I860.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
231 
quickest, is not the one that can plow or harrow 
the largest area in a day with the greatest ease, 
or take a heavy load to market with the least de¬ 
lay. The suggestion of our correspondent is, that 
the managers of agricultural exhibitions offer 
prizes for the fastest walking horses. He proposes 
that there be several prizes, say in this wise : 
1st—A prize to the single horse that will walk a 
mile the soonest, under the saddle. 
2nd—A prize to the horse that will draw a heavy 
load of given weight, over a mile in the quick¬ 
est time with the least weariness—all com¬ 
peting horses to be successively attached to 
the same load. 
3rd—A similar prize to the last named, but for a 
lighter load. 
4th and 5th—Similar prizes to the 2nd and 3d, 
for spans of horses. 
It is also proposed that similar prizes be offered 
for rapid walking working oxen. 
These suggestions are worthy of attention. 
Fast walking animals are wanted by the masses, 
fast trotters or runners only by the few. An 
exhibition of the walking capabilities of animals 
may not draw so large a crowd from our cities 
and villages as a trotting match, but it would 
have quite as much interest for farmers general¬ 
ly, and for their benefit agricultural fairs are, or 
should be got up. 
Agricultural Exhibitions for 1860. 
STATE 
EXHIBITIONS. 
Name. 
JVhere held. 
Date. 
Lower Canada. 
_Quebec. 
Aug. 15— 
National Horse Show. 
Sept. 4— 7 
New-Jersey. 
•• 4—7 
Tennessee. 
•• 10—15 
Illinois. 
10-15 
Am. Poinological Society. Philadelphia_ 
•• 11—14 
Vermont. 
" 11—14 
U. S. Agricultural Society.Cincinnati. 
• • 12—20 
N. E. Kentucky...... 
•• 18-20 
Kentucky..... 
•• 18—22 
Nebraska. 
• 19—21 
Wisconsin. 
• • 24-27 
Pennsylvania. 
• • 24-27 
Missouri. 
• • 24-29 
Ohio. 
■ • 25—28 
Maine. 
• • 25-28 
Iowa . 
Oct. 2— 5 
New-IIampshire. 
•• 2-4 
New-York... .. 
•• 2—5 
Indiana. 
•• 15—20 
Mississippi— .. 
•• 16—19 
Virginia.... 
■ • 22—27 
Georgia... 
• • 23—26 
Alabama. . 
••29—Nov. 2 
Maryland. 
••30 •• 6 
South Carolina...... 
Nov. 13—16 
Lower Georgia. 
•• 22- 
Geo. Cotton Pi’s Conv’n. .Macon. 
Dec. 3—29 
COUNTY 
EXHIBITIONS. 
NEW-YORK. 
Saratoga... 
.Saratoga Springs... 
Sept. 4- 7 
Clinton... 
.Plattsburg. 
•• 10-11 
■• 11—14 
Albany . .. 
.Albany.... 
•• 18-21 
Queens... 
.Jamaica. 
•• 19 
•• 19—21 
Rensselaer. 
.Lansingburgh. 
■• 19—28 
Westchester. 
. Mt. Kisco(New Castle) • * 25—27 
0 * 25—27 
Delaware. 
..Hobart..:... 
• • 26—27 
Oneida. 
.Utica. 
• • 26—28 
Ontario.. 
.Canandaigua. 
• • 26—28 
St. Lawrence. 
. Canton. 
• • 26—28 
CONNECTICUT. 
Windham.. 
.Brooklyn. 
Sept. 12—14 
GEORGIA. 
Hancock. 
. Sparta. 
Oct. 16—20 
ILLINOIS. 
Hancock. 
. .Carthage. 
Sept. 19—21 
.. Knoxville.......... 
• • 25—28 
Lake ... •> • • 
..Libert.vville...._ 
Oct. 2- 3 
2—5 
Henry...... 
.. Cambridge.. 
•• 3—5 
INDIANA. 
Lawrence. 
..Bedford. 
Sept. 4— 
IOWA. 
Delaware ..... 
..Delhi. 
Sept. 25—27 
MAINE. 
Hancock... 
. .Ellsworth.... 
Sept. 26—27 
Franklin. 
. Farmington .. 
Oct. 3— 5 
Waldo. 
. .Belfast. 
10-12 
MICHIGAN. 
