The Book of the Fair - Chapter 13



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Chapter the Thirteenth:
Agriculture

The Agricultural building is among the most sightly of the Exposition 
palaces, its chaste and serious design, its wealth of decorations, and 
richness and variety of detail, making it one of the most refined and 
luxurious homes of industry that welcome this gathering of the nations. 
Fronting on the main court 800 feet, with a depth of 500, and with its 
eastern facade almost touching the waters of the lake, this structure 
occupies, apart from its annexes, a space of some nine and a half acres. 
Built with a careful regard to its effect on adjacent edifices, it was 
planned in such fashion as to secure the best disposition of its contents, 
together with the lighting needed for a comparison of the agricultural 
products of our own and foreign lands, between many of which their 
delicate shades of distinction cannot be readily detected. 

After considering their plan, the New York firm of architects by whom was 
designed this temple of Ceres, decided to erect their main building around 
a hollow square, divided in the centre by two open naves intersecting at 
right angles, and on their sides two-storied aisles, with longitudinal 
passage-ways through the four courts into which the floor is divided. 
Passing between the Corinthian pillars at the principal entrance, more 
than 60 feet wide, the visitor enters a vestibule profusely adorned with 
statuary emblematical of agriculture and agricultural pursuits, the 
vestibule leading into a rotunda, 100 feet in diameter, and surmounted by 
a glass dome 130 feet in height. At the top of the building and around it 
is an arcade, and at the corner are pavilions, also with domical 
treatment. The edifice if fashioned after the style of the classic 
renaissance; portions of its walls are painted with allegorical figures, 
and on the outer sides, as well as in the interior is a luxury of 
pictorial, sculptural, and other artistic ornaments, relieving the 
stateliness of the design. 

While none but the most captious among the pilgrims of the Fair will be 
disposed to find fault with this structure, in itself a well-nigh perfect 
work of art, it has been objected, and not without reason, that nearly one 
half of the space was devoted to aisles and other passage-ways. To the 
distribution of that space exception has also been taken; but by the 
artificers and managers these apparent defects are explained through 
considerations that need not here be mentioned. To Great Britain were 
allotted more than 13,000 feet, and to France, a greater agricultural 
country, only 7,000 feet. Australia has 8,60 feet, while to such 
agricultural states as Kansas and California, both with a much larger 
volume and variety of agricultural production, only some 2,000 feet were 
awarded. Russia has 9,500 feet, and Italy and Spain but 3,000 or 3,500 
feet for each; but in all cases the allotment of space has been regulated 
rather by the character and extent of the display than by the agricultural 
output of the territorial divisions here represented. 

Adjoining the Agricultural building is a large annex, near one of the 
stations of the elevated railway, and of which a portion is used as an 
assembly hall, and as a common meeting ground for persons engaged or 
interested in agricultural and stock-raising industries. On the ground 
floor is a bureau of information, where 

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are attendants whose duty it is to give to visitors such knowledge as they 
may desire, not only concerning the hall and its purposes, but as to the 
main building and its contents, with other portions of the Exposition. 
Here and on the second floor are waiting-rooms and apartments suitable for 
committees and associations, whose secretaries are always at hand. 

In none of the homes of the Fair has sculptural and pictorial 
embellishment been more happily blended with architectural design. Above 
the gilded dome is poised St. Gauden's gilded statue of Diana, appearing 
to better advantage as thus transferred to its lofty pedestal from the 
Madison Square garden in New York. Over the corner pavilions are Martiny's 
figures of the races, in four groups of colossal female forms, supporting 
mammoth globes. All are identical in pose, and it is said, produced from a 
single mould, a different head being placed on each of the models. On the 
pediments of these pavilions are groups by the same artist, representing a 
shepherdess with her flock, and a shepherd with his dogs, all in his 
happiest style. Other of his contributions are those which portray, in 
classic symbolism, the signs of the zodiac and the emblems of abundance, 
the fluted drapery of the latter concealing their opulence of form, some 
holding under their wings the horns of plenty, and others with tablets on 
which are inscribed the names of products emblematic of the seasons. Still 
another of his groups is typical of agriculture, the tall impersonation of 
that industry rising above the branching horns of oxen, yet in perfect 
symmetry and poise. Over the principal entrance is a statue of Ceres, by 
the Florentine artist Larkin J. Mead, who parted with his treasure 
somewhat reluctantly, and only because, as he remarked, it would reveal to 
our American artists what sculpture really is. Let us hope that his 
brethren of the craft have laid the lesson to heart. 

The decorations in graphic art are by George W. Maynard, of New York. At 
one side of the main entrance Cybele is seated in her chariot, drawn by 
lions, and on the opposite side, in a car to which winged dragons are 
yoked, is King Triptolemus, sent forth by the mother of the gods to 
instruct all the nations of the earth in the science of agriculture. 
Between them are allegorical figures set in a framework of grain and 
fruit. At the corner pavilions are figures emblematic of the seasons, and 
on the friezes above, those of domesticated animals. 

In the department of agriculture are included not only the fruits of the 
soil in the shape of food and forage plants, but all the articles 
manufactured from those products, whether in solid or liquid form. Thus in 
one group we find bread and biscuits, starches and pastes; in another, 
sugars and syrups; in a third, malt and 

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alcoholic liquors, wines being represented in the Horticultural division. 
Here also are meats, smoked, salted, canned or as extracts, and in a 
separate structure, the products of the dairy. Agricultural machinery, 
implements, and processes are fully represented, with fertilizing 
substances, both animal and mineral. There are farm buildings, models, 
methods, plans, and statistics, and classed in this division, though 
housed elsewhere are exhibits of Forestry, and all that the forest 
supplies. 

To the residents of the several states of which Chicago is the main centre 
of distribution, and supply, the Exposition has no more attractive 
features than its Agricultural and Live-stock departments, the latter 
presently to be described. Of the entire grain receipts of that city, 
valued for 1892 at about $150,000,000, from eighty to ninety percent is 
shipped to domestic and foreign markets, where also is forwarded either on 
hoof or as meats and lard, as hides and wool, the bulk of its live-stock 
consignments, representing for the same year a valuation of more than $250,
000,000. The region tributary to Chicago, including, as it does, a wide 
section of the western and middle states, is largely devoted to 
agricultural and stock raising, furnishing indeed a very considerable 
proportion of the food supply of the world. 

In all the United States there are probably not less than 10,000,000 
persons engaged in various branches of agriculture, while each one so 
engaged supports on an average at least two other persons. Thus it will be 
seen that nearly one half the population of the republic is directly 
dependent on agriculture for a livelihood, the 

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number actually employed far exceeding those engaged in all other fields 
of labor. Add to this the part that agriculture plays in our commerce, our 
manufacturing, shipping, railroad, and other interests, and it probably 
surpasses in economic, if not in money value, all other productive 
industries combined. While in some directions, and especially in cereals, 
over-production has been followed by a heavy decline in prices, leaving 
but the smallest margin of profit, and in unfavorable years a positive 
loss, the more intelligent farmers have fully held their own, many of them 
raising a variety of products, and with special regard to present and 
prospective demand. 

In no country in the world are there so many farms of considerable size 
held and worked by individual owners. If in France, Belgium, and a few 
other countries, there is, in proportion to population, a larger number of 
proprietary farmers, the average of their holdings is by comparison almost 
infinitesimal. Of the 600,000 or 700,000 Belgian farm, for instance, 
nearly one-half do not exceed ten acres; many have less than five acres, 
and instances are not rare where a family is supported on a single acre. 
Of the 5,000,000 farms under cultivation in the United States, at least 3,
500,000 are worked by their owners in holdings of from 50 to 500 acres, 
and of farmers there are about 500,000 who pay a money rental, and perhaps 
twice that number whose rent consists of a certain portion of their crops. 

Of the entire area of the United States, less than one-half is included in 
its farms, and less than one-third is under actual cultivation, the 
remaining half still containing fertile tracts, though most of its 
consists of grazing lands, of water surfaces, of mountain ranges, and of 
the desert lands west of the Rocky mountains. Meanwhile the more valuable 
portions of these lands are being absorbed under the provisions of the 
homestead and timber acts, located with scrip and warrants, or selected by 
railroads, at the rate of 15,000,00 to 20,000,000 acres a year. In other 
words, a territory almost as large as that of New England, excluding the 
single state of Massachusetts, is being segregated every twelve-month from 
that which is left of the national domain. 

During the five years ending with 1892, the United States produced an 
average crop of more than 3,000,000,000 bushels of cereals, maize ranking 
first as to volume and value of production, and next, in the order named, 
oats, wheat, barley, rye, and buckwheat. In 1892 the acreage under 
cultivation was somewhat smaller than in 1888, and with a more 
considerable 

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reduction in yield. The best of the intervening seasons was in 1891, when 
from 142,000,000 acres were produced 3,400,000,000 bushes, worth $1,600,
000,000, or an average of 24 bushels, and the average to 20 bushels, with 
a slight reduction in acreage, and proportionate returns. Of wheat there 
were produced in that year 516,000,000 bushes; of maize, 1,628,000,000, 
and of oats, 661,000,000 bushels, with acreages of 13, 23, and 24 bushels 
respectively. Considering the low prices then prevailing, and the still 
lower rates current during the following harvest season, it will be seen 
that except on a large scale, and with the most improved of labor saving 
appliances, the production of cereals is no longer a profitable industry. 

Of hay there were produced, in 1890, some 40,000,000 tons from about as 
many acres; of cotton, 7,400,000 bales from 20,000,000 acres; of flax, 10,
250,000 pounds of seed, and 240,000 of fibre from 1,300,000 acres. Of 
tobacco the average production may be stated at 500,000,000 pounds; of 
rice, one-fourth of that quantity, and of cane, beet, sorghum, and maple 
sugar, 400,000,000 pounds, or little more than ten percent of the 
consumption; for the United States is a great sugar consuming country, 
using at least 60 pounds a year per capita of its population. Such are in 
brief the recent annals and the present condition of leading agricultural 
interests as 

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represented at the Fair, and nowhere can be compared to better advantage 
the products of the great food-producing sections of the republic, and 
these again with the products of foreign lands. 

Between the annex and the central transverse nave of the main hall are the 
exhibits of the various states, of the American agricultural colleges, and 
experimental stations, and several minor foreign countries. Fronting on 
this nave are the pavilions of the leading agricultural states, including 
Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and North Carolina. Iowa occupies a 
central position among the sisterhood, and one in perfect keeping with her 
geographical position. In her palace of corn, built in the Pompeiian style 
of architecture, are contained more than 130 varieties of grain. In front 
is a railing formed of long glass tubes, filled with samples of her soil, 
the caps above them composed of grains and other products. Red, white, and 
blue corn decorate the arches and pillars of the interior, in imitation of 
mosaic work, and at the base of each column are wisps and sheaves of 
grain. The pyramids within the palace, and the domes which surmount it, 
are artistically fashioned of corn cobs, kernels, and husks, while the 
less attractive exhibits, but those which better illustrate the cereal 
wealth of the state, are classified as grain in and out of the ear. The 
pavilion covers an area of more than 2,000 square feet, and aptly 
represents a form of industry in which at least two thirds of the 
exhibitors are engaged. 

The pillars which support Nebraska's spacious pavilion are filled with her 
corn, wheat, and other grains, the first of these products being most 
extensively used in the decorations. One of the most important of her 
industries is the raising of corn for the manufacture of brooms, and these 
household articles are fashioned into several unique designs. In the 
centre of the Michigan section is a Corinthian temple, surmounted by a 
shield bearing her coat of arms. Above the main entrance is represented a 
family group, fashioned in corn and wheat, its four members on their way 
to the harvest field. The exhibits come 

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from all portions of a state whose surface and soil are greatly 
diversified, and hence are of a miscellaneous character, including wheat, 
corn, oats, rye, peas, beans, buckwheat, timothy, and clover, with many 
varieties of seeds, nuts, vegetables, and a small display of melons. 

