The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-23 00:00:00

The whole area is enclosed with boards, and the interior is
laid out with every attention to the convenience of exhibitors,
and the accommodation of visitors. There are no fewer than 13
very long sheds or tents of woodwork covered with canvass,
the greater part of which is perfectly water-tight. Each de-
partment, such are the arrangeinents, will be-s'eparate and-
distinct. The portion of the area appropriated to the exhibi-
tion of implements of husbandry, seeds, roots, &c, is at the
north end, next to Canning-street, and contains four sheds,
running parallel east and west the whole breadth of the
ground. These are sixteen feet wide, and the pillars that
support them back and front are twelve feet asunder. A
portion of the south shed is fitted with tables for the show
of seeds, roots, vegetables, curious or rare forest trees, &c.
The long avenues between are each twenty feet wide. The
south side of the fourth shed from Canning-street is at pre-
sent boarded up, and will remain so, the better to separate
the implements and the cattle, until Wednesday, when the
boards will be removed in the night, so that the whole area
and its contents will be seen by the public as far as possible
in one uninterrupted view.
The ground southward of the implement sheds (and which
comprises about two-thirds of the whole square) is occupied
by nine long sheds running parallel with each other from north
to south, and each also of sixteen feet wide. Five of these,
on the west, are appropriated for cattle and horses, and four,
on the east side, for sheep and pigs. The avenues between
these are thirty-nine feet nine inches in width, and as well as
the others in the implement yard form delightful promenades.
The cattle sheds are peculiarly constructed and railed off in
stands or stalls below, so that visitors may walk along close
to the animal's heads under shelter of the roof. On each side
of all the sheds, and at a short distance from them, small
trenches are dug, to drain off any rain that may fall, and con-
duce to the dryness and comfort of the footing. The roofs
of all the sheds for implements, and of the most of these
for cattle, &c., are covered with large sheets of semi-tran-
sparent waterproof cloth, of an amber colour. The remainder,
on the east side, are rendered almost as secure, in the event
of showers, by vessels'sails,—chiefly topsails, and top-gallant
sails, that have erewhile borne many a gallant ship across the
ocean. All these coverings are neatly and tightly secured,
and the whole erections suggest the idea, of a new settlement
or town for emigrants in Australia, or some tropical country.
An immense quantity of timber was, of course, required to
complete them. The sheep pens are remarkably well ar-
ranged. Where there are four pens together, a pole is fixed
in the centre, surmounted by a square box or four-sided
placard board, resembling a lantern' each side facing oue of
the pens, and each bearing the number of the pen, and the
description of the sheep on a large placard, and the reward,
if any, on a large card over it. Every single stall or standing
will be also numbered on tickets, with the description of the
animal in like manner. At our former shows for this and
the adjoining counties this satisfactory manner of indexing
the breed, &c., was not fully or uniformly attended to.
At the centre of the south end of the enclosure, and outside
of it, there is a reception or entrance yard for the cattle, &c.,
of eighty feet in length by forty in breadth. The ground is
here so excavated that carts, &c., with cattle, pigs, or sheep
may back up with the body of ie machine on a level with
the cattle yard, so that the animals may walk out without
being lowered, or driven down an inclined stage or scaffold—
which will be a great convenience. The inner corners of this
yard (on the north) are occupted by two commodious rooms
built of wood, for the accommodation and meetings of the
council of the association, the committees, the clerks, and
others connected with the conduct of the proceedings.
On the south side of the yard are four erections resembling
large sentry boxes, each having an opening or window to the
south, at which admission tickers to the show will be sold to
applicants on the two first days of public admission. For
Friday, when the pr:ces will be lowered to ls., similar acco-
modations are provided at the north-west corner of the en-
closure, which is the nearest to the town. . .

