American Agriculturist, September 8,1923 
161 
Did You Ever See a Plowing Contest? 
(Continued from page 155) 
the Syracuse House provided ‘a farm¬ 
ers’ dinner’ for no less than twelve 
hundred people on the first day—a 
tempting feast, the records say, which 
was suitably garnished with moving 
oratory. 
“The second State Fair, held in Al¬ 
bany in the following year, was 
stretched over three days, and this rule 
prevailed until 1851, when the Fair as¬ 
sumed the dignity of a four-day ses¬ 
sion, which remained the practice until 
after the Civil War period. On the 
third day the most distinguished spec¬ 
tator, as well as the chief orator, was 
Governor William H. Seward. Some 
passages from his address have a spe¬ 
cial historic interest, in view of what 
scientific education has done for the 
farmer in our own day. ‘It is a fact,’ 
he said, ‘which, however mortifying 
cannot be too freely confessed, or too 
often published, that an inferior educa- 
Among our early State Fairs, this en¬ 
joyed a unique distinction. The official 
chronicler of the event tells us enthu¬ 
siastically that ‘canal boats and rail¬ 
road trains poured in their thousands 
daily, and the manner in which the 
streets of Rochester were blockaded in¬ 
dicated that every wheeled vehicle with¬ 
in fifty miles of Rochester had, by 
some magician’s wand, been at once 
congregated in the place.’ 
Famous Men at the Early Fair 
“One can readily believe that Roches¬ 
ter in late September, 1843, was a 
veritable Mecca for western New York 
farmers, when its list of honor guests 
and Fair orators is mentioned. In the 
group of visiting notables was Daniel 
Webster, and it also included ex-Presi- 
dent Martin Van Buren, ex-Governor 
Seward, and his successor, Governor 
Bouck. The presence of this remark- 
A reproduction of a woodcut showing a panoramic view of the State 
Fair grounds at Auburn in 1846 
tion is deemed sufficient for those who 
are destined to the occupation of agri¬ 
culture.’ While admitting that agri¬ 
culture has been benefited by the in¬ 
vention of the cotton gin, the improved 
plow, the cultivator, the threshing ma¬ 
chine, he still contended that ‘while 
other arts are more rapidly improv¬ 
ing, this, of human arts the first and 
last, whose cultivation leads to plenty, 
and is cheered by health and content¬ 
ment, remains comparatively unas¬ 
sisted and stationary.’ This idea Gov¬ 
ernor Seward elaborated with force 
and eloquence, and the full text of his 
discourse, which is found in the of¬ 
ficial reports of the second State Fair, 
is interesting proof that seventy-five 
years ago one of the greatest states¬ 
men New York ever produced was a 
pioneer in the cause of agricultural 
education. 
“Rochester was favored as the loca¬ 
tion for the third Fair, which was in 
several respects noteworthy. At Syra¬ 
cuse and Albany admission to the 
ground had been free; but now the 
State society ventured on the experi¬ 
ment of charging an entrance fee, ‘as 
a reasonable mode’—so ran the an¬ 
nouncement—‘of _ defraying the ex¬ 
penses of the society.’ The rate of ad¬ 
mission was fixed at 12% cents. With 
this departure in view, the Rochester 
committee had enclosed some ten acres 
of ground with a high board fence. 
able galaxy of big men was in itself 
a speaking tribute to the growing im¬ 
portance of the new-fledged exposition. 
“The sneeches at the first Rochester 
Fair calf for more than passing refer¬ 
ence. It is a grim commentary upon 
the melancholy decline of sheep hus¬ 
bandry in this State that John P. 
Beekman of the State society, in his 
address, lamented the fact that New 
York had only 5,500,000 sheep to Eng¬ 
land’s 44,000,000. We can only imagine 
what he would have said, or thought, 
if he could have foreseen that seventy- 
five years later the State would not be 
able to boast more than one-tenth of 
the number of native sheep it then pos¬ 
sessed. Following Mr. Beekman, ex- 
President Van Buren referred pleas¬ 
antly and briefly to his experience with 
a farm of 136 acres at Kinderhook. 
