50 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
ugly and inconvenient as it now was beautiful 
and convenient. 
The terms of admission on the first day were 
2s. Qd. (62^ cents.) They were to be 2s. the 
second day; and but Is. the third. This, of 
course, kept off the crowd till such as were will¬ 
ing to pay a little more were gratified. The 
people who were present were manifestly Eng¬ 
lishmen and women. A noble-looking set they 
were. The implements were English implements, 
strong, as if they meant to use them till death, 
cviiw-n- .j- ji— .,i,vr , a .; n tn ne xt world, 
but unmercifully heavy, as we should think, l 
doubt whether Charon would look complacently 
at them. The animals were English animals, 
such, I am persuaded, as we shall never see per¬ 
petuated in exactly the same type, in our cli¬ 
mate. The soil was English soil, though I sup¬ 
pose not peculiar to England, nor pervading any 
part of this country, but such as abounds in 
many parts, and evidently better to grow wheat 
on than to tread on in a rainy time. And then, 
the weather was English weather. It was what 
they call here nasty — a word which has a differ¬ 
ent signification here than in America, and is 
not quite so odious. By English weather, I 
mean such as we sometimes have in the United 
States, but which they have here a great deal 
more ; when it neither rains nor lets it alone ; 
acts one hour as if it would rain, and then does 
not rain; and the next as if it would not rain, 
and then does rain ; so that you know nothing 
what to expect. One hour you expect to get 
wet, but escape dry; and the next you hope to 
keep dry, but get wet as a rat. Virgil has said 
_ of woman, varium et semper mutabile — capri¬ 
cious, changeful thing; he might better have 
said it of English weather. 
For this day, the skies rained when they 
promised — rained when they did not promise — 
rained all day, and a “ mess ” there was, I as¬ 
sure you. One gentleman told me that he had 
suspected it, and had ordered a box- of thick 
boots, and directed his servant to bring him a 
dry pair every half hour. I thought that was 
real English good sense. He was an officer of 
the Society, and must be on hand. In the 
morning, the ground was beautiful; it had been 
mown a few days before : the grass had sprung 
up thick and even; it was just like velvet. 
Alas! for the grass, before noon ! It was not 
withered ; it was sunk, I know not how deep, 
but out of sight, at any rate. The whole plain 
became soft, white, tough, clingy as melted 
sealing-wax. I should think the Government 
might use it for post-office purposes, instead of 
“gluten.” The cattle were well sheltered; but 
in seeing them, one had the choice to stand out¬ 
side of the caves, where the rain fell, or inside, 
where the mud was deepest. Englishmen 
seemed to think little of it. They are certainly 
brave fellows. If they would stand fire as well 
as they do water, there would be no making 
them run. Most of them scorned even to put 
up an umbrella. Several times in the course 
of the day I received a look, which I thought 
meant, “ What puny chap is that, afraid of rain ?” 
Ladies, too—not women only, but ladies — were 
in the thickest of the batter. The Duchess of 
--, the Marchioness of-, and Lady 
.-, (I’m bad at remembering names,) were 
pointed out to me. I believe, also, that the lady 
of a certain bishop was there, looking after the 
flock. What sort of feet these ladies had, would 
be hard to say, for they were below ground, en¬ 
veloped, I have doubt, in large rubbers. They 
certainly had good strong ankles, or they could 
not have stood the adhesions of that day. These 
English ladies have legs ! That was abundantly 
proved on the 13th of July. “I’ll be bound” 
that English good sense which I have spoken 
of shows itself every where. Here were these 
ladies, deeply interested in whatever so 'much 
interests their husbands, bent on showing 
that interest, resolved to see the sires, the 
mothers, and the progeny of the herds. With 
no foolish prudishness, they went into all the 
inquiries of the day, suspecting no impropriety 
w 1 1 ere mere was nunc, iLmLing, no Uonkt, wHn.t 
they pleased, and letting others think of them 
as they would; but exercising the good sense 
to dress for the occasion—to wear thick stock¬ 
ings, to make their feet nearly as large as an ele¬ 
phant’s, by putting on thick rubbers, and to hold 
up their clothes, instead of letting them drabble 
in the mud. I wish our American ladies, dear 
creatures, would not leave us to mourn their 
untimely exit, by refusing to do the same things. 
The show of Short-horns, ITerefords, and 
Devons, as I should judge, was splendid; though 
many, I believe, considered the exhibition of the 
two former as rather inferior to exhibitions of 
some previous years. With the exception of 
these three leading breeds, the show of horned 
cattle was in no way remarkable. Many of the 
animals were excessively fat. They must, I 
think, have been pampered without any regard 
to economy. If the owners sell them for fabu¬ 
lous prices, I think also that it must have cost 
them fabulous amounts to make them what 
they are. That the high breeding practised of 
late years in this country is greatly beneficial to 
the agricultural interests of the world, I have no 
doubt. The farmer gets twice the return when 
he feeds a good animal, that he does when he 
feeds a poor one. The thing has been done well 
so far; but a good thing may be carried to ex¬ 
cess ; and I fear that our English brethren are 
carrying this matter of high breeding farther 
than will consist with the permanent health, 
soundness, and profitable condition of the breeds. 