The whole, now that it is filled with cattle decorated with
ribbons, and implements, &c., presents a highly animated and
most interesting appearance. The society is indebted for the
entire plan and arrangements to Mr. Thomas Gibbs; and to
'Mr. Humphrey Gibbs, the dierector of the show, assisited by
his brother, Mr. B. T. B. Gibbs, all belonging to the old
established and well known concern of Messrs. Thomas
Gibbs and Co., nursery and seedsmen, Half-Moon-street,
Piccadilly, for superintending the erections. Mr. H. Gibbs,
who was also director of the two former meetings of the asso-
ciation, at Oxford and Cambridge, and is director of the
Smithfield Club, has acquired much experience in this line,
and has gone through the arduous task con amore, and with
that persererance which enthusiasm in the cause could alone
supply.
The show of cattle, horses, sheep, &c., is, we may venture
to say, the finest, whether as regards numbers or quality,
which has ever yet been witnessed. It were impossible for
an alderman to look at the fat horned cattle without feeling

his mouth water, and longing to see before him smoking on
the board one of those prime pieces of beef (of which the
stalls would supply hundreds) upon which James 1., in his
penchant for such substantials, conferred the honour of
knighthood, while he sojourned at Hoghten Town, in this
county.
The visitor to the implement yard will be struck with the
beauty and ingenuity of the vast number of machines and
instruments, some of complex, others of simple construction,
and all of indubitable utility to the husbandman, that there
meet his astonished sight.
We have obtained a passing glimpse of the whole. Most
of them are entirely of new invention, and many of them ex-
ceedingly neat and ingenious ; but it were premature to notice
them fully until they are put to the test of trial, or to name
the inventors in detail until the respective prizes are awarded.
Suffice it here to say that they comprise numerous descrip-
tions of harrows, ploughs, drill-sowing, harrowing, grubbing,
rolling, cutting, threshing, winnowing, grinding, bruising,
and other machines; all sorts and sizes, in fine, of apparatus
for horse and man power, to torture the poor soil into mel-
lowness, to prepare it for, and impregnate it with, the seed,
to gather in the harvest and prepare it for use—in fact, to do
all but masticate the food for her majesty's lieges, when it is
cooked or baked, which operation alone is left to their own
jaws. One contrivance struck us as admirable,—a cart with
machinery, that canbe thrown out of or into gear at pleasure,
to cut turnips for sheep or cattle in the field, and leave them
on the ground as it proceeds of about the size of potatoe sets.
There is also a portable threshing machine (on wheels) worked
by a five-horse power high-pressure engine, by a manufac-
turer in Birmingham. We also noticed churns, cheese-
presses, and turners, many of " Ransome's" celebrated im-
plements for sowing turnips, corn, clover-seed, trefoil, &c.,
&c., and great numbers of machines for cutting straw, hay,
turnips, and other fodder, and for crushing the same.
Amongst the numerous articles exhibited are also several
specimens, in large flags, of the Blue Lias, or Warwickshire
Stone, so much approved of for the laying of barn floors, &c.,
from the birth-place of the immortal Shakspeare.
The nursery stands or tables will be viewed with great in-
terest. At that of MessJs. Gibbs, (before noticed) some
fine specimens of dried grasses, the seed of which is adapted
for permanent pasture, will be shown ; also a variety of
roots and plants of extraordinary properties and dimensions.
Our townsman, Mr. Skirving is, as usual, up and doing.
He will show fine samples of seeds, roots, rare forest
trees and shrubs, and various kinds of manure, the properties
of which will be explained. Amongst the trees we observed a
fine specimen of the Araucaria Imbricata, a species of pine tree
from the mountains of South America, which has recently
been introduced into this country, and is not only highly
decorative in lawns and pleasure grounds, but is sufficiently
hardy to withstand our climate, and produces a timber much
superior to our native fir trees. It is a beautiful evergreen
with hard leaves closely placed and completely enveloping
the trunk and branches. Here too, under one of the sheds,
is pitched a handsome round portable tent, from the manu-
factory of Mr. Edginton, marquee, tent, and flag manufactu-
rer, of London.