RARIS EXHIBITION—AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

Southland Times, Issue 3319, 8 February 1879, Page 3

RARIS EXHIBITION—AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

; The Paris corregponJent of the Times writes the following : — The application of steam to agriculture is of comparatively recent introduction, and, indeed, may be saiii to'date'from scarcely thirty years ago, but the idea is old, and many clear-sighted men seem to, have long foreseen its final adoption. The reason of the tardy application" of. steam to a branch of inudustry in which it has proved so effective as. in agriculture, and*, in fact, the relativelyrecent and sudden leap, so to speak, which all agricultural implements made at about the time when steam ploughing came into ■ fashion, from a position now esteemed primitive to a stage so immensely higher, is probably to be sought not so much in the character of the ' machinery' itself as in a change- of the social cbnditiou of the countries, in which a demand for high-class machinery has arisen. When manual labor is cheajy rtnd the cultivation is Avhat the German economic writers call * exten- * give, 1 in contradistinction to 'intensive,' * the outlay of capital necessitated by the employment of the '.most Recent inventions * is, generally speaking, out of the question , owing. to the low price of grain. This is, however, only a' tendency, and exceptions : are-plentiful, mostly, due to the experimen- I ■ tal condition of a time, perhaps, of. transi- I ■ 'tion^ iTn -South Russia, for instance, the demand for advanced agricultural machinery has arisen chiefly from the emancipation of the'serfs, a revolution which has resulted in' a state of things similar, it seems, to. that of Ireland. The peasant is satisfied - to live "on the little property that has fallen to his share, and has -left the great .proprietors in the -rather' difficult position., of having everything they could desire, both as regards soil and'de'riiand for their produce, except laborers.' This is an excepVtional- case ;• less exceptional, perhaps, is • ! that of Hungary, where there is also a demand for steam-driven implements. In Jfijance and many parts of Germany, on the other hand, the minute partition of the soil is qombined with much intelligence and appreciation of the recent progress of .- agricultural machinery, but warn t of capital -■■ preyents the purchase of -expensive implement* by individual holders, and this has resulted in a cumbrous system of hire which" has fallen into the hands of small capitalists, who require disproportionate .profits, owing to the petty .scale, on which ' their business is done. Such circumstances ,■ and many others have made the spreading ' of new "methods of agriculture fitful, and in, England itself the comparatively recent invention of the high-class implements now prevailing, may be due in no small measure to the changes produced by the rise of our great industrial centres.England, with the most advanced system,' of working the land, is 'not an agricultural country, and is becoming yearly less a corn- ' growing' one '; but her implements are revolutionizing,the method of other countries,' and "at this Universal Exhibition they take a position in which no other country can compete with'her. It seems as if England, having, satisfied her own wants, had ' now turned her inventive faculty chiefly to '" those of tfie foreigner/ Nearly every ex- . Hbitor in the British Agricultural Annexe has this or that apparatus adapted "to the special requirements of one country, or • another, as will be* seen hereafter. Nothing I may add, is more interesting than a visit to this annexe, with' the aid at different '■■ stands 61 the representatives Of tiie ! firms exhibiting. Some of ffiese gentlemen have \ spirit years : iri /the countries ior which .'■ ! '^"^en:''MyeT^ ; machine.s'are made, and their ... 'explanations i are iip. many cases'almost a;. fresh page in ;the history of civilisation. ■ : - This^is, indeed,, a feature of 'the depart- ; inen£ in question, Vandj "added to 'the uni- r form courtesy with which every inqiury is . at once replied to: .by all firms, ;frprn their ; . chiefs to &eir portera, mucK .conti-asts-with. .: the state of ! things; in ;the JVenchbranch^ : where it is Tare, in: the first .place, Ftor.'findj ' aperson who ■ knows ; anything about, the machines— where the visitor in five out of six cases isinf orrned tifiatthe proper' person; will be; forthcoming in the course of half , 'an hour if he will be kind enough to wait .— an(i w^here the ..proper .person^ w.ijen' at : : leng^secirred,:s;eems in ' in a position' for receiving tiian x imp%rtingj information, anymore i anxious, to sell than :. to explain. I cannot, word i this reproach too. strpnglyj f or at an exhibition the exihibitors. should do their; best, to; interest : yisitors whether purchasers or not;i _Tohave any -but the best .'representatives is a palpable mistake in any case; ■-^ •

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