Sanilac. 
. .Lexington... 
Sept. 27-28 
NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 
Hillsboro....... Weare... 
NEW-JERSEY, 
Somerset..Somerville. 
OHIO. 
Fayette.Washington... 
Portage.... — Ravenna... 
Gallia ....Gallipolis.... 
Clermont.....Bantam..... 
Trumbull........Warren . 
Pickaway.. ....Cireleville..... 
W arren...Lebanon. 
Medina.. .. .Medina............ 
Union...Marysville. 
Clermont.........._Olive Branch. 
Clinton. .....Wilmington........ 
Greene.Xenia... 
Muskingum ..... Zanesville.. 
Preble.....Eaton.. 
Defiance.. .Defiance... --- 
Delaware ..Delaware.......... 
Knox. Mount Vernon. 
Madison. .. .London. 
Adams.....West Union.. 
Belmont.St. Clairsville. 
Brown (Independent).. Ripley.... 
Geauga...... .Burton. 
Columbiana.New Lisbon.. 
Jackson......... .Jackson. 
Tuscarawas.New Philadelphia. 
Union...Marysville.... 
Guernsey.. Cambridge. 
Clark.Springfield... 
Mahoning.Canfield. 
Sandusky.Fremont.... 
Summit.Akron. 
Cuyahoga.Cleveland. 
Highland..... t .. .Hillsboro------ 
Richland.*... .Mansfield.... 
Crawford.Bucyrus. 
Harrison.Cadiz. 
Hocking....Logan. 
Lake.. Painesville.... 
Lawrence...1 ronton. 
Licking...Newark. 
Lorain.Elyria.. 
Marion.Marion. 
Morgan...McConnellsville... 
Putnarn... .Ottawa. 
Seneca.Tiffin . .. 
Washington.Marietta..... 
Wayne ..Wooster. 
Williams......Bryan. 
Butler.Hamilton. 
Hancock.. .Findlay.-— . 
Champaign.Urbana. 
Coshocton.Coshocton. 
Ashland.Ashland. 
Morrow...Mount Gilead. 
Wyandot....Upper Sandusky... 
PENNSYLVANIA. 
Allegheny...Pittsburg. 
Crawford.Meadville. 
WISCONSIN. 
Racine.Union Grove. 
Sept. 20-21 
Sept. 11—13 
Sept. 5— 7 
5-7 
11-12 
11—14 
11— 14 
12— 14 
12—14 
17-19 
17- 19 
18— 20 
18-20 
18-21 
18-21 
18—21 
19-21 
19-21 
19—21 
19-21 
25-28 
25-28 
25—28 
25— 28 
26- 28 
26-28 
26-28 
26—28 
27—28 
Jet. 1— 5 
2—> 4 
2— 4 
2— 4 
2— 5 
2— 5 
2— 5 
3— 5 
3- 5 
3— 5 
3— 5 
3— 5 
3— 5 
3— 5 
3— 5 
3— 5 
3- 5 
3— 5 
3— 5 
3— 5 
3— 5 
3- 6 
4— 6 
9-12 
10—11 
11-12 
10-12 
10—12 
Sept. 4— 7 
•• 18-20 
Sept. 11-13 
- m 0 M W W03 4&B* -- 
A Summer Jaunt to the Northern or 
Polar Regions—Arctic Vegetation. 
During the late Summer heats, we have been 
cooling ourselves by reading books of travel in 
polar regions. Each page has been as refresh¬ 
ing as an iced lemonade. And the contrast has 
appeared as great between the vegetation of 
those regions and our own, as between the two 
climates. “Vegetation,” did you say, at the 
poles 1 Yes, in that neighborhood, though it is 
not very abundant, we confess. Complaining, as 
we often are, of our fickle, dreary climate and our 
uncertain and scanty crops, it will do us no 
harm, occasionally, to compare our lot with that 
of more northern regions. 
Our winters are seldom so severe, or the snow 
so deep for a length of time, that we cannot find 
around us some token of vegetable life. Go into 
the sheltered woods, or rake off the snow in our 
gardens, and we soon find some traces of plant 
life. Where is the naturalist whose heart has 
not gladdened in winter over the pale rose streaks 
on the closed petals of the Epigffia, or the faint 
blue of the daring little Hepatica, or the wooly- 
headed Mouse-ear, or the Saxifrage, and many 
other plants whose names we need not mention 1 
And this in mid-winter ! Spring brings a multi¬ 
tude more of beautiful sights, and ushers in the 
Summer whose luxuriant and gorgeous vegeta¬ 
tion no pen can adequately describe. 
