decorations; swallowing up years of the labor of countless hands that seldom, or never, had known the pleasure of receiving for that labor sufficient food and raiment for their bodily comfort. Tapestry of Gobelin and porcelain of Sèvres; laces of Honiton and velvets of St. Etienne; damasks of Spitalfields and brocades of Lyons; silks from India and cashmeres from Persia; ermines and sables, of fabulous price, from the hyperborean domains of the czar, were there, intermingled with colossal statuary, tigers and amazons in bronze, Greek slaves in marble, exquisite paintings and sparkling fountains; chess-men of gold and silver, studded with rubies, each the costumed portrait of a reigning sovereign, with their retinues of bishops and knights, and men-at-arms and castles, moved on squares of tortoise shell and mother of pearl; tables of solid silver were there, wrought into forms of wondrous taste and beauty; pyramids of gold from the shores of the Pacific and the deep mines of far-off colonies; glittering gems and priceless jewels of imperial crowns flashed their splendors on the scene. Even the far-famed Koh-i-noor- the mountain of light-itself the value of an earldom, added its lustre to dazzle the eye, and carry captive the multitude. No wonder that the multitude were dazzled by such lavish display of aristocratic wealth and imperial splendor; or that remarks, little complimentary to the great republic, should fall from the lips of those whose eyes, for the first time, rested on the comparatively meagre display of homely articles, scattered, here and there, over the "American Prairie."

Col. Johnson comprehended "the situation" at a glance; and with a hearty determination to become "master of the situation," threw himself, body and soul, into the work that would, in his judgment, best attain the end. In his former visit to England, he had thoroughly studied the systems of British plowing and British havesting, and none better understood the difference between those systems and our own. Necessity, the mother of invention, had compelled our people to reduce hand labor to the lowest minimum, and to economize power to the greatest extent practicable in the operations of the farm. His position as a "juror on agricultural implements and machinery" afforded him special facilities for making the acquaintance of those most interested in agriculture, both in the British isles and on the continent. To these gentlemen he first explained the principles involved and the objects sought in the construction of our plows, and so favorably did he impress their minds, that, although the trial of agricultural implements had already taken place, before his arrival (under an arrangement with the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng

land), and when no person familiar with the use of our plows was present to manage them, they determined to apply for another trial.

Baron Mertens d'Osten of Belgium, and Professor Moll of France, joined with Col. Johnson, in an application to the royal commission, "for a trial of the English plows, to which prizes had already been awarded, with foreign plows," the draught to be tested by "dynamometer." The application was successful, so far as a trial was concerned, but the plows of each nation were to be judged separately.

The trial came off at Hounslow, on the 19th of July; twenty-one foreign plows being tried; from France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Canada and the United States, as also five English prize plows.

It is not necessary to follow up that trial, of which the results are so well known in this country, further than to say, that the plows from the United States were sold before leaving the trial grounds to the best farmers in England, and orders given, on the spot, for very many more to be shipped speedily from New York. Public attention was thus turned, suddenly, to American implements, and the public mind became greatly interested in the trial of the reapers, which was to come off on the 24th of July, on the Tiptree Hall estate of Alderman Mechi, the model farmer of England. Farmers and gentlemen were there assembled from all parts of the kingdom. The day was bad, the rain falling and the wheat green. The "Hussey" machine was started, clogged; started again, and passed over the grain without cutting it. After three failures, some of the jurors proposed to give up further trials and leave the field, but Col. Johnson insisted upon trying the other machine. Through courtesy, alone, the jurors yielded to his request, and when Donald McKenzie, of Livingston county, mounted the McCormick reaper, it was a moment of intense anxiety to the three or four Americans present. One of the two machines had been tried, and failed. The expression, from the mouths of these sturdy Britons, was the same on all sides; "we expected it; these machines cannot work until they have been perfected by an English mechanic." The farm laborers who had, at first, some fears that their vocation was in danger, were jubilant over the defeat of the Hussey.

At the word, McKenzie started, and before the machine had moved its length, the tide had turned and the victory was won! You know the rest. Its clean path, as it moved smoothly along the field, was enough; and when Alderman Mechi jumped upon the platform and called out "three cheers for the American reaper; as Englishmen,

let us give these Americans three hearty English cheers;" they did send up three rousing cheers and a tiger after them.

From that time until the close of the exhibition, the "American Prairie" was crowded with visitors of all ranks and conditions in society. Every implement was studied, and the Colonel was in constant demand to explain their various objects and manner of working. Royalty made his acquaintance, and sat delighted in Yankee rocking chairs while the prince consort sought to make himself acquainted with every new or improved implement that might be made useful in British husbandry. The whole tone of public opinion had undergone an almost miraculous change. The press turned from ridicule to investigation, and then to laudation of American inventions. Even the Thunderer's growl was hushed for a little, and when his voice was heard again, it was in tones of satisfaction and approval; remarking "that every practical success of the season belonged to the Americans; their consignments showing poorly at first, but turning out well on trial." Adding, at a latter day, when Steers had astonished their yachtmen, and Hobbs had picked their Bramah locks, and Bigelow's looms had thrown off the richest carpets of Brussels, "Not only has their reaping machine carried conviction to the heart of the British agriculturist, but their revolvers threaten to revolutionize military tactics.