Wisconsin's oaken pavilion, whose sides are formed of glass compartments 
for the display of cereal products, is typical of that substantial and 
prosperous state, while in the grouping of different grains in beautiful 
designs, and the decoration of the pillars and roof with the fruits of her 
soil are expressed the artistic tastes of one of the most cultured of 
western communities. There are also photographs of model farm buildings, 
and of rural scenes, with a series of colored maps contributed by the 
chief of the weather service, representing climatic changes and 
conditions. The exhibit includes, in nearly 1,000 classes, all grades of 
wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, peas and beans, with seeds of 
many varieties, as flax, timothy, red top, blue grass, millet, carroway, 
and clover, with hops, German vetches, and sorghum, and with grasses and 
forage plants of more than sixty kinds. 

Heads of grain and native grasses form the appropriate materials of which 
largely consists the decorative scheme of the Minnesota pavilion, planned 
in a series of arches, and with pillars festooned in cereal and floral 
designs. Its chief ornament is the octagonal tower upon whose panels are 
pictorial effects in wheat and grasses, emblematic of the history and 
resources of the state. Among the grains, which are displayed in jars 
barley is a prominent variety, for in Minnesota a strong effort is being 
made to encourage the raising of this cereal for consumption by Canadian 
maltsters. 

Facing the southeastern section of the rotunda is Pennsylvania's exhibit, 
housed in a structure whose base is of many colored corns arranged in 
geometric figures, with wreaths and borders of feather-like grasses. The 
roof and entrance are also decorated with designs in wheat and corn, while 
above all its rich display is a bust of William Penn, calmly surveying the 
agricultural evolution of by-gone ages. On one of the panels are 
reproduced the arms of the state - two sturdy farm-horses, one of them in 
its harness, with a shield surmounted by an eagle, and the well-known 
Pennsylvania motto, Virtue, Liberty, and Independence. On either side are 
panels covered with green moss, and serving as a 

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background for a group of agricultural implements adorned with ribbons, 
and wreaths of grass. Above the coat of arms is a keystone, fashioned of 
kernels of white and yellow corn. The keystone in truth is omnipresent, 
and in every conceivable design, so that never for a moment is the visitor 
allowed to forget that this, the so-called keystone state, is the one 
which held together the sections of the union in their hour of sorest 
trial. 

With its quaint and yet tasteful embellishment, its old-fashioned 
fireplace, where the chimney-piece, the chimney ornaments, and even the 
andirons are made of corn, the pavilion, with its wealth of decoration 
forms of itself a more interesting display that its contents can possibly 
be. Among the latter are grains, grasses, and seeds in many varieties, 
with specimens of hops, and a case filled with tobacco in the leaf. An 
interesting exhibit is that of the Woman's Silk Culture association, whose 
headquarters are in Philadelphia. In the form of an illustration is the 
silk-worm feeding on the mulberry leaf, and near by are glass jars filled 
with cocoons, and bundles of raw silk, and spools of sewing silk, the 
latter in every shade of dye. Adjacent to this group are rich silken 
fabrics and festoons of flags draped around a goodly array of diplomas 
from prominent agricultural societies. 

In a choice collection of photographs are represented Pennsylvania farm-
houses of ideal type, embowered in orchards, and overlooking fertile 
fields. Tasteful and homelike are these habitations, some of them, though 
almost coeval with the declaration of independence, showing no signs of 
decay. Worthy of note also are the charts and handsomely bound 
agricultural reports, in which is a statement of the agricultural and 
mining products, and the commerce of Pennsylvania as compared with the 
sisterhood of states. 

Next to the Pennsylvania collection is the pavilion of Illinois, one of 
the most ornate in the American section, though sharing the honors with 
other structures, and especially with that of Iowa. A commendable 

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feature, and one that is lacking in many portions of Agricultural hall, is 
its plentiful supply of comfortable seats, thus making it a favorite 
resort for tired visitors. There are four entrances to this pavilion, and 
in its centre is a corn pagoda, its base composed of jars of grain, and 
aptly representing one of the leading industries of a state whose crop of 
maize has averaged for a score of years more than 200,000,000 bushels. In 
glass cases set into the walls are numerous specimens of cereal and other 
produce, the several groups including many kinds of grain, grasses, and 
forage plants. Two of the groups consist entirely of vegetables and broom 
corn; a third of sorghum, and sugar-cane; a fourth of tobacco, hops, and 
peppers, and a fifth of hemp, flax, and cotton. Worthy of note is the 
variety of articles displayed by single exhibitors, many of whom show, 
side by side, their samples of wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, 
grasses, and forage plants, thus illustrating their diversity of products, 
for the Illinois farmer, like the Illinois merchant and manufacturer, is 
fully abreast of the times. 

In structural design the Ohio pavilion resembles somewhat a Roman temple. 
The glass columns which surround it are filled with cereals so arranged as 
to present a pleasing color effect; the cornice is also composed of glass 
compartments, through which the grains of Ohio are exhibited in all their 
variety and richness, and on the walls in various receptacles, or in the 
form of interior decorations, are 130 varieties of wheat, 128 of corn, 37 
of oats, and 102 of grasses, with a creditable display of beans and 
tobacco. In the centre is an office with reception room, in which is a 
collection of standard works on agriculture. 

In Kentucky's pavilion leaf tobacco, corn, wheat, hemp, grasses, and blue-
grass seed form the bulk of the exhibits, all of which are 

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worked into structural forms or otherwise skillfully arranged. Of the 
three groups under which the collection is classified the largest consists 
of tobacco, of which there are more than a hundred exhibitors, the 
description known as Burley leaf being repeated in several score of 
specimens. Indiana, whose section lies east of the Kentuckian group, is 
liberally represented, as befits a state which ranks among the foremost in 
volume and quality of cereal products, displaying also many varieties of 
grasses, hay, and seeds. 

Indiana's exhibits are installed in a pavilion of white, the section 
fronting the facade being decorated with corn in the ear, and grain in the 
straw. Within there are three large structures, covered with jars filled 
with the cereals of the state, a shaft of corn, not unlike an Egyptian 
needle, rising above them all. In cases are other specimens of wheat and 
oats in the stalk, collected by the head of the agricultural experiment 
station, of Purdue University. An artistic 

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feature is a large wreath of artificial flowers on one of the cases, made 
by a woman from many varieties of grain and nuts, and containing also a 
grass hopper, bee, beetle, guinea egg, pinching bug, and the tusk of a 
hog. To the Indiana exhibit the weather bureau contributes several maps, 
showing the precipitation, temperature, and rainfall within the state for 
a period of twenty-two years, and elsewhere are maps presenting data as to 
altitudes, drainage, live-stock, and agricultural products. 

The home of the empire state, somewhat out of place, as it would seem, 
among the western and southern exhibits, is a plain, unpretentious 
structure, almost severe of aspect; but in the several groups and several 
hundred classes contained therein is one of the best and largest 
collections in Agricultural hall, arranged with skill and method, and 
displaying to excellent advantage her manifold products and resources. As 
in other sections, grain forms the bulk of the display; but of beans there 
are nearly 100 specimens, with grasses, leaf tobacco, hops, flax, and 
syrup made from the cane. The picking and preparation of hops, one of the 
most picturesque of outdoor industries, are fully illustrated, and flax in 
its various forms, from the time it is harvested until made ready for the 
manufacturer, is also a feature in the New York collection. 

North Carolina completes the group of states that fill the place of honor 
fronting on the central nave, which is thus divided among the middle, 
western, and southern sections of the country. In her glass pavilion, 
divided into convenient partitions, the first group consists of cereals, 
grasses, and grass seeds, in more than 350 classes. Then come sorghum, and 
sorghum and sugar-cane syrup and seed, of which there are some fifty 
exhibitors. A third group consists entirely of peanuts, and a fourth 
almost entirely of beans. In another 

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group cotton lint, seed, and bolls are repeated in two-score specimens, 
and among them is a little flax and flax-seed. Of hops and tea there are 
single exhibits, and of interest to scientific agriculturists are the 
samples of the soils best adapted to staple products. 

Near the eastern portal Missouri occupies one of the largest sections 
allotted to a state exhibit. An ornamental railing encloses the pavilion, 
which is in four compartments, and in the centre a pyramid, on whose sides 
are worked in grains and grasses the Missourian coat of arms, the seal of 
the United States, and a Columbian medallion. From this pyramid rises a 
shaft of grain, surmounted by a terrestrial globe of silk, with the state 
of Missouri in exaggerated scale. On either side of the arched doorway at 
the principal entrance is a case containing the choicer varieties of 
Missourian grasses, and grains, tobacco, flax, hemp, sorghum, and castor 
beans are elsewhere displayed in nearly 200 classes. 

Around the stairway leading to the gallery which divides this section is a 
palace of corn, which serves as an office and reception room. Here is 
illustrated in the form of statistics and maps the growth of a leading 
branch of Missouri's industry, her corn crop reaching, and at times 
exceeding 200,000,000 bushels a year. All classes of cereals are also 
displayed in the shape of a terraced embankment, composed of jars of 
grain, and surmounted by an equestrian figure of Washington. A model of 
the great St. Louis bridge, fashioned of sugar-cane and ornamented with 
grain, occupies another portion of the pavilion, in the construction and 
decoration of which there are samples enough to load a sea-going ship. 

Except for Louisiana, the remaining exhibits of the southern states are 
grouped to the east of Missouri's pavilion. Here the two Virginias and 
Florida display their modest assortments in neat and tasteful pavilions, 
the Old Dominions giving the place of honor to tobacco with her wheat, 
corn, and oats in the background, while her western namesake reverses this 
arrangement. The state commission, the Louisiana Sugar exchange, and the 
New Orleans board of trade and Cotton exchange were mainly instrumental in 
organizing a series of exhibits which illustrate the methods of 
cultivating, harvesting, and milling rice; of producing sugar, molasses, 
and syrups, of raising cotton, and manufacturing cotton seed oil. They 
have also a large display of tobacco and cereals, together with specimens 
of soils which experiment and chemical analysis have shown to be best 
adapted to staple products. 

In the exhibit of the Louisiana Sugar exchange are photographs 
representing plantation laborers, warehouses and other buildings for 
handling manufactured products, and scenes with the exchange itself. The 
state exhibit 

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is divided into two main sections, designed to illustrate the development 
of the rice and the sugar industries. The so-called rice pavilion is 
thatched with the straw of that grain, resembling somewhat one of the 
Javanese houses on the Plaisance. It is surmounted by a marine monster in 
upright posture, with large eyes of bright colored glass. The pillars and 
walls of the sugar pavilion are of cane, both structures displaying the 
most artistic workmanship, and so arranged that they appear as one. 

A portion of the Florida section is occupied by a Grecian pavilion, which 
serves as the official headquarters, tastefully furnished with exterior 
decorations of tropical plants, jute, sugar-cane, and other native 
products. Among the exhibits are samples of soil reclaimed from the coast 
lands and everglades, those of the produce of the soil consisting of 
specimens of sugar, rice, cider, wines, honey, preserved fruits, and early 
berries, the last including a jar of strawberries gathered in the month of 
February. The small but tasteful and well ordered collection of Maryland 
completes the southern display, except for an assortment of Texan wools 
contained in the gallery. North and east of the Maryland pavilion are 
those of New Jersey and Delaware, the contents of which are to be 
commended for quality rather than quantity. Especially neat and homelike 
is the display of New Jersey products, above which is inscribed the 
following legend: "The battle ground of the Revolution, on whose fields 
many of these exhibits were grown." 

The New England participants are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
Hampshire, and Maine. Tobacco is a feature in the exhibits of the first 
two states, notwithstanding that in the former its cultivation has been 
strongly opposed by certain classes. The exhibit of Massachusetts is 
skillfully arranged, and included photographic illustrations of many of 
her crops, with literature bearing upon agricultural topics. As an 
exposition of New England husbandry, which differs widely from western 
methods, a considerable space is devoted to what is termed intensive 
farming. Here, also, is shown how to check the ravages of the gypsy moths, 
and other insect plagues. Within a glass case is a tree covered, and 
partially destroyed by the worms, with birds perched on the trunk, and 
barnyard fowls at the base in the act of devouring them. New Hampshire has 
an attractive display, in a small red building enclosed with a rustic 
fence, and representing the typical New England granary, near which are 
tables covered with jars of grain. In the yard are benches and easy 
chairs, an old-fashioned flax-wheel, plough, and other agricultural 
implements of colonial times. On either side of the door are compartments 

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in which are specimens of the sugars and syrups for which the state is 
noted. 