All the Arctic books which have fallen under 
MISSOURI. 
Jackson .Independence City. Sept. 
G asconade.Hermann. 
4- 9 
5- 6 
our notice, speak with great enthusiasm about 
the Red Snow of those regions. The scientific 
ones tell us that it is not stiow, but “the lowes 
form of plant-life, the first and primitive vegeta¬ 
tion of the most northern regions, and perchance 
the most primitive form of vegetable life on our 
planet.” In learned language, it is the Protococ¬ 
cus nivalis. It looks in some places like brick 
dust, of a dingy red, and in others, it has a tinge 
of clear carmine. Strange as it may seem, 
these myriad particles of red dust are separate 
plants, each having an organization and life of its 
own. Let them vegetate and grow away on 
yonder glacier, and in this valley sheltered from 
the blast: they are the violets and daisies of our 
Arctic garden. 
Dr. Kane was greatly enamored of them, and 
so was Sir John Ross. Both mention one no¬ 
ticeable thing, viz.: that the red snow was found 
growing most luxuriantly in the neighborhood of 
scarlet lichens and certain bright colored mosses. 
Dr. Kane gathered it at Barrow’s Inlet, on both 
sides of Wellington Sound, and in Baffin’s Bay, 
and at other points as high as latitude 76° 15'. 
Capt. Parry found it upon the ice-fieh]s of Spilz- 
bergen, far from land, and so did Dr. Kane on 
floe-ice fifty miles from the shore. This shows 
that it can grow where no other vegetable pro¬ 
duction exists, and is not dependent on any oth¬ 
er. It contains coloring matter which is soluble, 
for on scraping away the snow on the surface, 
the layer beneath is found dyed a pure rose col¬ 
or, but less and less deeply tinged for seven or 
eight inches below. How intense the thrill of 
delight which Dr. Kane must have felt on first 
beholding this northern plant! It allied him at 
once with the grand fraternity of intrepid ex¬ 
plorers in such cheerless and hostile regions. 
Ah ! tell us, too, if it did not remind him of the 
flowers springing in his father’s garden in a dis¬ 
tant and sunnier clime. 
Stopping somewhat short of lat. 76°, we find 
quite a respectable show of leaves and blossoms. 
On Disco island, lat. 70°, is a settlement, on the 
outskirts of which is a ravine whose flora is worth 
stopping to see. The mosses and lichens ! who 
ever saw the like ! Dr. Kane describes this gar¬ 
den very well: “ Nestling curiously under the 
protecting tufts of mosses and lichens, was a 
complete parterre of tinted flowers, consisting of 
Gentians, Ranunculus, Ledum, Draba, Potentilla, 
Saxifrages, Poppy, and Sedum. The Arctic turf 
is unequalled : nothing in the tropics approaches 
it for specific variety ; and in density it far ex¬ 
ceeds its alpine congener. Two birches, three 
willows, that noble heath the Andromeda tetra- 
gona, the whortleberry, the crowberry, and a 
potentilla, were, in one instance, all wreathed 
together in a matted sod, from whose intricate 
net-work, rising within an area of a single foot, 
I counted no less than six species of flowering 
plants.” Well does he add, soon after, “this 
reminded me of Humboldt’s covering with hia 
cloak the vegetation of four continents !” 
Further on, he speaks of trees and shrubs re¬ 
duced to mere pigmies. “ Shrubs and trees !— 
Few of them rose above my shoes, and none 
above my ankles.Here I saw the Clea- 
berry in flower and fruit—I could cover it with 
a wine-glass ; the wild honeysuckle of our Penn¬ 
sylvania woods—I could stick the entire plant 
in my button-hole.” 
Spring dawns upon Arctic gardens, aa well as 
on those of temperate climates. And the lassi¬ 
tude we feel at that season, when the mercury 
rises to 60°, creeps over the traveler there, when 
the temperature approaches to zero 1 
Thus far we have spoken only of natural gar¬ 
dens ; but there are also artificial gardens quite 
; far to the north. At the Uppernavick, the high- 