But the interest of the Fair crowd nat¬ 
urally centered in the appearance and 
address of Webster, then at the zenith 
of his fame. The proper relation of 
government to agriculture was a part 
of his theme, and he impressively 
demonstrated the power of eloquence 
to vivify and adorn an ordinarily dry 
subject. Now, when the problem of 
food distribution has become so acute 
and pressing, Webster’s utterances on 
this very subject so long ago were re¬ 
markable for their wisdom and fore¬ 
sight. ‘One great object of govern¬ 
ment,’ said he, ‘is to see that the prod- 
“The official chronicler of the event (the third Fair, at Rochester) 
tells us that qanal boats and railroad trains poured in their 
thousands. . . 
A Simple Problem in 
Arithmetic 
According to an investigation by 
the University of Illinois on 66 dairy 
farms, it was found that 133.9 hours 
per year were required to milk a cow 
by hand. A De Laval Milker will 
cut this time in two and save at least 
62 hours per cow per year over hand 
milking, and at 15 cents per hour a 
saving of $9.30 per cow per year 
will be effected, which is equal to 
6% of $155 for just one cow, or $1550 
for ten cows, etc. 
This is a very conservative way of 
figuring the value of the time-saving 
feature of a De Laval Milker. In 
actual use it may save 
a man; or if a man is 
still retained it may 
mean that more cows 
can be kept or that he 
can devote all his time 
to other work, the 
owner looking after the 
milking himself. Or it 
may mean that a boy or 
some other person not 
capable of doing much 
milking by hand, with 
the aid of a De Laval 
can take the place of a grown man. 
There are many situations impossible 
to foresee that may justify the pur¬ 
chase of a De Laval Milker, and 
which often do save enough in other 
ways to pay for a De Laval in a year. 
But saving time is only part of 
the advantage of a De Laval Milker. 
Suppose a De Laval, because of its 
uniform, vigorous and stimulating 
action, will increase production 10%. 
Of course the De Laval Company 
can’t guarantee such an increase, as 
there are so many uncontrollable 
factors,such as health, feed, climate, 
care, etc. But practically all De Laval 
Milker users, and especially those 
who weigh their milk and know, do 
say they get more milk, taking the 
herd as a whole over a period of a 
year—some as high as 20%; and 
10%, based on the results obtained 
by many users, seems conservative. 
Ten per cent of 5000 pounds of milk 
per year—about the average produc¬ 
tion per cow per year — is500 pounds, 
which at $2.20 per cwt., the average 
price of fluid milk in the United 
States delivered at country stations 
during 1922, would be $11.00 per cow 
per year. Then add this to the value of 
the time saved,which is 
$9.30, and you will have 
a total gain of $20.30 
per cow per year, due 
to the use of a De Laval 
Milker. Multiply this 
by 10, 20, 30, or the 
number of cows you are 
milking by hand, and 
you get a very con¬ 
servative idea of what 
a De Laval Milker 
really will make you 
in profit. 
In addition, when it is considered 
that cleaner milk can be produced, 
that the drudgery and dislike of hand 
milking are eliminated, and that dai¬ 
rying is made more pleasant for 
owner, son or hired man, you have 
the answer why so many people are 
installing De Laval Milkers—and 
especially when it is borne in mind 
that a De Laval Milker can be bought 
on such liberal terms and such long 
time that it will actually pay for it¬ 
self as it is being used. Full informa¬ 
tion can be obtained from your De 
Laval Agent, or by writing us at any 
of the addresses below. 
The 
De Laval 
Milker 
saves $20.30 
per cow 
per year 
The De Laval Separator Company 
NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO 
165 Broadway 29 E. Madison Street 61 Beale Street 
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My Engine 
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Worked 
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Change Power 
as Needed 
It is a 6 H. P. when you need 
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