Certainly such excessive fitness as these ani¬ 
mals, in many cases, exhibited, cannot be favor¬ 
able to the propagation of a numerous and 
healthy progeny. 
Many very fine horses were exhibited. But 
whether it is possible to bring this animal to 
nearly his full size, as I see is here done, at two 
years old, and yet to have him hardy and long- 
lived, I think is yet to be determined. You will 
see in the English publications, which you no 
doubt receive, a very particular account of each 
prominent horse that was exhibited. What 
struck me as the most remarkable thing I ob¬ 
served, was, as already intimated, the early age 
at which the horse is brought to maturity. I 
saw two-year-olds, of the working sorts, grown 
almost to the size of an elephant, docile, appa¬ 
rently well broken in, and ready to do the service 
of an old horse. Now, if a horse can be grown 
in less than half the time we have been used to 
suppose required, it is certainly a great point 
gained. But I doubt whether time will not 
show that nature must be consulted somewhat; 
that, if we thwart her too much, she will retali¬ 
ate ; and that we must feed the colt three or 
four years, without working him much, before 
we can have a horse that will serve us long and 
ably. 
The sheep exhibited were mostly Leicesters, 
South Downs, and Long-wools; and they were 
certainly fine; but some of them were so fat 
that they could not stand ; and I should think 
these must be unpromising as breeders. 
Of the pigs, geese, turkeys, ducks, hens, 
doves, &c., I will say nothing, except that the 
exhibition was very large and fine. The ladies, 
I noticed, were specially intent upon the poultry 
department. 
With regard to the implements, I will not 
particularize. They were exceedingly numer¬ 
ous. The liberal course pursued by the railroad 
companies enabled manufacturers to bring them 
on very favorable terms. This, I believe, is as 
we always find it in our own country. With 
regard to the large and more complicated ma¬ 
chines, the workmanship was worthy of all 
praise, as a general thing. The workmanship 
of the smaller implements, such as shovels, 
spades, hoes, and generally all those which are 
wielded by human strength, was inferior. Nearly 
all of this class of implements were ill-wrought 
and clumsy; and, what surprised me, in this 
land of iron, coal, and abundant labor, they 
were not cheap, as compared with much better 
implements in our own country. I am confi¬ 
dent that by the time a few more farm laborers 
shall have gone to the gold diggings, those left 
behind will "have lighter and better hand-tools 
to work with at home. The fact is, labor has 
been too cheap in this country to promote im¬ 
provement in hand-tools. The American farmer 
would be a great fool if he would put into the 
hands of his hired man an enormously heavy 
shovel, because it will last a little longer, when 
he can buy another for the price of his man a 
single day. 
You have, no doubt, heard that the dinner 
was good. You have also heard of the good 
things that were said. Some of them were very 
good. Lord Ashburton said that “ the Ameri¬ 
cans equal the English in shipbuilding.” That 
the Americans have built some very fine ships is 
true, no doubt; but whether, as a whole, they 
equal the English, is more than I know. I have 
seen as many as five hundred ships on the 
stocks since I have been here, most of them 
iron, and many very large; and though I dare 
not set myself up as a judge of naval architect¬ 
ure, I will venture to say, that it is prodigious 
praise to say that the Americans equal Great 
Britain in this branch of human skill; and I am 
glad that the praise comes from so high author¬ 
ity as Lord Ashburton. 
The best part of the exhibition was the men. 
As a general rule, they were tall, athletic, intel¬ 
ligent—men who had been “ rubbed against the 
world”—gentlemen in appearance and manners. 
I said, It will not be so to-morrow. To-morrow 
came, and with it rain and increased depth of 
morter. There were more present. A greater 
proportion were “hard-handed.” You know 
what I mean by that. But the appearance of 
the gathering could not but give one an exalted 
opinion of Englishmen. During the whole day 
I heard not a profane word, saw no person un¬ 
civil, no unpleasant deportment of any kind 
inside of the enclosure. I still said, It will be 
diffei ent to-morrow. To-morrow came again 
and it was different. It seemed as if the foun¬ 
tains of population were broken up. Men, wo¬ 
men, and children, in almost countless numbers, 
poured in. There was manifestly less intelli¬ 
gence, less of the appearance of people who had 
been away from their homes before, less to 
satisfy one that farming is, as it ought to be, 
and as I trust it yet will be, a really elevating- 
employment for all who engage in it. Still 