Across the passageway from the New Hampshire building is a pavilion 
bedecked with the brightest of the primary colors, that of Oklahoma, 
recently re-christened by its territorial legislature, the Mistletoe 
state, for this plant is found there in great abundance. As shown by the 
exhibits, its soil yields wheat, cotton, clover, maize, sorghum, timothy, 
oats, rye, barley, flax, and kaffir and broom corn. Considering that this 
territory is little more than four years old, her display is most 
creditable, and one that augurs well for her future. 

Surrounded by the main entrance of which is in the form of South Dakota, 
the main entrance of which is in the form of a large triumphal arch, with 
a doorway on either side. The pillars, arch, doorways, and the supports of 
the section walls consist of the trunks of trees which were cut in March, 
1893, many of them bearing twigs in full leaf. Wheat and grasses comprise 
the bulk of the exhibit, among the latter being specimens of the switch 
variety more than thirty feet long. Separated from this section by the 
California pavilion are those of North Dakota and Kansas, the former 
containing a profuse display of cereals, both in decorative and exhibitory 
forms. Above her pavilion is a woman of heroic stature, her right hand 
resting on a shield, and holding in her left a banner, the entire 
composition fashioned in grain, as are other elaborate designs. In the 
Kansas structure, rich in its golden hues, is proclaimed her rank as among 
the foremost of corn producing states, the figures above the principal 
entrance indicating the year of her admission to statehood, and that in 
which was dedicated the World's Columbian Exposition. 

Of the Pacific states, grouped almost in the centre of the American 
division, some are well represented in the Agricultural department, while 
others have but a slender display. First may be mentioned that of 
California, as the largest grain producing state in the group, one that in 
1850 imported 

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almost her entire supply of cereals, and now ranks among the leading 
sections of the republic in yield and export of wheat. In occasional years 
California has led all the rest in volume of production, and is among the 
few whose crop for a single season has exceeded 60,000,000 bushels. Of 
maize, a few million bushels a year are raised, and of barley, mainly for 
horse feed and brewing purposes, from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 bushels, 
with a moderate export demand. 

But cereal farming, and especially wheat farming, is no longer a 
profitable industry in California, unless conducted on a large scale, and 
with improved appliances. For this the reasons are not far to seek, with 
wheat selling, as in recent years, at from 70 to 80 cents a bushel, with 
labor at $2 a day in the harvest season, and often not to be had at that. 
Then there are excessive freight charges, with delay and difficulty in 
moving crops, large quantities of wheat remaining unhoused by the side of 
railroad tracks, where at times it becomes spoiled while awaiting 
transportation. No wonder that the smaller class of grain-growers cannot 
compete with those of Russia and Hindostan, where freights are almost 
nominal, and wages from a fourth to a tenth of California rates. But on 
the larger farms, some of them with many thousand acres planted in wheat, 
the use of steam power in ploughing, planting, and harvesting has so 
diminished the cost of production, that in favorable locations wheat can 
be raised and placed at tide-water for less than thirty cents a bushel. 

Of hay the California crop is from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 tons, largely of 
alfalfa, as there is named the lucerne of the eastern states. With the aid 
of labor-saving appliances this can be raised at a cost of $1 a ton, 
inclusive of cutting, curing, and stacking, while on irrigated lands three 
or four crops a year, each of as many tons to the acre, are no uncommon 
yield. Vegetables are largely raised, and especially beans and potatoes, 
the average yield of the former exceeding 50,000 tons, mainly of the Lima 
variety, while of the latter and of winter vegetables many thousands of 
tons are shipped to eastern markets. Of sugar-beets the product is from 10,
000 to 15,000 tons a year, with three beet-sugar mills in operation, one 
of them the largest in the United States. All these and other industries 
are represented in the Agricultural department, and what has been said in 
this connection applies in a measure to other sections of the Pacific 
slope. 

In comparison with the display in her state pavilion, the one contained in 
the Agricultural building is almost insignificant. And yet there are in 
the collection more than 70 exhibits of cereal crops, with 50 or more of 
beans, potatoes, and other vegetables, and several each of hay, grasses, 
and grain in the straw, and of olive oils, while of silk cocoons, and 
cotton on the stalk there are also single exhibits. Though not an imposing 
display, all the leading agricultural districts of the state, and nearly 
all their products, are represented in these California groups, and among 
them are the usual specimens of phenomenal growth, including melons, 
pumpkins, and beets, with potatoes one of which would almost suffice for a 
family dinner. 

The booth itself is a plain unpretentious structure of glass and wood-work 
painted in light colors, and with little attempt at ornamentation. 

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In the centre is a wigwam of unique design, constructed of Indian corn, 
and elsewhere are bouquets deftly fashioned of native grasses. The 
exhibits are neatly arranged, and show to the best advantage their several 
classified groups. But in other departments of the Fair, especially in the 
Mining and Horticultural sections, and above all in her own home among the 
state pavilions, California is seen to better advantage. Her display of 
fruits, for instance, is by far the best on exposition, representing one 
of her largest and most progressive industries, one that with cheaper 
freights is capable of almost unlimited expansion; for to the consumption 
of fruits in crowded eastern centres there are no practical bounds, if it 
can be hauled to market at rates that will leave a fair profit to the 
producer, while placing it within reach of the great army of wage-earners. 
All this will come in time; and as the golden age of pastoral days was 
succeeded by the age of gold, as mining gave place to agriculture and 
stock-raising, so are these latter yielding the precedence to fruit-
growing, which promises erelong to lead all other industries, as even 
today it does in the southern portion of the state. 

Next to California, Oregon ranks first among the wheat producing sections 
of the Pacific coast; for ever since the days when were sown on Methodist 
mission lands the first wheat planted in the Pacific Northwest, grain 
growing has there been a favorite pursuit. In her pavilion, which for 
reasons best known to the management was sandwiched between those of the 
southern and middle states, is a large collection of cereals, vegetables, 
grasses, and forage plants, fairly representing this stable and 
industrious community, one of the most steadily prosperous in the United 
States. 

Of similar character are the exhibits from Washington, whose production of 
wheat has increased nearly four-fold during the decade ending with 1892, 
while for the same period Oregon shows but a slender gain, and California 
a decrease in yield. Of sheaf grain there are countless specimens, 
including cereals of all descriptions, and of threshed grain there are 
many varieties in display and decorative forms. Among them is wheat that 
has yielded nearly 100 bushels to the acre, and oats that have produced 
even more abundantly, with timothy hay nearly nine feet high, with 
vegetables of wonderful size, a complete assortment of field and garden 
seeds, and flax in all its stages of growth. Farm buildings and incidents 
are reproduced in photographic illustrations, and there is a chart 
containing farm and crop statistics, while climatic conditions are 
represented as taken from government reports. Few of the Pacific or other 
states have displayed such interest in the Fair as this, one of the 
youngest of the sisterhood, two of her citizens taking on themselves the 
task of preparing an exhaustive exhibit from the counties in which they 
resided, while a third erected at his own expense, and stocked with grains 
and fruits, a pavilion in the Washington section. 

Nevada, it need hardly be said, is not an agricultural region, though 
gaining steadily in this as in other branches of industry, now that she 
has fairly recovered from the depression caused by the faded glories of 
the Comstock. Except on irrigated lands, cereals can only be raised to 
advantage in a few locations, as in portions of Elko county, where 30 
bushels of wheat to the acre or 50 of barley are no uncommon yield. The 
exhibits consist mainly of grains and grasses, arranged in frames, and 
housed in a neat and tasteful pavilion. 

Utah's exhibit is well worthy of the community which, during its exodus 
from Nauvoo, halted midway on its journey to plant and gather grain, near 
the spot where now stands the cities of Council Bluffs and Omaha. Nowhere 
in the United States, and probably nowhere in the world have irrigation 
systems been developed with more economic method or with better results. 
When in 1846 the Mormons entered their western Zion, their land of 
Deseret, the first task to which they applied themselves was the 
construction of irrigating ditches. Twenty years later, when elsewhere on 
the Pacific coast artificial watering was almost unknown, nearly 300 
canals had been built, with a total length of more than 1,000 miles, and 
conveying the mountain streams and melted snow to 170,000 acres. By 1892 
the various systems had been so enlarged as to absorb nearly all the 
available water, the supply of which formed the only limit to further 
enterprises. Thus it is that several million bushels a year of cereals are 
raised on the arid soil of Utah, almost entirely by Mormon farmers; for 
the saints are essentially a farming community, leaving to their gentile 
friends the control of commerce and mining. 

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resources. Within is a pagoda fashioned of native grasses, and on a 
semicircular screen are presented the agricultural records of the state. 
As in other groups, cereals form the bulk of the specimens; but vegetables 
are also in good supply, with feed and fodder of many varieties, as blue-
joint, blue-stem, bunch, and other grasses, on Montana soil, its native 
herbage constituting a primary source of wealth. Though Montana is not an 
agricultural region, there are many sections well adapted to grain and 
other farming, with an average crop for 1892 of 33 bushels of wheat to the 
acre, 35 of barley, and 40 of oats, while on irrigated lands the average 
for all grain crops is nearly 42 bushels, and of vegetables 240 to the 
acre. Already there are some 250,000 acres of irrigated land in actual 
cultivation, and with the high prices of farm products, far above those of 
most of the Pacific states, Montana must cease to import, as now she does, 
a large proportion of her food supply. 

Such are the agricultural products and resources of the Pacific slope, as 
represented at the Columbian Exposition, and here described somewhat at 
length as compared with other sections of the republic. As to the latter, 
most of my readers are doubtless well informed; but to many the choice and 
varied display of certain of the Pacific states will be almost in the 
nature of a revelation. In 1850 the cereal crop of the entire western 
coast could have been placed on board a single sea-going ship; in 1892 
several hundred grain-laden vessels carried her surplus wheat and flour to 
a score of foreign ports. Yet in this region covering nearly one-third of 
the total area of the United States, there is infinite room for further 
development. 

In the southwestern corner of Agricultural hall is the collective exhibit 
of agricultural colleges and experiment stations connected with or under 
the supervision of the government. Grouped along the outer walls of this 
section are specimens of plant life, models illustrating the development 
of the plough, articles contributed by women associated with the domestic 
and industrial departments, and various instruments used in ascertaining 
the properties of soil. Within are exhibits from manual training schools, 
and apparatus contributed by the laboratories. In the latter are 
ascertained many valuable facts relating to insects and parasites 
injurious to grains, fruits, and livestock, with other matters that 
concern the agriculturist. Beyond are exhibits of grains and vegetables 
from various stations, some blighted, and others in a healthy condition. 

One of the most practical results of the experiments conducted by this 
branch of the agricultural department, is that which shows the effect of 
feeding to live-stock different proportions of food elements. In a series 
of glass boxes are various grains, with layers of protein, carbohydrates, 
and fats, and beneath them are stated the several quantities required to 
produce ten pounds of additional weight in cattle, sheep, and swine. 
Experiments have also been made to ascertain what results would follow as 
to the production of fat or flesh, and beneath the vessels which show the 
proportion of food elements that entered into these constituents are 
represented sections of their bodies, with the distribution of fat and 
lean. 

All the states have contributed to this collective exhibit, the 
Massachusetts college showing a collection of soils taken from different 
sections, accompanied by statements regarding chemical and mechanical 
analyses. The veterinary departments of this college sends a model of a 
horse displaying its anatomy, and among the exhibits of the entomological 
section is the gypsy moth, with a story of its life, habits, and 
devastations. Plaster of Paris specimens of Indian corn, parsnips, 
carrots, apples, pears, and potatoes occupy another case, samples being 
shown both of cultivated and wild varieties. In addition to these are 
charts with 3,000 figures, illustrating the systematic study of botany, 
and some ingenious apparatus for ascertaining the 

Page 362

pressure exerted by the flow of sap through the trees. Near the exhibits 
stations is a large array of mounted Indian fowls, contributed by the New 
York branch, and illustrating various methods of feeding and of treatment. 

