The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-10-30
BALTIMORE.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 80, 1860

land State Agricultural falr commences To-Day.
Viewed simply in the light Of a show, it presents
attractions of more than ordinary interest; but
when regarded, as it ought to be, as promoting
the cause of agriculture and illustrating It's pro-
gress, the value of such Fairs and of the Associa-
tions under whose auspices they are gotten up,
will scarcely admit of being over-estlmated.-
During the whole period that the Agricultural
Society of the State has been in existence, it has
been sustained, up to the last session of the Legs-
ture, solely by private enterprise and by private
lberalty. Under such circumstances, the strug-
gle TO place its affairs upon permanent footing
has been an arduous one, and but for the pecu-
mary aid afforded it by few of its more promi-
nent members it would not only have failed to
have accomplished the good it has DONE but in
all probability, would now be classed amongst
the things that were. 1t is, however, great
source of qualification TO know that its future
prospects are bright and promising. By the as
sistance received from the State last winter, it
is now freed from the embarrassments which
sensiby impeded its career of usefulness,
and although tine annual appropriation which
it is henceforth authorized to draw from
the public treasury, amounts TO q sum that is
but triiliug in comparison TO what other States
have granted for similar purposes, it is neverthe-
less sufficient TO establish the Society upon firm
basis than il has occupied heretofore, and by the
Legislative sanction which has thus been given to
its well-founded claims to be classed with those
Institutions which are deserving of State aid, it
has finally succeeded in securing to itself that rank
to which, in public estimation, it has long been en-.
titled. tits scarcely necessary to point out the
salutary influence which such societies have ex-
erted in fostering and encouraging a progressive
improvement in all the various branches of rural
indusry-drectly by promoting the adoption of
a better system of husbandry than formerly pre-
vailed, and indirectly by assisting to give curren-
cy to the splendid discoveries of agricultural
chemistry, and publicity to such new and import
ant inventions in mechanical arts as tend to
facilitate the operations of tage and to economiZe
manual labor. The importance of these functions,
and the good results that have accrued from their
exercise, both at home and abroad, can be best
illustrated by contrasting the condition of agri-
culture at the close of the last century with what
it is at the present day. Since the organization
of the English Royal Agricultural Society, which
was incorporated somewhere about forty years
ago, the average yield of wheat per acre has been
nearly or quite doubled recent statistics indicating
that Ethe actual productive power of Great Bri-
"tain, in the article of wheat alone, increased,
during the half century from 1901 to 1851, TO
'the extent of supporting additional population
''of seven millions" To an equal extent SINH
lar increase of yield is apparent in all the other
n thp md t,,bo
Three acres of grass were formerly allotted for the
support of single mich COW; now a single acre
will suffice. We might multiply instances, but
we simply desire TO show the great progress that
has been made in the science of agriculture and
to trace out how intimately that progress has been
connected with the introduction and spread
of agricultural societies. 1t is to State
and local Associations that we, on this
continent, must look for changes equally
great. Already they have accomplished much,
but much more yet remains to be done, and as of
all modes of disseminating knowledge and of dis
sipating traditional prejudices, that of example is
the most efficacous, it must be evident that Agri-
cultural Fairs are Of the greatest practical i'm
portance. 1t is only at such places that clear
understanding of the progress Of improvement
during the previous year can be had. 1t is there
that the latest inventions in iaborsaving machines
and implements may be seen to the best of advan-
tage-it is there also that the eye of the Farmer
may be educated to discriminate between the rel
alive value ofcommon grades of cattle and those
whose qualities have been improved by careful
selections. 1t is there he may see practical illus
tration of the marked disparity that exists between
his own gaunt large boned, and coarse woolled
sheep, and the broad backed South Downs or the
new Leicesters and Teeswaters with their propen-
sty to fatten, and carrying feeces averaging from
six TO seven pounds each in weight. He may con-
trast his indifferent mich COWS with the stately
and graceful Durhams, the noble Herefords, and
those splendid "cream pot' breeds, the Durhams,
Ayrshires and Jerseys. There also he may be
brought to confess, what he and the world in
general once doubted-that there is beauty even
in hog, and that between those ravenous,
long, sab-sided things which were at one time the
accredited representatives" of the porcine genus
and the round barrelled Berkshires, or Chesters,
there is as wide difference as there is between a
jack pike and q salmon. But this is not the only
advantage Of State Fairs. The prizes award
ed to the best articles that are entered for
competition excite q spirit of emulation, not
only in Farmers themselves, but also
among the makers of agricultural machines and
implements. The activity of inventors is thus in
creased by the periodical stimulus which is given
to their energies, and the reward which follows
the introduction of any Improvement that comes
into general USE 1t was long ago said that the
man who caused two blades of grass to grow
where but one blade grew before was benefactor
to his country and it is the special object of Ag-
rcultura Societies, and of the fairs that held
under their auspices, to promote this result.
Their success has been commensurate with the
support they have received, and with the intelli-
gence that has guided their operations In the
older States of the Union they have had obstacles
to encounter which could only lie overcome by
unwearied perseverance. They have had to con-
tend with the fatal facility which the Territories
offered to the old school of farmers to open out new
farms in the wilderness in preference to renovating
their own exhausted acres. They have had,
moreover, to combat the prejudices of those
who ridiculed book-hrming," and who bc-
lieved that the F|sknning process was the
only one by which crops could be raised at ALL
who sought to make up for the consequences
of shallow ploughing and Indifferent culture by
breadth of tillage, and who imagined that no pos
sible routine of farm labor could be superior to
that which was adopted by their fathers and
grandfathers At last, however, the sickle and
the scythe have yielded to the reaping machine;
the fail to the horse power and the threshng ma
chine and the old CAREY plough with its wooden
mould board plated with iron, and sometimes
with tin, which was in common use with
in the memory of the present generation, has
been thrown contemptuously aside to make way for
cast iron ploughs of unexampled lightness of
draught, because constructed upon scientific prin-
ciples, and adapted to the nature of the soil in
which they are to be used. All these, and
wony more, beneficial innovations we owe,
at least, in part, to Agricultural Societies, and
to their annual expostions, and whatever they
have done for economizing labor, or in the
way of increasing the productiveness of the soil,