The Express.
London, England, 1851-05-10 00:00:00

FOR TIIE WEEK ENDING

SATURDAY, MAY 10.

On Monday the public weir, for the first time, ad-
mitted to view the Exhibition, on payment of bi.
at the doors. This charge was sufficiently moderate
to attract many thousands of people; and throughout
the week sums earying from 1,0001. to 2,000,. have
been dude taken at the entrances to the building.
Althouglitlwre have seldom been Ices (includiug
season-ticket holders) than from twenty to thirty
thousand visitors in the building, no crowding has
been experienetd. The nature of its contents—pre-
senting attractions in every nook and corner—ex-
plains this equal dispersion of this vast number of
individuals. Gradually arrangements have been
perfirted for the large adtnissiun and dispersion of
visitors. The eastern entrance has been selected as
that fur the achnissiun of pedestrians only; au office
for the reception of lust articles has been instituted;
ashimat.haradmpl_nalle la On_ OM a_ ran":

carriages have been finally detemuned upon.
Throughout the week many additions have
been made to the foreign collections ; and
the divisions, as yet incomplete in their ar-
rangements, have been prom del with. In the
main avenue of the foreign half of the building many
interesting objects will now be found which had not
been finally placed on the gnat opening day ' • and
in the French compartments arc many new and bril-
liant specimens of Parisian taste and ingenuity. The
Queen and Prince Albert have been frequent visitors.
Daily the numbers of visitors have increased, and
altogether the pecuniary receipts for the week cannot
fall tar short of 10,000/. The continuous line of car-
riages which has been seen throughout the week in
Piccadilly and Hyde-park, and the crowds of people
who continue front sunrise till sunset to loiter about
the building, show how the public curiosity is grow-
ing. The eondition of London streets generally begin
rapidly to show that the Great Exhibition time has
arrived, even now, before one monster train, bear-
iag its loud of curious mechanics, hus reached the
metropolis.
It is expected that full another fortnight will
elapse before et-try part of the internal arrangements
of the building will be finally completed.
The southern gallery of the foreign department is
that port of the building which is in the most dis-
orderly and unfinished state, and the slowness with
which the French proceed here has been a matter of
genend remark ; but, if pressed by the authorities,
there is little doubt thUt it is possible to have every
department of the vast collection in thorough order
before the great rush of shilling visitors is admitted.
In the British machinery department arrangements
have proceeded rapidly throughout the week, and
now nearly all the models are in excellent working
order, hut it yet remains for the authorities to insist
upon the erection of secure railings to fenco off the
visitors from the saws and wheels which surround
them. This precaution will undoubtedly be taken
before the shilling visitors are admitted. The
English exhibitors have been circulating a ru-
mour to the effect that they intend to give
a grand banquet to their foreign competitors
in the course of the summer ; such a mark of cor-
diality would undoubtedly be responded to enthusi-
astically. Rumours of other and great fesewities (err ,-
pee of the Exhibition are rumoured ; but the ardour
of the convivial intention has been as vet somewhat
damped by the inclement weather which has pry-
Tailed throughout the week. Taking a general sur-
vey of the present aspect of London in connexion
with the Exhibition, it may be confidently said that
up to the present time the result even of the most
sanguine anticipate has been fully realised, and
that the metropolis bids fair to present in the course
of a few weeks scenes as unrivalled as they will be
curious and interesting.

CoNTENTS OF THE GLASS PALACE

TILE AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS AND
PUODUCE.

There is, perhaps, nu department of the Exhibi-
tion vehicle has excited more surprise amongst
numerous and educated classes of our own country-
men, or more admiration in the minds of our intelli-
gent foreign visitors, than the agricultural implements.
Our textile manufactures, our hardware, our glass.
our poreelain, our furniture, and so forth, are known
to all to be of must superior character, and great as
are the triumphs of manufacturing art in these
branches of native industry, nobody is in any way
astonished. Much has 'been accomplished ; true,
but much was expected, and the applause accorded is
that given to the well graced actor un whose tried
powers all relied with confidence. in regard to the
implements and machinery used in husbandry there
is this difference.one-half our community did not half
comprehend what the other halt hat besm doing—what
strides it had made—during the last twenty years.
Many persons, taking the "agricultural interest" at
its word, giving inure or less of quasi-credence to its
loud complaints, and assuming the predictions of
ruin uud abandonment of culture, vouched by dukes.
lords, and squires, to have some slight tbutufation in
reality, have felt and expressed utter amazement ut
the perfection and cost of the machinery made fur
husbandry, and still more at the multitude of com-
petitors, showing the effective demand which exists
fur such articles. They have said, " there may N.
difficulties; amongst farmers. there may be some ne-
cessity fur changes in methods of culture, or for re-
newed and mare strenuous exertions arising from
altered circumstances, hut surely it cannot be a ruined,
not even a declining interest, Mr which these in-
genious and costly implements are made;" and they
have judged must truly. Agriculture in this country
is adsaucing in all its brunettes, and in none more
than in such as are promoted by. ur depend upon
the use of, improved machinery. And even
those who have been accustomed to visit
from year to year the annual shows of
the Royal Agricultural Society, cannot fail to be
struck with the improved character of the majority
of the implements shown during the last few years.
When first these annual meetings commenced, now
twelve years ago, the stimulus given to mechanical
ingenuity, us applied to agriculture, appeared to have
the effect of producing a great ninny implements
highly ingenious, but too complex to stand the test of
trial under the rough work and in the rough han-
dling of every day fanning. Not a small amount of
money was at one time expended in machines which
have proved little better than agricultural tors.
This has gradually passed away, and nearly all the
implements now shown are remarkable for simplicity
of construction and adaptation to the rude hands to
whom in use they are committed.
Of this, perhaps, no class of implements offers a
more forcible illustration than that numerous one in-
tended her the pulverbtat. of the soil, the subsoil
ploughs, harrows, cloderushers, cultivators, grubbers.
and scarifier&
There are exhibited of these machines many in
which there are considerable practical variances. such
as requiring more or less heirse-power, being suitable
more especially to light or strong land, and the like.
but they all conform to one purpose—that of deeply
stirring or pulverising the soil, and thus shortening
the interval between the first turning up of the raw
furrow slice. and the formation of a well-prepared
kid-bed. Every fanner knows the immense im-
portance of a good seed-bed to successful cultivation ;
when the seed has "gore in well" a good crop is
well earned, and more than Ralf ensured; but there