The entire display is neatly and systematically arranged, glass-covered 
cabinets, cases, and jars containing, not only farm products, but every 
form of life that pertains to farming in all its phases, including the 
care and breeding of live-stock. Here also is illustrated the botany of 
the farm, showing the seeds and plants best adapted to various locations, 
and when and where to place them, with many varieties of vegetables 
serving as food for man or beast. In the entomological section are cases 
of many-hued insects, some of them harmless, and others destructive to 
crops. Finally, it may be said that in this collective exhibit, almost 
hidden from view by the surrounding pavilions, is one of the most 
attractive features of the Agricultural department, one in which the 
colleges have given emphasis to the government display. The object of the 
former is to afford a scientific training, both practical and theoretical, 
in connection with the varied industries of the farm, to train their 
pupils in the elements of art, and to make of them useful citizens, whose 
hands are the ready instruments of thoughtful and cultured minds. 

In cereal and other raw products Great Britain is somewhat feebly 
represented in her 12,000 feet of space in the Agricultural building, her 
exhibits comparing unfavorably with those of Canada, which ships to the 
mother country a large proportion of her wheat surplus. In England the 
acreage planted in grain, and especially in wheat, is steadily 
diminishing, the decrease in the latter exceeding 25 percent for the 
decade ending with 1892. For that year the entire area in wheat was only 2,
300,000 acres, or less than was planted in the single state of Indiana. In 
many of the American states the acreage and yield in cereals is larger 
than in the British isles, where little more than 9,000,000 acres are 
actually under cultivation, but with a larger proportionate surface 
devoted to hay and root crops. In average returns, however, the comparison 
is largely in favor of the latter, where of wheat the normal yield is 30 
bushels, of barley 33, and of oats 40 bushels to the acre. These results 
are due largely to the more thorough and systematic farming, rendered 
necessary by the smaller size of holdings, which for the United Kingdom 
averages less than 50 acres, only a few hundred among the 1,500,000 
landlords and farmers owning or renting more than 1,000 acres. Other 
causes are the rotation of crops, the fallowing of land for two or three 
years in succession, and the general use of fertilizers, of which more 
than 1,000,000 tons, nearly half of it imported at an annual cost of $6,
000,000 or $7,000,000, aid in maintaining the fertility of the soil. 

But with all his care and economy, the British grain-grower finds it no 
easy task to earn for himself a livelihood, so that many are turning their 
attention to root crops as yielding better returns, when taken in 
connection with stock-raising. In addition to hay, mangel-wurzel, turnips, 
and even cabbages are raised for winter feed, these being protected from 
frost, and mixed with dry fodder when distributed among the cattle sheds. 
Dairy farming is another prominent industry, and especially cheese-making, 
Stilton, Cheshire, and other 

Page 363

favorite kinds always holding their own in the market. Nevertheless Great 
Britain imports from Holland and elsewhere cheese to the annual value of 
$30,000,000, butter and margarine that cost nearly thrice that sum, while 
of the total consumption of milk, and that which is made of milk, 
requiring nearly 3,000,000,000 gallons a year, little more than one-half 
is produced at home. Hop-raising is a favorite, and in good seasons a 
profitable pursuit, especially in the southern counties, the yield for 
1892 exceeding 46,000,000 pounds; for the British are a beer-drinking 
people, consuming more than 30 gallons a year per capita of population. 
Add to this market-gardening and fruit-growing, both showing a steady gain 
in acreage and production, and it will be seen that there are branches of 
remunerative farming still open to the British husbandman. 

But while the outlook is not so dark as some would have us believe, it is 
nevertheless sufficiently gloomy; nor are the causes far to seek for this 
condition of affairs. First and chiefest among them are low prices, 
especially for grain, caused by over-production in the United States and 
India; these, with free trade, excessive taxation, complicated land laws; 
and the heavy toll demanded by railroads and middlemen, laying on the 
farmer a burden greater than he can bear. Thus it is that rents have 
gradually been reduced from twenty to fifty percent, and in some 
localities, especially in Ireland, have almost reached the vanishing 
point, while there are large agricultural areas whose value has sunk to a 
level with that of the prairie lands of Iowa and Illinois. Though many 
remedies have been suggested, such as protection, bi-metallism, and the 
creation of peasant holdings, it is doubtful whether any or all of them 
would go far to mitigate an evil due almost entirely to low prices, one 
that can only be righted by increased consumption or diminished 
production. 

From the agricultural experiment grounds of a Lancashire exhibitor are 
displayed samples of ears and grain, as the result of operations, 
extending over thirteen years, for improving, by careful selection and 
fertilization, the cereals of all the principal grain-growing countries in 
the world. Add to these a few specimens of wheat and oats from a Kentish 
farmer, one of them showing 76 ears, and some 4,500 grains as the product 
of a single kernel, and apart from a couple of oatmeal exhibits from 
Drogheda, Ireland, we include about all that England has to show us in the 
way of cereals. Dairy products are represented 

Page 364

by a single exhibit, and diary appliances by a collection of churns, and 
other apparatus, the latter from the London and Provincial Dairy company. 
Of animal and vegetable fibres there is also but one collection, and that 
from an Irish company whose headquarters are at Belfast. Among fertilizers 
and fertilizing compounds are included nearly all the varieties used in 
Great Britain, as guano, ground bones, phosphates, sulphates, and other 
chemical preparations. Near them is an exhibit of eucalyptus oils and 
eucalyptus soap, the former in a dozen varieties as manufactured from 
various species of the gum-tree by a company whose works are in the 
Australian colony of Queensland. 

Food preparations are better represented, as also are mineral waters, 
temperance beverages, and malt and spirituous liquors. From the British 
Bee-keepers' association comes an exhibit of 1,000 pounds of extracted 
honey, contributed by 100 apiarists, with books, pamphlets, and diagrams 
used by the society's lecturers and experts. By a cooperative organization 
are displayed samples of English, Scotch, and Irish honeys, with beeswax 
in various forms. In the same group is an exhibit of Queensland cane 
sugar, now largely produced in that country by Kanaka labor. Of tea, 
coffee, cocoa, and chocolate there are many varieties, and among the first 
is one from the province of Assam. Preserved meats, soups, fish, fruits, 
and vegetables are in liberal supply, with combinations and concentrations 
for which special virtues are claimed, as those of the Bovril company, 
prepared from essences of beef, its exhibits housed in the most 
picturesque of booths, with office representing a fortress enthroned on a 
steep and rugged cliff. Of mineral waters there is a large array, and with 
them are many other drinks for the total abstainer, including such non-
alcoholic preparations as hop bitters, fruit cordials, and orange 
champagne. 

Except for a few samples of London gin and compounded spirits, whatever 
these latter may be, the brands, and the latter the famous poteen which, 
in its purity, is one of the best of whiskeys, though for every gallon of 
the real article a hundred are sold under its name. Among these exhibits 
is a round tower, forty feet high, and constructed entirely of whiskeys in 
wood and bottle from a Dublin distillery. Allsopp's, Tennent's, and other 
favorite varieties of ale, porter, and stout are classed in a separate 
group. Of tobacco, an interesting display is that of the British North 
Borneo company, including leaf for wrappers, and cigars made entirely or 
in part from the products of its plantations. A similar exhibit is that of 
a company whose estates are in Sumatra, and a Birmingham company shows its 
appliances for rolling the leaf into coils or plugs, and for the making of 
cigarettes. 

But the most attractive exhibit in the British section is a model of the 
Brookfield stud farm, at the foot of the Highgate hills, within a few 
miles of the most densely thronged of London's business centres. The stud 
is the property of W. Burdett-Coutts, whose "unearned increment" of 
wealth, with the influence that wealth commands, won him a seat as member 
of parliament for Westminster. Its purpose is to preserve and improve the 
old English breeds of coach-horses, hackneys, cobs, and ponies, some of 
which were in danger of becoming extinct. In the model are reproduced with 
remarkable fidelity of detail, all portions of the farm and stud, from the 
cottage of the groom, and the office where clerical work is done, to the 
covered yard, the clean well ventilated stables and loose boxes, the 
harness room, the riding-school, the granary and barn, and the show-ground 
with its wide expanse of turf. 

Page 365

There is also a collection of oil paintings by prominent artists, 
including those of the sire of Brookfield, and other famous hackneys. 

East of the British section are the more compact exhibits of Canada, 
contained in three pavilions, one of them displaying the cereal, root, and 
other products of the government's experimental farm at Ottawa. There are 
also minor pavilions erected by the officials of the agricultural colleges 
of Ontario and Quebec, the latter structure in two portions, made of 
tobacco and grain. Near the enclosure which surrounds the government 
pavilions is a heterogenous collection of articles, among them flour, 
starch, maple syrup, mineral waters, malt extracts, beers, and ales. Of 
cheeses, the making of which is a prominent Canadian industry, there is a 
sufficient display, and one of the chief attractions in this section is a 
monster cheese, encase in an iron tank, and mounted on a platform 
approached by a flight of stairs. On an inscription attached to the stand 
we are informed that it weighs 22,000 pounds, and that to supply the 
materials more than 1,600 maids milked 27,000 gallons from 10,000 cows. 
Manitoba, British Columbia, and the northwest provinces are all 
represented in the Canadian division, where are also mounted specimens of 
the white and black bear, of deer, goats, antelope, wild geese, and 
turkeys, with other illustrations of Canadian fauna. 

In the annex is a collection of Canadian agricultural machinery, and as 
neither Great Britain nor any other of her dependencies have any exhibits 
of the kind, it represents the contribution of the entire empire in this 
department. The largest display is from a Toronto company, and includes 
binders, threshers, cultivators, mowers, and a Manitoba straw-burning 
engine. The last is used by agriculturists in regions where wood is 
scarce, and is fitted with a tubular boiler of peculiar construction, 
whereby a forced draft may be obtained. The cog-wheels are of aluminum, 
and connected with the thresher, which is supplied with an ingenious 
device for measuring the amount of grain that passes through it. The 
company's office is panelled with fifteen varieties of Canadian woods, 
such as are used in the construction of its machines, and included in its 
collection are the medals awarded at former expositions. In all some 
thirty firms have samples of agricultural implements, and among them are a 
few special apparatus, as pea harvesters and sap evaporators; but as for 
the most part one agricultural machine is very like another, when used for 
similar purposes, it is unnecessary here to describe them in detail. 

A feature in the Agricultural building, and one that has never been seen 
before, except at such local expositions as were held in Sydney and 
Melbourne, is an exhibit of the agricultural products of the Australian 
colonies, and especially from the oldest of her colonies, that of New 
South Wales. It is now some three centuries since a French navigator, 
landing on the western shore of the continent, found there, as he relates, 
a boundless expanse of forest primeval, with no signs of life nor anything 
that would support it, save for a few human and marsupial bipeds, the 
former so degraded that he hesitated whether or not to class them among 
the brute creation. But on this continent, with an area about equal to 
that of the United States, there is now a larger white population than on 
the entire 

Page 366

Pacific coast, a contented and in the main a prosperous community, one 
that has built at least two cities larger than the Pacific coast 
metropolis, with many of smaller size. Among its sheep-farmers and stock-
raisers are not a few who count their herds by tens of thousands, and 
their flocks by hundreds of thousands, the wool-clip of a single station, 
as the Australian terms his rancho, sufficing to load a clipper ship. 

While not an agricultural country, in the proper sense of the word, 
Australia is more than self-supporting, producing of certain staples a 
much larger surplus for foreign markets than offsets the importation of 
others. Though wheat thrives badly on its thin, arid soil, an average crop 
represents a value of $30,000,000, and yet the average yield does not 
exceed seven or eight bushels to the acre. Of other cereals the product is 
worth some $25,000,000; of hay an equal amount; of root crops $20,000,000; 
of vineyards, orchards, and market gardens, $22,000,000, and of cane-
sugar, $10,000,000, the last produced only in Queensland and New South 
Wales. Of wool the clip from 125,000,000 sheep, more than twice the number 
contained in the United States, was valued in 1892 at nearly $20,000,000, 
and of canned and frozen meats there is a considerable and steadily 
increasing export. In the latter department the colonies are encroaching 
somewhat on the American trade, for beef and mutton are worth less than 
half the prices paid for them in the eastern states. Such is the 
industrial condition of Australia, a country yet in its infancy, with a 
population of less than two to the square mile, but with resources which, 
until recent years, were not appreciated even by the Australians 
themselves. 

