beauty. Burden, 
of Troy, was there too, with his patent horse shoes, 
which he will hereafter make, almost as cheap as cut 
nails, and save the farmers many a lost day, in waiting 
on the laggard Vulcans, while forging this never ready 
article by hand. We hope he will send the nails along 
with them, as they are always to be made at the last 
minute. Braziers’ rods, made throughout with Anthra¬ 
cite coal , by Peter Cooper, of this City, well merited 
the gold medal they received. Several specimens of 
iron roofs were shown, and utensils of galvanized iron, 
saturated with zinc, and unassailable by rust, would 
seem to elevate the coarser metals, in some measure, 
to a par with the finer and more precious. Mr. Webb, 
of Wilmington, sent some beautiful specimens of com 
stalk sugar. There is but one thing left for him to do 
in this matter, which is to demonstrate the practica¬ 
bility of making it profitably , and the silken tassels of 
the right hand gift of the Indian goddess, will wave in 
the richest luxuriance, almost uninterruptedly from 
Cape Horn to the sources of the Mississippi. We 
reluctantly close this brief notice, with the fact, that 
1700 specimens were here exhibited, showing a conside¬ 
rable increase in the display over any preceding Fail*. 
Tussack Grass. —Captain Ross, of the 
Antarctic Expedition, recently from the Falk¬ 
land Islands, gives a glowing description of 
a new species of Bog Grass discovered there, 
which it may be of great importance here¬ 
after to add to the productions of our own 
country. We quote from- the (Eng.) New 
Farmer’s Journal. He says— 
“The splendid tussack grass is the gold and glory of 
these islands. It will, I hope, yet make the fortune of 
Orkney and Irish landowners of peat bogs. Every ani¬ 
mal here feeds upon it with avidity, and fattens in a 
short time. It may be planted and cut like the guinea 
grass of the West Indies. The blades are about six 
feet long, and from 200 to 300 shoots spring from one 
plant. I have proved, by several experiments, that one 
man can cut 100 bundles in a day; and that a horse 
will greedily devour five of these in the same time. 
Indeed, so fond of it are both horses and cows, that 
they will eat the dry tussack thatch from the roofs of 
the houses in preference to good grass. About four 
inches of the root eats like the mountain cabbage. It 
loves a rank wet peat bog, with the sea spray over it. 
Indeed when the sea beats over it with the greatest 
violence, and the sea spray is carried furthest, then the 
tussack grass thrives best on the soil it loves. All the 
smaller islands here, though some of them are as large 
as Guernsey, are covered with tussack, which is nutri¬ 
tious all the year. The whole of the gentlemen on the 
expedition are delighted with the Falkland Islands, and 
express themselves as being more pleased with them 
than even with New Zealand. Some think them in 
every way better for colonisation, even with the draw¬ 
back of wanting timber trees there. I have tamed a 
guanacoe from Patagonia. He lies down before the 
fire, with his head on my knee, like a dog, though he is 
now as tall as a donkey. I hope to get more in the 
Falkland Islands. They browse on the poorest land, 
and their flesh is like venison. Their wool is thick, 
but I fear not so valuabe as that of the alpaca. I hope 
soon to give a favorable account of my adding to our 
domestic breed of animals the valuable fur seal.” 
