AMERICAN IMPLEMENTS AT THE WORLD’S FAIR. 
257 
AMERICAN IMPLEMENTS AT THE WORLD’S 
FAIR. 
We observe in a recent number of the Gardeners’ 
Chronicle, (an English agricultural paper from which 
we made a large extract last month, to give the home 
view of the subject,) that our American plows at the 
exhibition are sneered at, “as apparently formed to root 
or grub up the soil rather than regularly turn it, with 
short beam, handles so short as to give but little lev¬ 
erage power over the implement, and it may be with 
no coulter to cut the slice clean from the unplowed 
land.” The Belgian one-handled plow fares worse, 
“ and the far more primitive and barbarous wedge of 
the Egyptians” forms the climax in the descending 
grade of our self-satisfied critics. All this is in happy 
contrast with “the English plow, which raises and 
turns the furrow gradually, and which, besides the long 
handles to give the holder more complete and accurate 
control over its movements, possesses beautiful, yet 
simple mechanism for adjusting coulter, draught,” &c. 
This praise of English plows is all right enough, and 
well merited by the English article; but we regret 
that Englishmen who attempt to write on this subject, 
have not a somewhat more comprehensive idea of what 
they are about, and sufficient liberality of soul to give 
utterance to a well-informed judgment. 
We have seen many of what are considered the best 
models of English plows, and while conceding—willingly, 
not grudgingly conceding—all the advantages claimed 
for their fine adaptation to English work, we must be 
permitted, as Americans, to claim, that in all the es¬ 
sential requisites of plows, whether for lightness to 
the team, ease of labor to the plowman in guiding, 
completeness in each of the requirements of plowing, 
as of depth of furrow, thorough pulverisation of land, 
and entire overturning of the sod, and covering of all 
weeds and grass—in all these requisites the best Amer¬ 
ican plows cannot be excelled by any other now in use; 
and they have this further advantage, that they are 
sold for half the price. And if this claim is denied, we 
challenge the objector to the proof by any fair trial on 
American soil. 
Our plows have not the excessive length of some 
Scotch and English plow beams and handles, but they 
have length enough to subserve most effectually, every 
reasonable object required, while they are vastly less 
cumbersome and expensive. And they do have, more¬ 
over, what is here gratuitously and falsely denied to 
them—every essential additional fixture of coulter, 
wheel, and draft rod, whenever they can be made use¬ 
ful. As corroborative of these assertions, it may be 
sufficient to state that English colonists, in all parts of 
the world, are purchasers of American plows. To 
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, both the Canadas, the 
Cape of Good Hope, the East Indies, Australia, and 
the West Indies, we export largely of this same tra¬ 
duced American plow, though all the habits and prej¬ 
udices of their inhabitants have been in favor of the 
home implement, and while there is a discriminating 
duty against us of 20 or 30 per cent. 
We had two of the best Scotch plows in our warehouse 
for two or three years, and although their merits were 
fully set forth to Scotch, English, and Americans, who 
had travelled in Europe, they failed to find pui chasers. 
There are a few cheap plows at the London exhibi¬ 
tion, it is true, designed for cotton cultivation, on the 
light, sandy lands of our southern states. They are 
without polish, high finish, or the addenda of a heavy 
plow, all of winch are unnecessary for the purposes re¬ 
quired ; and, although made on the best principles and 
of the best materials, they come at prices that one En¬ 
glish plow will buy a dozen. Americans, it is true, use 
a great many indifferent plows, and there is much need 
of a wholesome reform in this matter. But the plows 
sent to the exhibition are not of this class, and they are 
not only entirely adapted to the purposes sought, but 
they are not surpassed by any others ever made. 
In connexion with this subject, we take the opportu¬ 
nity of noticing the unmanly and vulgar flings which 
some hireling of the London Times, at the instigation 
of its editors, is continually making at the American de¬ 
partment of the exhibition. Here is the leading paper 
of England, a paper with a respectability and patronage 
so overwhelming, as to command a support that ena¬ 
bles them to pay nearly half a million of dollars annu¬ 
ally to government for stamps and advertising duties ; 
yet it is almost daily guilty of the unparalleled mean¬ 
ness and vulgarity of aspersing a friendly nation, that 
has been invited by these^ libellers to send their contri¬ 
butions over 3,000 miles, to aid in making up a World's 
Show, and principally for England’s benefit. 
Americans have had scarcely any inducement to go 
into this exhibition. They do not go there to seek cus¬ 
tomers, as nearly every other exhibitor has done. Their 
motives in this little affair have rather been philan¬ 
thropic than interested. Yet England can see—and 
does to her sorrow and deep apprehension, and hence 
this ill-timed abuse—in the comparatively few articles 
sent, that America has not been idle for the last 7 5 
years, at which period it was the boasted policy of 
English statesmen, who then ruled what are now the 
United States, “that not even a hob nail should be man¬ 
ufactured in America.” But we did not go to England 
to measure swords in her accumulated armories. We 
have before met them on the ocean with our merchant¬ 
men, our packet ships, our frigates, and more recently 
with our clippers and Collin’s line of steamers and the 
world knows the result. And we have before met them, 
too, with our lightning rods and telegraphs, and steam¬ 
boats, and cotton gins, and numerous other original 
inventions, that have already changed the current of 
trade, and may, ere long, affect the destiny of nations. 
We shall meet them again hereafter, and perhaps at 
Phillipi, with our manufactured articles and fabrics 
when the wail of mendicity may take precedence of the 
jibes of insolence. 
We had fondly hoped that the blackguardism of the 
leading influences in England towards this country had 
ceased; but some notable evidences to the contrary 
have recently convinced us of our error. She tyran- 