Notwithstanding a serious depreciation in the price of wool, with little 
prospect of improvements so long as sheep continue to increase in two-fold 
ratio as compared with the human race, sheep-farming continues to be, as 
it ever has been, the greatest of Australian industries. And especially is 
this true of New South Wales, whose exports of wool for 1891 amounted to 
332,000,000 pounds, valued at $56,000,000. As to the quality of this wool 
we have a complete illustration in the exhibits of the Australian section, 
forming the largest collection of the kind in Agricultural hall. In this 
collection there are no less than 400 bales, representing many varieties, 
from the soft merino fleece, prized for its purity and texture, to the 
coarser grades valued for quantity rather than quality of clip. At the 
entrance to one of the apartments is an arch constructed of solid bales of 
wool, and within or abutting on the aisles are pillars and pyramids of 
similar construction, with bins and cases filled with samples in bulk or 
fleece. There are also pictures of sheep and sheep stations, and as though 
standing ready to start on its journey of many hundreds of miles is a 
heavy wagon, laden with wool, more cumbersome even than the so-called 
prairie-schooners which bore across plain and mountain of America the 
argonauts of 1849. 

In another apartment are the exhibits of cereals, flour, oils, and such as 
represent the tanneries and meat-preserving processes of New South Wales. 
Among them is an arch of corn cobs, artistically fashioned, and 
representing a prominent branch of colonial industry; for 

Page 367

maize thrives well on Australian soil, and is the only cereal that is 
largely raised for export. Here also are dried specimens of native 
grasses, such as are found on sheep and cattle ranges, with leaf tobacco, 
sugar-cane, and pyramids of food preparations and table delicacies. On the 
walls and pillars are large photographic views of public and other 
buildings in Sydney, and to the arch-ways of wool and corn is appended the 
Australian coat-of-arms, above it the colonial flag, on the field of which 
is the constellation of the southern cross. 

Except for the exhibit of wool, Victoria, the smallest in size but the 
foremost of all the Australias in population and enterprise, has nothing 
worthy of mention, this not through indifference but on account of a 
severe financial depression, forbidding the appropriation of public funds. 
The collection of wools is from the Australian Sheep-breeders' 
association, and includes the choicest samples off the various grades in 
bale and fleece, with many fine and long wool varieties. In conclusion it 
may be said that the Australian exhibits, not only of agricultural 
specimens, but in the mining, fisheries, and other departments, display as 
they were never before displayed the varied products and the infinite 
resources and possibilities of the southern continent. Among these 
exhibits is much that is well worthy of being studied by American 
merchants and manufacturers, not merely as a matter of curiosity, but with 
a view to the enlargement of commercial intercourse. While our trade with 
Australia is of considerable amount, it is insignificant compared with 
what it should be, and the more so because the balance of trade is largely 
in favor of this country. New South Wales, for instance, sent us in 1891 
more than $8,000,000 of her gold, and took from us in the same years goods 
to the value of more than $6,000,000, while shipping to this country 
little more than half that quantity of exports. While Australian merchants 
deal more largely with the United States than with any other foreign 
nation, their transactions are trifling in comparison with those of 
Canadian business men, who purchase in American markets nearly one-half of 
all that they require. 

Small in size but of excellent quality, complete, compact, and in perfect 
taste, is the exhibit of Cape Colony, grouped in a glass pannelled 
enclosure decorated with banners and bannerets, its windows hung with 
ostrich eggs, and depicting the flora and scenery of southern Africa. On a 
revolving frame within is a choice collection of water colors, 
representing in natural size and hue the most beautiful and fragrant 
flowers and creepers, indigenous and exotic, among them some wonderful 
orchids and vines. In the decorative scheme is largely used a gray, 
silvery vine, which so far as is known grows only on Table mountain, near 
the foot of which lies Cape Town. Flanking the entrance ways are cases 
filled with ostrich plumes in their various shades of color, from those of 
grayish-brown, such as cover the back, to the soft, fleecy feathers, white 
as the driven snow, that are plucked from the tip of the wing. In the 
centre of the booth is a gigantic ostrich, and mounted on stands are two 
full-grown birds in all the glory of their plumage. In one of the cases, 
side by side with a large pyramid is a select assortment of eggs, some 
polished and other painted in various designs. 

Of other birds the collection is remarkable for variety of species, and 
brilliancy of plumage. Fish are represented in water colors, their scales 
displaying all the brilliant hues of semi-tropic climes. In the centre of 
the booth are mounted specimens of animals, showing the highest art of the 
taxidermist. Among them is an Angora goat, with its silk coating of hair, 
a fat-tailed sheep, whose unwieldy appendage is esteemed by Kaffirs a so-
called Boer goat, whose hair and carcase are worthless, and whose mission 
in life is to guide homeward the flocks at nightfall. Elsewhere are 
specimens of furs and pelts, with rugs fashioned from the skins of the 
golden jackal and 

Page 368

the spotted tiger. Of tusks there is a fair collection, including what is 
said to be the largest elephant's tusk in existence, more than seven feet 
long, and weighing nearly 160 pounds. 

Of wool and mohair there is a plentiful display, the latter selling in the 
London market at thirty-five cents a pound, and comparing favorably with 
Turkish and other growths except for length of staple. Though a 
comparatively recent industry, exports of mohair for 1891 amounted to some 
10,000,000 pounds, while those of wool for the same year exceeded 75,000,
000 pounds. Cape wines and brandies are arranged in the form of a pyramid 
and side by side with bush or native tea is tobacco, cured and in the 
leaf. Of cereals there is a small display, but one of superior quality, 
including samples of wheat that weighs nearly seventy pounds to the 
bushel. There are also the buchu leaves, used for medicinal purposes, with 
native grasses, gum-arabic, and dye and other woods of many descriptions. 

Of miscellaneous articles there is an interesting assortment, including 
Kaffir, Zulu, and other weapons, implements, and curios, among them the 
assegai, thrown by the African bushmen with unerring aim, and which in the 
Zulu war dealt his death-blow to the prince imperial, sone of Napoleon 
III. There are also the insignia of chieftaincy, including a curious cloak 
made of strands of twisted fur, such as is worn by a chieftain's wife on 
state occasions. 

North of the Australia section, and adjoining the rotunda of Agricultural 
hall, is the pavilion of Ceylon, with pillars of ebony and wood-work 
elaborately carved. Tea forms the principal display, and those who are so 
inclined may test the quality of the brew, as prepared and served by 
native attendants. There is a model of a tea plantation, and in diagram 
form is shown a thirty years' record of Ceylonese exports to Great 
Britain, where most of the surplus teas are marketed. Other exhibits are 
native woods; cinchona, or, as it is more commonly termed, Peruvian bark; 
desiccated cocoanut, and the products of cocoanut fibre, as in mattings, 
ropes, and basket-work, these with a few skins, a case of plumbago, an 
irrigating machine, and a small collection of agricultural implements, 
including about all that Ceylon has to show us in this department. 

In France about one-half of the entire population depends on agriculture 
for a livelihood, the number of proprietary and tenant farmers amounting 
to nearly 4,500,000, the majority 

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belonging to the former class, with about an equal number of laborers and 
domestics. Add to these the wives and families of agriculturists, many of 
whom share in the work of the farm, and we have a total of some 19,000,000 
persons supported by this industry. Partly through the agency of the law 
which requires the father to bequeath his property in equal shares among 
his children, the subdivision of farms has here been carried to an 
extreme. Nevertheless France still imports largely of cereals, the total 
of her average crop not exceeding 40,000,000 bushels a year. Nowhere are 
better understood the advantages of diversity of farming, and nowhere are 
the agricultural classes more frugal and industrious. Largely through 
their contributions France has been enabled to pay almost without apparent 
effort, the $200,000,000 of her war indemnity, to sink nearly twice that 
amount in the Panama canal project, and pay as interest and sinking fund 
some $260,000,000 on her $6,500,000,000 of national debt. 

France and her colonies occupy sections in the annex, and the western and 
eastern portions of the main building, the exhibit of the government being 
installed between that of Russia and the United States. This consists 
largely of maps and charts, showing the location of vineyards, 
agricultural districts, and national schools of agriculture, with such 
statistical tables as represent the fluctuations in the prices of bread 
and breadstuffs throughout the republic from 1830 to 1891, and of meats 
and all agricultural products during the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries. The results of various experiments in the government 
laboratories are also given, and there is a model of the testing field, 
connected with the government seed house, with photographs illustrating 
the province of the French agricultural department, especially in sugar-
beet culture, as conducted at the government farm at Grignon. In addition 
to these are models and programmes of the primary agricultural schools, 
with their methods of education fully explained. 

Fronting on the eastern extremity of the central transverse nave are 
displayed the products of French farms, including food preparations. 
Grains and vegetables are arranged along the walls, with seeds and colored 
illustrations in the centre. Elsewhere are barrels of flour, glass cases 
filled with refined sugars, canned vegetables, fruits, and nuts, salad 
oils, liqueurs, and delicacies in solid and liquid form. 

In the French pavilion the main attraction is a rectangular structure, 
about thirty feet long, and half that width and height, with an arched 
doorway in the centre composed entirely of small papers of chocolate 
manufactured by a Parisian house, and representing the daily output of 50 
tons, valued at $40,000. In the 

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annex is a display of distillery apparatus, and a large portion of the 
space is occupied by a model barn, with granaries, stalls for live-stock, 
and other farm buildings enclosing a central yard. 

In an adjacent section to the north of the pavilion the French colony of 
Algeria displays her products, the main exhibit consisting of cork in many 
varieties. The principal entrance to the Algerian edifice is framed with 
slabs of cork; within is the tree itself, and there are many carvings of 
superior design and execution. The rough bark is exhibited in bales, and 
sheets of cork are shown for use in the linings of hats, and the insoles 
of shoes. The entire collection represents an industry which is making 
rapid headway, if we can believe the statement here contained, that in 
this colony more than a million acres are covered with young cork-trees, 
not yet in bearing. 

Cordage is also a leading Algerian product, many of the specimens here 
displayed being made from the native grass known as alfa. A mass of silk 
cocoons attached to the branches of a mulberry tree points to another 
prominent industry, as also the cases in this vicinity containing such 
products as olive oils, nuts, dried figs, grains, and cigarettes. Across 
the aisle from the main section is a tasteful structure containing a 
central court cooled by a beautiful fountain, its enclosing arches and 
floor in imitation of marble, and its walls hung with Moorish tapestries. 
This is a reproduction of an apartment in the palace of the Algerian 
governor, and adjoining it is the office of the colonial commissioner, 
with collections of native woods bound in the shape of volumes, a carved 
and inlaid cabinet, specimens of needlework, tobacco, and minerals, and 
typical illustrations by native artists. 

In Germany more than one-third of her 50,000,000 inhabitants are supported 
by agriculture, the total number exceeding 19,000,000, of whom nearly one-
half are actual farmers or farm laborers. About fifty percent of the 
entire area of the German empire is classed as arable lands, of which 
there are 65,000,000 acres, a goodly surface in truth, but less than is 
contained in a couple of our western states. As in France, agricultural 
lands are here minutely subdivided, with 2,500,000 farms of less than two 
and a half acres, and perhaps an equal number below 25 acres, while of 
those above 250 acres there are less than 25,000. Even the smallest of 
these holdings include a certain percentage of meadow and cultivated 
pasture lands; yet each of them suffices for the support of a family. But 
with this careful and laborious husbandry, the German turns his land to 
the best account, raising of wheat an average crop of nearly 50 bushels an 
acre, with other cereals in proportion, while of potatoes the yield is 
five times as large, far surpassing that of Ireland, the "land of potatoes 
and poteen." In Austria and Hungary considerably more than one-half the 
population is maintained directly or indirectly by agricultural pursuits, 
which, especially in the latter country, are rewarded by excellent 
returns. 

The German and Austrian groups, the former by far the more interesting and 
extensive, are separated from the British section by the main longitudinal 
nave. In the latter the most noticeable feature is that which represents 
the mineral waters of Austria, an exhibitor from the neighborhood of 
Carlsbad displaying a huge metallic bottle at whose base is a number of 
the vessels used in the trade. Hops, barley, and seeds, wax and waxen 
goods, are also on exposition, with powders for the destruction of 
insects, and appliances and publications relating to the several 
industries of the apiarist. 