* * * * Their yacht takes a class to itself. Of all the victories ever won, none has been so transcendent as that of the New York schooner. The account given of her performance, suggests the inapproachable excellence ascribed to Jupiter, by the ancient poets, who describe the king of the gods as being not only supreme, but having none other next to him. 'What's first? The America.' 'What's second? Nothing.' Besides this, the Baltic, one of their steamers, has made the fastest passage yet known, across the Atlantic, and, according to the American journals, has been purchased by British agents for the purpose of towing the Cunard vessels from one shore of the ocean to the other.*

For the signal triumph of American genius and skill at the great exhibition, our countrymen were largely indebted to the intimate acquaintance of Col. Johnson with the peculiar traits of Englishmen, their agricultural wants, and the adaptability of many of our own implements to meet those wants; though English prejudice was so strong that it required all his tact and indomitable perseverance,

*See London Times of 2d September, 1851.

backed by the influence of our popular minister, Mr. Lawrence, to bring these contributions fairly before the British public.

On the 9th of August, 1851, Col. Johnson, with a number of his distinguished associates, by the invitation of the French emperor, left London for the city of Paris. They were received by the authorities of Boulogne and Amiens, with much of the display that belongs to imperial governments, while en route for the capital.

In Paris, the Colonel was introduced, by Mons. Vattemare, his friend of former years, to the most prominent members of the French academy, and to the leading minds in the various departments of the government. A special meeting of the national agricultural society was called, and he was honored by the presentation of the society's medal of membership. He, there, made the acquaintance of, and entered into arrangements for correspondence with, such representative men as Buffet, Vaillant, Chasseloup-Labat, Neiwerkerke, Magne, Leon Faucher, Chevreul, Decaisne, Brogniart, Payen, Vilmorin, Robinet, De Merlieux, Desaq, De La Roquette, D'Arblay, De Beaumont, Becquerel, Garcin de Jassy and Bossange.

A grand review was given by the emperor, in honor of his guests, in which 30,000 troops were brought into line on the Champs de Mars, and was followed by a brilliant fête at St. Cloud, which closed the festivities of the occasion, and the distinguished guests returned to London.

In the month of September, Col. Johnson returned to this country, in time to be present at the autumn fairs. Our State fair was held, that year, at Rochester, under the presidency of the lamented Delafield, and brought together an immense number of people from other States, as also from Canada; the late Lord Elgin, then governorgeneral of Canada, being present with a number of distinguished foreigners. The services which Col. Johnson had rendered abroad, were gratefully recognized everywhere at home, and, for the next three years, no agricultural society felt that its full duty to its members had been performed, until it had secured from him some portion of his unwritten history of the great exhibition; a history which was given in that rich, unctuous and racy style so peculiarly his, and which was all his own. What though a few of us may have heard his description of some of these scenes more than once! It was because we chanced to be with him when he was called out by others.

For the next ten years of his life, from the autumn of 1851 until the spring of 1861, Col. Johnson was indefatigable in the work to which he had been called by this Society, gathering up information

from every quarter; sifting, digesting and assimilating it to the wants of our people, co-operating with Mons. Vattemare in his system of exchanges, corresponding with Vilmorin, De Nottbeck, Mettermeier, Dr. Lowenheim, and their compeers on the continent, with Pusey and Challoner, and Mechi, and the many eminent agriculturists of the British isles, as well as with the most advanced leaders in agriculture, wherever found, he obtained for our farmers whatever was valuable, or worthy of trial, from almost every nation on the face of the globe. During these years, he carried on a large correspondence with distinguished individuals at home and abroad, and was honored with membership by Russian, Brazilian and several other foreign societies, for the promotion of agriculture and the mechanic arts.

It is to be regretted that his time was so fully occupied with the current business of his office, until laid aside by age and infirmity, that he was never able to arrange the great mass of his correspondence, so as to be available to those who come after him. Save to extract, from the letters daily received, whatever seemed valuable at the moment for publication in the Society's monthly journal, no further use was made of them, and they were consigned to boxes until a more convenient season should give him an opportunity to place them in a form accessible to others. Let those who hold in their hands manuscripts and documents of value to the world take warning from his example, and if unable, themselves, to arrange such papers for future reference, call to their aid those who will do it for them, before it is too late.

Col. Johnson wrote for the press continually, and in his hands the monthly journal of the Society (established in 1854), became the means of disseminating much valuable information among our farmers, while the annual volume of the Society's Transactions became one great storehouse of agricultural treasures, gathered, with unremitting labor, from all sources and in every land. Indeed, it is but to repeat what has often been said by leading men in both Europe and America, when it is affirmed that no other series of volumes, issued from any press, are of greater practical value to farmers than the Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society. Long may these reports continue to lay before our people the results drawn from the every day experience of practical men engaged in every branch of husbandry, as well as from the investigation of those great laws that govern matter, dead or living, by the trained devotees of

science.

In 1853 Colonel Johnson took a large share in the national exhibi[AG.]

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