The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1859-09-17
The State Agricultural Fair.

The State Agricultural Fair.
Not having been able to attend the
! State Fair at Freeport, in person, nor hav
ing the spare funds to pay a reporter, We
are obliged to avail ourselves Of the labors
OF our contemporaries in giving an account
| of the exhibition. We make up the fol
lowing chiefly from "Rurals" corrcspon
dence in the Chicago Press and 7riJun,
availing ourselves also occasionally Of the
correspondence of the Chicago Journal
The first day of the fair was taken up
mainly iu receiving and entering articles
and placing them in order As every rail
road train brought many car loads this was
no slight labor, and the quickness and
good order with which it was despatched.
was highly creditable to the management
of the fair. The first days receipts
amounted to about $500.
Second Day.
This, the second day of the Fair has
proved pecuniarily profitable, the receipts
being over $1,000, while yesterday they
amounted to SS5I. The Fair, as an exh;-
bition of the Agricultural resources of the
State does not come up to expectation
and is inferior to some Of its predecessors.
10 the hard times together with the
new DISCOURAGE of a serious and prob
able fatal injury TO the corn and potatoe
crops, from the late frosts, is this result at
tributed The officers and managers of
the Society and the Fair, havo certainly
left nothing undone, on their part, to rem
der il a success The course of the hotels
in raising their prices 80 cents and 81 per
day, Is also having bad effect. The city
authorities are also engaged III dampen-
ing the ardor Of showmen, peddlers, dc,
by causing their arrest for license, and
iining them heavily.
The great strength of the Fair, lies in
the display of Stock and Agricultural I'm
plements, which after all are the true ele-
ments Of sucha show. In this respect the
Fair is an improvement, for very few out
side matters have any place here, and this
clicits praise from the Agricultural eoCr,ss
present.
The general arrangements Of the Fair
Grounds, with their buildings, stalls ring,
&c, for the accommodation of the exhibi-
ton in its various departments, are similar
TO those offormer Fairs, and gotten up with
much taste aad jud yment
Outside the enclosure cf the Fair G rounds
any number o: tents are pitched Of variou,
sizes and for different purposes Winne-
bago and Carroll counties have provided
sleeping apartments for their DELEGATIONS
in capa .ious tents while the Metropolitan
Hotel folks have their immense canyasses
spread out for their guests
Third Day.
The additions to the show are both nu-
merous and interesting The show is a
pecuIiary success. ON Monday the re-
ceipts were 500, on Tuesday, $22oJ, and
" ednesolay Ito day. it reached $1,000
The great event has been the trial of
Fawkc,' Steam Piow. ON TUESDAY. a; the
direction of the Committee of Engineers,
Mr Fawkcs made various demonstrations
of the working of his machine, perhaps
the severest of which WAS 10 ascend and j.
descend steep grades. The machine was
al all tunes apparently under perfect con
troll and It's movements seemed absolutely
10 the slightest touch On the lev
crs. 1t has been thought that on smooth
sod. with very short tuft, the rollers OF
the machine would slip, ana It's power OF
progression be lost 10 test this. the Com
Iuittee caused it 10 be run into n slough,
the banks OF which were more than ord:-
narily steep. and the machine descended
and a-cended with perfect ease and with
out shock. Others like ourself, who had
previously concluded that the Steam PloH
was an unwicldly affair after witnessing
It's operations yesterday aud to-day, gladly
their veriicts. The Committee
then proceeded to examine the extent and
quality OF its work. In one instance, il
p.owei at the rate of an acre in II min
utes, the strip chosen being a quarter of
an acre in size, and the work was compile ,
ted IN three minutes; while in another in
stance, the area was plowed III ten minutes (
! he width Of It's work is feet I inches, /
and the plows may be set 10 any depth up
70 SIX inches. The depth of the iurrow
slice is regulated in the usual way by the /
wheel ~ the end of the beam. The plow /
was set at different depths, from three in /.
chcs To six inches.
Fawkes Plow was again subjected to
trial this Wednesday afternoon. 1t plow- /
ed .j yards in 81 seconds, or an acre in /
from slough, a rise Of one foot in four,
cutting eight burrows, each fourteen inch
as in width. The consumption of water
was 63 gallons in one hour and forty min
ltes. We have not yet learned the amount (
Of fuel consumed. The experiment Of to-
lay is highly satisfactory
We commence at the south end and first
meet the fine herd Of Durhams of Colonel (
Dunlap of Morgan County, the noticeable
If which is Admiral, imported, a fine ami
nal |; bull calf, Col. Devon, thirteen months
Did, pure white, for size and form is all
hat could be desired; Friendship a year
ing hei!er, red roam Lady Menard, anoth-
n yeariing heiier light roam pair of beau
les; Molly Cotton, I'd, pure white, two
ears old, fully establishes the fact of rich
eed dowu in old Morgan.
Robt Pollock, OF Morgan, exhibits Dill
ydolly, a five year old COW, of very large
ize and fine form; his bull Belmont red
oan, five years old, and is probably the
'est bull in the State since the unfortunate
leath of Defender. Old coke and corn
neal in July is decidedly hard food when
nature has prescribed clover, pure water
md out door exercise; this ambiiion to
how fat animals has had its day, ,ccpt
When intended for the butchers Col j.
\. Brown has a fine herd; his imported
,ull Alfred is desirable animal, and
matches well with Rachel imported at the
anne time and for which he paid S3,O25.
The Col. has all fine animals, but they are
perfect mountains of flesh, too much SO
or their own comfort A little less corn
With that blue grass, Capt. W. Y. Cham
'erlain, of Ohio has several head of good
took. j. d. Smith, of Sangamon has q
hoice herd, but D. p Henderson is ahead
N size, with his three year old heifer La
ly Washington, weighing two thousand
she is pure white, and such a
of flesh at three years old is not
ften met with. He has eight head. all Sc