In the German section, are two main centres of interest, ranking indeed 
among the most attractive features in Agricultural hall. The first of 
these if the pavilion of the Stollwerck brothers of Cologne, fashioned of 
chocolate and 

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in the form of a temple of the renaissance period. It is 38 feet in 
height, and in its construction were used 30,000 pounds of chocolate and 
cocoa butter, the latter giving to the structure the semblance of marble. 
Blocks of chocolate form the foundation, upon which rest fluted columns 
crowned, above the architrave, by the emblematic eagles of Germany, and 
surmounted by a dome, with the imperial crown as apex. In the midst of the 
temple is a heroic statue of Germania, modelled after the figure on the 
Niederwald monument, and sculptured from a solid mass of chocolate. On its 
pedestal are reliefs, more than life size, of the emperors William I, 
Frederick III, William II, Bismarck, Von Moltke, and other historic 
characters. 

The other exhibit to which reference is made is also in the shape of a 
temple, its court containing an exposition of the industries which centre 
in a Strassfurt establishment for the mining of salt and potash deposits, 
and their manufacture into fertilizers. This is known as the German kali 
works, a large stand in the centre of the court showing samples of the 
deposits as mined and prepared for the use of agriculturists, while from a 
broad platform depend a number of charts explaining the composition of the 
product, and its uses in supplying potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen 
for impoverished soils. A series of photographs also shows the visitor the 
large works connected with this enterprise at Cologne, with their mines, 
manufacturing departments, and laboratories. 

In the German section are also displays of many varieties of prepared food 
and drinks, several firms making a specialty of food preparations for 
infants. As in the Austrian section, mineral waters, cordials, and 
liqueurs, to say nothing of beers and malt extracts, are in liberal 
display. The proprietors of some thirty German resorts, at which are 
famous springs or baths, have a collective exhibit of their waters in a 
pavilion adorned with statuary, and provided with settees and easy chairs 
for invalids, and others seeking information. Baden-Baden, through its 
city committee on baths, presents views of that well known resort, with 
plans of its new bathing establishment. The royal Prussian bath at Ems, 
the cold and the hot sea water baths of Heligoland, the royal Bavarian 
baths, and the Harzbury Springs company, purveyors to the dukes of 
Edinburgh, and Saxe-Coburg-gotha, with other noted sanatoria are also 
represented. In the northwestern portion of the annex are the exhibits of 
machinery for the treatment of mineral waters, with refrigerators and the 
apparatus used in breweries and distilleries. Such agricultural appliances 
as ploughs, scythes, potato-harvesters, and threshing machines, with 
fertilizers of various descriptions are also on exposition. 

Russia's exhibit, west of the French government section, demonstrates the 
varied resources of her vast empire in the form of structures of flax, 
tow, and hemp from the Caspian region, raw silk and tobacco from her 
Transcaucasian domain, and grains of all kinds from her central and 
southern provinces of Europe. Wheat and oats are displayed in sheaves, and 
threshed grain in vessels fashioned in imitation of bronze, a large 
collection of the latter arranged in the form of a lofty tower. The 
manufacture of candles is a flourishing industry in Russia, the largest 
and those of the most elaborate design being used in the ceremonials of 
the church, of which some fin 

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specimens are here on exposition, arranged in structural forms. There are 
several imperial factories for the refining of sugar from beets, all of 
which have samples of their products, the government of Kieff adding to 
this collection specimens of honeycomb and confectionery. 

Of more than 1,000,000,000 acres of arable land contained in European 
Russia, at least 60 percent is under crop, the total yield of all cereals 
for 1892 amounting to 1,700,000,000 bushels against nearly 3,000,000,000 
for the United States. Within recent years nearly 7,000,000 of emancipated 
serfs have redeemed or paid for their land in labor or kind with 
government aid, the average holding of the peasantry not exceeding ten 
acres per capita. Erelong the most favorable outlet for the poorer class 
of agriculturists will be in central and southern Siberia, a region whose 
resources are as yet but little appreciated, though gaining favor as the 
railroad, now approaching its eastern verge, lays open to settlement its 
vast and virgin expanse. What the western and Pacific states were to our 
own republic, that will Siberia become to the Russian empire at no very 
distant day. 

Italy occupies a small rectangular section in the southwestern portion of 
the main hall, adjacent to that of the agricultural colleges and 
experiment stations. Her display is of a somewhat miscellaneous character, 
including a large collection of olive oils and food preparations, as 
pastes, almond, and honey cakes, macaroni and cheese, chocolate, sugar, 
spices, sweetmeats, and liqueurs, with a few specimens of flax and hemp. 
Silk, one of her leading industries, with nearly 100,000,000 cocoons, 
gathered yearly from more than 5,000 cantons, and with 200,000 women and 
children employed in the treatment and manufacture of silk, is here 
represented by a single exhibit of larvae. In line with the Italian group, 
but at the opposite side of the hall, and adjacent to the Virginia 
section, Greece shows her raw silks and olive oils, from various 
localities, with specimens of honey and honey-comb such as Attica produced 
long before Homer bethought him of the 

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famous simile in which the Grecian hosts are likened to a swarm of bees 
covering the plains of Troy. 

Holland, Sweden, and Denmark are grouped together in the northeastern 
portion of the hall, an Amsterdam chocolate house monopolizing most of the 
space allotted to the Netherlands. In its booth are dummies of life-like 
appearance, representing women and children about to receive their 
favorite beverage from the hands of a waiting maid. Somewhat of a 
curiosity is the Java kapok, a fibre used for bed-filling, and for which 
are claimed the advantages of remarkable elasticity and lightness. 

Sweden illustrates her paper manufactures from wood pulp in the form of a 
small pavilion within her section, its base composed of segments of the 
trees generally used for the purpose, a large twisted column representing 
the finished product. Next to paper, Swedish punches, including such as 
are made of arrack, are the most prominent exhibits, while in the 
adjoining Danish collection the display of butter and a milking machine 
whose workings are illustrated on a model cow, are features not to be 
overlooked. In the latter is a booth filled with chocolate from a 
Copenhagen factory appointed as royal purveyor, and containing busts of 
the king of Denmark made of that article. The main entrance to the Danish 
pavilion represents a farmhouse, with high thatched roofs and broad 
gables, and with national types of women and pastoral scenes depicted on 
panels in the outer walls. 

Spain and the Philippine islands jointly occupy a pavilion west of the 
main northern portal. The exhibits of the former include summer, red, and 
winter wheat, with other grains, of which some are prepared for use in 
various forms. There are also preparations of food and drink, as soup, 
pastes, arrow-root, tapioca, confections, honey, and chocolate. Of 
alcoholic, vinous, mineral, and other beverages there are many samples, 
and in the group of olive oils are 100 specimens. Of wool there are a few 
assortments, and in the form of a hut are the fibres peculiar to the 
Philippine islands. Porto Rico [Puerto Rico] sends an assortment of 
coffees, sugars, tobaccos, cigars, native woods, and curios. Near by is 
the booth of Trinidad, some of whose exhibits duplicate those of Porto 
Rico [Puerto Rico], but contain also collections of birds, with special 
native products and curiosities. 

Page 376

In the Cuban pavilion, the bulk of the exhibits consists of tobacco in 
leaf, or in the form of cigars, and sugars of various grades manufactured 
from the cane. Upon the wall are statements from chambers of commerce as 
to the production of these staples, and also of Cuban minerals. 

Prominent among the exhibits of Latin-American countries are those of the 
Mexican section, and especially as to their collections of tobacco, 
fibres, and grains. Side by side with cigars and cigarettes is the raw 
material in leaves of phenomenal growth, while the fibres of the maguey 
plant are heaped in and around a huge central basin, and appear elsewhere 
in the form of rope, matting, and cloth. Some 2,000 varieties of seeds, 
spices, and grains are here on exposition, and there is a fair collection 
of the sheath-like fruit of the vanilla. Sugar made from the cane, and 
soap from cotton seed oil, represent important branches of industry, and 
there are specimens of wild cotton indigenous to Mexico. Samples of native 
drinks are plentiful, including pulque and other liquors extracted from 
native plants, with such as are made from the orange, lemon, apple, pear, 
and peach. 

Richly decorated in green and gold is the pavilion of Brazil, with its 
attractive and varied display. Noticeable among the exhibits are pyramids 
of wool and tobacco, and a hut constructed of sections of fibrous plants, 
with hats of the same material arranged in the shape of festoons. There 
are also in various grades and forms coffee, sugar, silk, grasses, and 
manufactures of native fibres, with Brazilian wines and other beverages. 

The Argentine republic gives prominence to her stock-raising industries. 
Wool in the fleece and other forms is everywhere in this pavilion, one of 
the walls of which is almost covered with tanned hides and pelts. Of 
wines, sugars, and tobacco there is also a creditable display. Paraguay 
shows her medicinal plants outside of her section. Within are several 
samples of native tea, which there takes the place of the Chinese product, 
and is largely exported to other countries. Though not suited to American 
palates, it is a less injurious beverage than most of the varieties that 
Japan and China send forth. The exhibit indicates that Paraguay intends to 
make herself known as a tobacco-growing country. Here also is the cassava, 
or manioc 

Page 377

is prepared. As this is a collective display, it includes articles of 
pottery, carved wood, canes made of native trees, laces, and other 
illustrations of industries and resources. 

On the panels of Ecuador's miniature pavilion are depicted the governor's 
palace at Quito, and scenes typical of the republic. The exhibits include 
tapestries, porcelain, paintings, and wood and ivory carvings, the last of 
excellent workmanship. A model of a human skull, carved from wood and 
skillfully colored, is a remarkable specimen of imitative work. Among 
manufactured articles - for this is also a collective display - may be 
mentioned boots and shoes, saddlery, hats, clothing, and tinware. There is 
a small collection of native woods, and curios and relics are plentiful, 
including a few primitive agricultural implements, and costumes of 
Indians. 

In the northeastern portion of Agricultural hall, Uruguay has an ambitious 
display, representing many branches of her industries and arts. In the 
centre of her pavilion is a column of dark wood, erected by the Liebig 
Extract of Beef company, whose works and yards at Fray-Bentos are probably 
the largest industrial establishment in South America. Around it are 
bottles of the extract, and photographs of the factory and grounds, with 
specimens of candles and soaps in a case adjacent. Elsewhere are fleeces 
and piles of long silk wool, with all the grains of the temperate zone, 
with liqueurs and mineral waters, minerals and woods, and collections of 
paintings, books, and specimens of work from pupils of the public schools. 
Among the pictures, one of the most remarkable represents a young mother, 
drawing aside the coverlet from a sleeping infant, her had upraised in a 
gesture of warning. The educational exhibits abound in specimens of 
kindergarten work, and there are many illustrations of proficiency from 
pupils of the higher schools, conducted jointly by the government and the 
Catholic church. 

South of the Mexican section is the Japanese pavilion of bamboo and 
matting, its outer walls adorned with green panels of the latter material. 
The exhibits of tea, with photographs illustrating the methods of picking 
and packing, are of special interest to the people of the United States, 
who consume so large proportion of this product. Jars and boxes of rice 
and vermicelli, leaf tobacco and cigars, wax made from berries as well as 
the more common kind, plantain fibre, hemp, and matting are also on 
exposition. There is a large assortment of cocoons, and among other 
curiosities are gourds made of snake skins. Brandy manufactured from rice, 
beers and vinegars, fish sauces, and other condiments and beverages, some 
of them peculiar to the country, are arranged side by side with canned 
salmon, trout, beef, lobsters, oysters, and sardines. 

Page 378

An attractive feature is the collection of birds and fowls, including such 
as are found in forest and on farm, and those which are used for food. 
Among them are bantams and Siamese chickens, and mounted on high in a coop 
is a pair of long-talied fowls, one of which has an appendage more than 
ten feet in length. In the pictures scattered throughout the pavilion are 
illustrated tea plantations and processes, together with many ingenious 
devices whereby the Japanese ensnare the birds of forest, field, river, 
and lake. These include decoy birds hung in cages, nets attached to long 
bamboo poles, and limed ropes stretched over the water, all of which are 
represented in graphic art. 

British Guiana and Curacoa, the latter a small colony of the Dutch West 
Indies, have small adjoining exhibits in the Northwestern corner of the 
hall, in which are brought together many forms of wild and civilized life. 
A case in the latter section contains the antiquities of Carib tribes, and 
near it is a burial urn of clay. Among other curiosities are samples of 
shell and feather-work, whose bright colors stand forth in strong relief. 

British Guiana has a more elaborate display, as befits resources and 
commercial importance. Birds of brilliant plumage, crabs, turtles, sword-
fish, a sea cow, an alligator, a so-called bear howler, whose roar is out 
of all proportion to its size, with ant-eaters, deer, squirrels, raccoons, 
armadillos, opossums, and in the centre of the pavilion, a jaguar perched 
on the shoulder of a tapir, illustrate the animal life of forest and 
water. Another illustration of forest life is presented in the highly 
polished sections of native woods arranged around the structure, 
unfinished logs serving as pillars and beams. Thus are exhibited more than 
100 specimens suitable for ship building, railroad ties, cabinet work, and 
other purposes. A series of pyramids, gradually rising in height, and 
increasing in size, illustrates the progress 

Page 379

in the production of gold from 1884, when the entire yield was but 250 
ounces, to 1892, when the export was nearly one hundred times as much. 

Johore, in the southern extremity of the Malay peninsula, has a tasteful 
pavilion between the Brazilian and Mexican sections. From the main 
entrance floats the star and crescent, and near it, within the booth, is a 
large bust of the sultan, with photographs of his palace, and the scenery 
of his dominion. On one side are specimens of printing from the imperial 
establishment at Singapore, and on the other, books and charts from the 
native schools, with a heavy wooden block to which the rebellious pupil is 
chained. The exhibits include samples of coffee, tea, copal, rice, 
sweetmeats, betel nuts, spices, sago, rattan, and preserved fruits, the 
last including a species of plum, which, as is claimed, is the most 
luscious of all the fruits. There are also shown the various tools by 
which the pith is extracted from the palm, grated into powder, and kneaded 
with water, in the preparation of sago flour, several jars being filled 
with sago cakes. Ranged along one of the outer walls are groups of 
agricultural implements, and strung beneath the cornice is the dried skin 
of a huge boa constrictor. 

The forest wealth of Johore is illustrated in another portion of the hall 
by polished sections of native woods, and by a large and beautifully 
carved model of the royal residence, with the dining room and kitchen 
which connect with it. Here also are sheets of the reddish substance 
stripped from the inner bark of a native tree, and largely used for 
clothing. 

In the centre of the United States pavilions is a Persian exhibit of rugs, 
tapestries, ceramics, brass-ware, and wood-carvings. The fabrics come from 
all the industrial centres of the empire, some fashioned almost entirely 
of silk, and others of the wool of the Angora goat. Brilliant colors seem 
to be in disfavor, deep blues and yellows being most used, except for the 
silken rugs of Shiraz with their changing hues, and those of Khorassan 
dyed in brilliant carmine. Gold and silver embroideries 

Page 381

and several specimens of rich jewelry work are also on exposition; but 
more precious than these is a translation of the entire Koran written on 
tiny parchment leaves, and enclosed in a small box which could be easily 
carried in the pocket. 

In the extreme northwest corner of the main building is the Liberian 
exhibit, which, though small in size, displays to excellent advantage the 
resources of the West African republic. Two immense horns form an arch to 
the chief entrance of the pavilion. Animal life is here in many forms. 
There are horns of cows, of antelope, elk, and deer, tusks of elephant and 
hippopotamus, and in the background is grouped a large collection of the 
skins of deer, monkeys, squirrels, tiger-cats, leopards, otters, coons, 
and snakes. Heads of different animals protrude from the walls, and more 
strange than all else is the miniature hippopotamus mounted upon a table. 
Until its capture in Liberia, a few years ago, this was believed to be an 
extinct species, and today there are only two other mounted specimens in 
existence, one in Paris and the other in London. As to implements, 
weapons, clothing, and curios illustrative of life in Liberia, there are 
bracelets of iron, brass, and copper, leather bags and water bottles, blue 
and white cloths, warriors' caps, and women's skirts and head-dresses of 
grass, with leather charms, hideous wooden idols, spears, swords, daggers, 
and dirks, looms, inkstands, pens, bars of iron, wooden sandals, 
embroidered gowns, hammocks of cloth, yarn, and grass, powder horns, 
photographs, postage stamps, postal cards, metal and paper money, 
newspapers and books, strainers for palm butter, palm oil gourds, 
blacksmiths' tools, and bellows, chairs, stools, and trunks of bamboo, 
fishing nets and basket, and fine needlework. Among the last is an 
embroidered satin quilt, upon which is represented in raised work a coffee 
tree in full bloom. 

From an enumeration of the articles displayed, it would be inferred that 
Liberia is still a country of tribal distinctions, as well as a community 
of civilized and intelligent people. The contrast in the social conditions 
of the republic is illustrated in a reproduction of the bamboo hut, 
thatched with 

Page 382

palm leaves, and the modern Liberian house, with its two stories and 
attic, surrounded by wide verandahs, and containing spacious halls, and 
airy cheerful rooms. Among the exhibits which show the products of the 
country and its growing commerce, may be mentioned coffee in bags and 
jars, sacks of cocoa and of red, blue, and yellow dyes, bundles of fibres 
of the bamboo and plantain, boxes of iron ore and ivory, barrels of palm 
and nut oils, bunches of rice, and cases of crude rubber. 

The Orange Free State has an attractive home in the southwestern portion 
of the hall, decorated with skins, pelts, and ostrich plumes. A case of 
rough diamonds glistens near the entrance, and in the interior is a 
structure composed of jars of grain surmounted by a native deer. Near the 
Mexican section Siam has a booth containing grains, tobacco, edible birds-
nests, and models of primitive vehicles and agricultural implements. 

Along the aisle which separates Agricultural hall from its annex, are the 
collective exhibits of seeds, oils, and packing industries. Several of the 
first are housed in attractive pavilions; but as the main collection of 
their exhibitors is in the Horticultural building, this is by comparison a 
minor display. Among packing houses, however, such firms as Armour and 
company, Swift and company, and others of world-wide repute, not only show 
manufactured products, as butterine, stearine, lards, and oils, but also 
their methods of packing, preserving, and transporting meats. One firm 
exhibits a model refrigerator car, with glass sides, its contents neatly 
arranged for shipment. The hog is seen in all postures, and fashioned of 
many materials. One group contains a stuffed animal in a gilded chariot, 
with shoats in place of steeds; in another is a huge hog made of lard, 
with spectacles on snout, and pen and inkstand beside him, while a third 
exhibitor symbolizes perhaps the prosperity which pork has brought him in 
the form of a group of golden pigs around one of the pillars of his 
pavilion. 

The American Cotton Oil company, of New York, has a structure in this 
vicinity, in the shape of a circular colonnade of Corinthian pillars, 
joined by metallic garlands which meet in the centre, and support an 
American eagle perched on a globe, the entire composition resembling 
frosted silver. Opposite is one of somewhat similar 

Page 383

design, representing one of the company's departments transacting business 
under another name, and manufacturing a preparation of cotton seed oil and 
beef fat known as cottolene. 

In the northern portion of the annex, Canada, France, Germany, and Russia 
have a collection of agricultural machinery, together with such as is used 
for manufacturing farm products into food and other preparations. Apart 
from these, the annex is mainly occupied by the collective exhibit of the 
United States, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and 
Michigan, combining to present a forcible illustration of American 
ingenuity and industry. From the special forms of agriculture developed in 
various sections of the country have been evolved the hundreds of machines 
here placed on exhibition. Among them are the plows used on prairie lands, 
and such as are specially constructed for the cultivation of hillsides. 
There are harrows and pulverizers, threshing machines and separators, 
reapers and binders, fanning mills and feed cutters, mowers and drills, 
grain measures and baggers, straw cutters and rakes, manure spreaders, and 
presses for hay, straw, cotton, and fibre. There are also such special 
appliances as the potato planter, digger, picker, and loader, the corn and 
pea sheller, the rice and coffee huller, the tobacco hiller, the oat 
clipper, the grape and berry hoe, the horse clipper and sheep shearer. 

A mere enumeration of the more prominent groups and special apparatus 
contained in the annex is a sufficient excuse for omitting descriptive 
detail, 

Page 385

and it is almost unnecessary to say more than the foremost of American 
manufactures have placed their choicest specimens on exposition. Among the 
more noticeable exhibits is that of the McCormick Harvesting Machine 
company of Chicago, who are the largest manufactures of their kind in the 
world. Their exhibits consist of harvesters, binders, mowers, and reapers, 
the first including rice and corn harvesters, and all of them extensively 
used, not only in the United States, but in foreign lands, wherever grains 
and grasses will grow. In the patent office exhibit of the Government 
department, there is a series of models, showing the processes of 
development in the McCormick machine, and forming with others, a complete 
illustration of the progress and preeminence of the United States in the 
manufacture of agricultural machinery. Side by side with the perfected 
mechanisms of the present day is the model of the first practical reaper 
invented by Cyrus H. McCormick in 1831, and in the summer of that year, 
worked with excellent results in a field of oats at Walnut Grove, 
Virginia. He was then only twenty-one years of age, but inheriting from 
his father, Robert McCormick, a taste and gift for invention, took up his 
work on the reaper after observing the failure of previous attempts made 
by the latter. Hence his name was deemed worthy of a place among those of 
the great inventors and discoverers inscribed on the frieze of Machinery 
hall, for in his original reaper were embodied the fundamental principles 
on which all reapers and harvesters have since been made. An interesting 
feature is the panoramic illustration of the growth of the company's 
business. The story is depicted upon opposite sides of a screen, one 
showing the old-fashioned blacksmith shop in Virginia, where Cyrus H. 
McCormick forged the iron work for his first reaping machine, and the 
other the Chicago works as they appeared in 1893, with their forty acres 
of factories, warehouses, and yards, with trains running to and fro, and 
vessels 

Page 386

loading and unloading at the docks. Here also are the medals and other 
recognitions, awarded at former international expositions, beginning with 
the gold medal of the American institute, bestowed in 1845, and including 
those which were granted at the London Expositions of 1851 and 1862, the 
Paris Fairs of 1855, 1867, 1878, and 1889, and the Philadelphia Exposition 
of 1876. Especially were the merits of the McCormick reaper recognized at 
the London Exhibition of 1851, though still a novelty to British 
manufactures and agriculturists. Even the London Times, which had before 
described it as "a cross between an Astley chariot, a wheel-barrow, and 
one that of itself would almost repay its entire cost. Said the 
commissioner of patents in his report for 1849; "In agriculture it is, in 
my view, as important a labor saving device as the spinning-jenney and 
power loom in manufactures. It is one of those great and valuable 
inventions which commence a new era in the progress of improvement, and 
whose beneficial influence is felt in all coming time." 

Page 387

The Chicago firm of William Deering and company has a creditable display 
of harvesting machinery, this firm claiming to be the original makers of 
what are termed elevator harvesters and automatic twine binders. The 
Oliver Chilled Plow works of South Bend, and the Moline Plow company of 
Illinois have each a spacious pavilion, the central figure of the latter 
being a mammoth bronze statue of a Dutchman, with outspread wings, typical 
of its Flying Dutchman sulky plough. Other establishments have also 
attractive headquarters, especially those which occupy a large group of 
pavilions of tasteful rustic design. A Philadelphia house which 
manufactures garden implements, groups its specialties on a platform 
surrounding the equatorial line of a huge revolving globe. Here are 
machines for sowing the seed and fertilizing the soil simultaneously, and 
those which plough, hoe, cultivate, and rake at a single process. Other 
specialists are those which manufacture binder twine, an Auburn, New York, 
establishment constructing its entire pavilion of balls of this material. 
One of the most unique exhibits is that of the Eagle Cotton Gin company, 
of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, which has machinery in operation for 
illustrating the most improved system of freeing cotton from the seed, and 
preparing it for the factory. In a model of an oil mill are displayed all 
the processes for extracting oil from this seed, formerly thrown away as 
worthless, and for grinding that which remains into fertilizing materials. 

The second floor of the Agricultural building is divided transversely by 
two broad apertures, or light wells as they are often called, eight minor 
shafts running east and west between the several galleries. Collective 
American exhibits largely occupy this story, and first may be mentioned 
those of the brewers of the United States, installed in the broad aisle 
which skirts the western wall. There are about thirty participants, many 
of them with ornate and handsomely equipped pavilions, conspicuous among 
which are those of the Pabst Brewing company, of Milwaukee, and the 
Christian Moerlein brewery, of Cincinnati. The later, nearly decorated in 
cream and gold, contains an array of richly costumed figures representing 
historic characters of many nations, with others symbolic of the four 
seasons, thus advertising the general consumption of Cincinnati beer. The 
Milwaukee establishment has a gilded model of its plant, on a scale of one 
inch to the foot, enclosed in a pavilion of terra cotta, crowned with a 
dome in mosaic work of stained glass. The headquarters of a Detroit 
company are fashioned entirely of bottles, and a Rochester brewer displays 
in motion a model of the machinery that makes his beer. 

Occupying the entire southern gallery is the display of diary implements 
and appliances, ranging from the common milk-jar and butter mould to 
machinery worked by steam, for the making of butter and cheese. 

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There are also many varieties of salt, the pavilion of a Genesee company 
showing in three large cases the grades best adapted to the manufacture of 
butter and cheese, with such as serve for table use. It is no secret that 
dairies use various preparations for hastening the curdling of cream, and 
giving color to cheese and butter. By a Copenhagen factory, with a branch 
at Little Falls, New York, are exhibited extracts and ferments for 
ripening cream, chemical coloring matters, and a collection of similar 
articles. In the centre of its pavilion is a large glass frame, containing 
the medals and prizes awarded at former expostions. 

In the eastern gallery the state commissions and bee-keepers' associations 
have arranged an exhibit of honey and honey-comb in many forms, together 
with the most improved and recent apparatus used by apiarists. The 
exhibits of honey, whether in the comb or otherwise, are classified 
according to the food of the bees, including clover and basswood, white 
sage, buckwheat, and other varieties. Ten of the mid-continental and 
Pacific states, together with the province of Ontario, occupy sections in 
this group. New York has a collection of comb-honey weighing nearly 100 
pounds, the product of a single colony at Attica. In the Nebraska case are 
specimens of finished workmanship in wax, in the form of cupids, angels, 
flowers, and fruits. Granulated honey and straw beehives are features in 
the Minnesota exhibit, and Illinois has a model of a house made entirely 
of wax. 

Adjacent to this section, enclosed by a bamboo railing, are several 
Javanese huts, on the walls of which, or forming a part of them, are 
native musical instruments, fashioned, as are the former, of bamboo. Rice 
and other grains, with coffee and tea, are here displayed, the last 
varying in color from light green to black. There are also Batavian hats 
of all grades, with swords and daggers, violins, and models of a native 
bullock cart and of one of the suspension bridges, in the building of 
which across deep chasms the Javanese show remarkable ingenuity. At the 
back of the booth hangs a large painting representing a village such as is 
reproduced on the Plaisance, and with extensive rice fields stretching far 
away toward the horizon. It is a cheerful, sunny scene, painted by a 
Javanese chief, who, though he never received instruction in art, was 
rewarded with a place of honor in this locality. 

In the north gallery, west of the dome, are cases filled with domestic 
wools from nearly a score of states. Ohio and Wisconsin occupy entire 
sections with their numerous grades, fine and coarse, long and short, 
combing and pulled, washed, scoured, and unwashed. A Philadelphia house 
has an extensive display of foreign varieties, and near by New Zealand 
exhibits her wealth of animal fibre. 

Between the east gallery and the central court, are exhibits of flour, and 
such food products as canned vegetables and meats, coffee, olives, apple 
butter, plum puddings, soups, starch, baking powder, yeast cakes, and 
oats, corn-meal, and buckwheat, in the form of food preparation, together 
with soaps and fertilizers whose bases are potash and soda. The most 
extensive display in the line of cereals is by a New York factory, in 
whose pavilion comely damsels in Quaker costume serve cakes made of the 
company's preparations from Quaker oats. Another manufacturer advertises 
his business in the form of a rustic hut, constructed of gilded cocoanuts, 
while a soap maker erects a pyramid of his special products on a thirteen 
sided base, representing the original 

Page 389

states, and above it a statue in soap of the woman who, as is said, was 
the first to fashion the stars and stripes in the form of the national 
emblem. Beyond is a section containing a series of photographs 
representing growing plants, with a row of vases containing vegetable life 
itself in all stages of growth, a case of crude nitrate of soda from 
Chile, and various fertilizers whose base consists of that compound. 

In the southeastern gallery is an exhibit of the milling industries of the 
west, a Minneapolis company showing models of its mills, and a Duluth firm 
housing its miniature machinery, illustrative of the modern roller 
process, in a tiny mill with an old creaking wooden water wheel, the 
latter an exact reproduction of a factory built near Reading, 
Pennsylvania, a century and a half ago, and still operated by a descendant 
of the original owners. 

The western division of the gallery is largely occupied with preparations 
of food and drink, comprising such articles as condensed milk, evaporated 
cream, chocolate, cocoa, syrups, confections, macaroni, vermicelli, 
starch, mineral waters, cider, rum, brandy, liqueurs, and bitters, 
together with crackers and biscuits, cigars, leaf tobacco, and spices. Of 
the exhibits of condensed milk the most prominent is that of the New York 
Condensed Milk company, whose first works were established at 
Wolcottsville, Connecticut, in 1856, by Gail Borden, president of the 
company until his death in 1874. For the products of this company, of 
which H. Lee Borden, the son of its founder, is now the president, it is 
claimed that they stand the test of all climates, and have been used in 
many lands for hundreds of thousands of children. The total quantity of 
milk thus treated in 1892 by various establishments in the United States 
was 400,000,000 gallons, and far the largest among them is the one 
referred to. The preserved milk, also prepared by this company, and 
largely supplied to the army during the civil war 

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is condensed by a similar method, preserved with sugar, and hermetically 
sealed in cans. 

In the collection of mineral waters nearly all the states are represented, 
showing how generally such beverages are coming into use. In a large and 
handsome booth a New York confectioner, whose specialty is the manufacture 
of chocolate bon-bons, has modelled from that material heroic statues of 
Columbus, Venus de Milo, and Minerva. A starch company of Oswego, New 
York, reproduces a Grecian temple in cream, gold, and light green, whose 
pillars and cornices are elaborately carved by hand from solid blocks of 
wood. Several eastern manufacturers of crackers and biscuit have neat and 
tasteful pavilions, while many of the cigars and tobacco booths are of 
unique design, an Egyptian exhibitor advertising his wares in a temple 
covered with hieroglyphics, and containing miniature monoliths, pyramids, 
and other familiar forms of ancient architecture. There is also a pavilion 
built in the Corinthian style, its pillars composed of glass panels, 
through which may be seen varieties of smoking tobacco, while elsewhere is 
a case of mahogany, and rosewood, filled with cigars, and surmounted by a 
globe, above which is the historic Pinta. 

A New Jersey firm, which manufactures the Tiger brand of tobacco, has in 
the centre of its exhibit a fine mounted specimen of the man-eating 
species, bearing in his mouth a pail of the prepared weed. Wisconsin, 
Connecticut, and Massachusetts have collective specimens of leaf tobacco, 
Connecticut's display being confined to the variety produced from Havana 
seed. Adjoining the group of the New England Tobacco Growers' association 
is a small booth in which Honduras illustrates the varieties and quality 
of her tobaccos, both in leaf, and in the form of cigars. Among the 
exhibits of spices may be mentioned that of a Chicago firm, whose dealings 
are largely with Penang, representing in gaudy colors an ancient Malayan 
temple, with sections of the allspice tree, twigs of cinnamon, and other 
crude forms of the products in which it deals, the raw material being 
scattered among a varied display of manufactured articles. Finally there 
is a collection of syrups, suggestive of the maple groves of Vermont and 
Ohio. 

Page 391

From agriculture in its proper sense let us turn to dairy farming, a 
prominent industry in nearly all sections of the United States, where are 
more than 16,000,000 cows, or one to every four of her inhabitants, a 
larger number than is contained in Great Britain, France, and Germany 
combined. In 1892 the dairy products of the republic included some 35,000,
000 pounds of butter, worth nearly $5,000,000, with more than 100,000,000 
pounds of cheese, valued at $9,000,000, this apart from what is consumed 
by farmers, and their families and employees, which probably represents 
almost an equal amount. 

In the Dairy building we have one of the smallest, and yet one of the most 
interesting departments of the Exposition, for here is contained not only 
a choice and complete display of dairy products, but what has been called 
a dairy school, where at intervals during the term of the Fair is held a 
series of tests for comparing the relative merits of various breeds of 
cattle. Here also are displayed in actual operation the best methods of 
handling milk and cream, and converting them into butter and cheese. 

The structure is of simple design and neat exterior, covering somewhat 
less than half an acre in the southeastern portion of the grounds, near 
the Forestry building. Besides the offices of the department, the first 
floor contains the sections in which many of the states show their samples 
of butter and cheese, the later also abundantly displayed in the 
galleries. The glass cases provided for the purpose are supplied with 
refrigerating apparatus, the cold air pipes banked under the floors, and 
against the walls. These sections occupy three sides of the hall in which 
machinery 

Page 393

is in operation for the testing of milk and cream, and their manufacture 
into butter and cheese. This is known as the model dairy, and is well 
supplied with seats for the accommodation of spectators. Beneath are 
refrigerators and cold storage rooms for the preservation of dairy 
products. On the second floor is a cafe, which overlooks the lake, one of 
those secluded spots where the pilgrims of the Fair love to rest from 
their toil. 

At a suitable distance south of the Dairy building are sheds containing 
200 cows, all of which are contesting for the honors of the dairy, 
together with a collection of blooded calves that form an amusing exhibit. 
Jerseys, Guernseys, and short-horns are the chief of the rival breeds. 
From the time the milk is drawn from the cow until it arrives at the model 
dairy it is under the watchful care of scientists connected with the test 
committee, and representing various agricultural colleges and experiment 
stations, the different herds being in charge of the breeding 
associations, by which they have been collected from all sections of the 
country. 

Entering the building from the east, we find the collections of Indiana, 
Minnesota, and Nebraska ranged along the walls as specimens of yellow 
butter in plain and fancy shapes. The North State state especially has an 
artistic display deftly molded in the form of flowers and fruits. 
Nebraska, one of the most attractive feature being the heaps of butter 
globules, not yet fashioned, as elsewhere, into solid, grained masses. 

New York, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania are also 
prominent in the Dairy building, though the exhibits of some of these 
states, with others of lesser not, were somewhat impaired by the partial 
failure of the refrigerating apparatus during the earlier days of the 
Exposition season. Moreover, on account of the contracted space available 
for the display of these products, the great dairy states were compelled 
to distribute their collections over the entire term of the Fair. Thus, as 
in the Livestock and Horticultural departments, no description written in 
the present tense would properly represent the case. Iowa, for instance, 
which ranks next to New York in this industry, had little to show in the 
month of August, while in June, September, and October scores of her 
creameries sent the most fragrant of their products, filling several large 
sections. On the other hand, 

Page 394

August showed New York and Illinois to excellent advantage, with rich 
saffron-yellow butter from the empire state, and cheddar and other choice 
brands of cheese. The Illinois exhibit was at once artistic, massive, and 
historic, for here were not only tubs and mounds of butter, and cheeses of 
generous proportions, but from Minneapolis came flowers, log huts, and 
mottoes of welcome, fashioned of the more plastic material, while an Elgin 
farmer sent the can used for the first shipment of milk to Chicago by rail 
in 1852. In August a strong feature of the exhibit was a select lot of 
Dutch cheeses from Rotterdam, and at that time Missouri and New Hampshire 
were well represented both in butter and cheese. 

In opposite galleries of the Dairy building are small Fren