MACHINERY DEPARTMENT.

BY RUFUS CHENEY, SUPERINTENDENT.

As general superintendent of machinery department, it is made my duty to submit a report of the operations of said department; a duty hereby briefly discharged.

The department of machinery in our annual fairs forms a link in the chain of annual exhibitions that ought not to be weakened, but rather, strengthened; and cannot be broken without eminent peril to the future success of our society.

After a service of some eight years as superintendent of this department, it is no breach of propriety to assure you that I have endeavored faithfully to do my duty. It is, therefore, some consolation, and forms no inconsiderable portion of my compensation to be able to say that I am aware of no just complaint being lodged against the management of my department. Aided as I have been by kind and efficient brother officers, we have reason to feel a pride in the general success which has attended our efforts, as well as the interest many of our best men have felt and exhibited in its success, which has been highly gratifying and satisfactory to those having charge of it.

Though feeling a just pride in the results achieved, I am free to confess they might be made more advantageous to the society as well as to the exhibitors, by offering limited premiums, as recommended in the report of the judges in classes 37 and 38. While I do not doubt the wisdom of our society in withholding premiums. for machinery not in active operation, still a liberal use of diplomas might be made, which would greatly stimulate competition and encourage exhibitors.

The establishment of Power Hall, a feature in our fairs introduced since the withdrawal of premiums in this department, and forming so important a part, is attended with so much expense and labor to the exhibitor, obviating the objection to the giving of premiums to machinery not operated at our fairs, that it demands our careful

consideration. Limited premiums to all classes of machines in actual operation would, it is believed, stimulate rivalry and largely augment the receipts of the society.

There is no good reason why the show of labor-saving machinery at our annual fairs should not equal if not excel that of any other of the states, since Wisconsin is the great focal center for all kinds of productive machinery; besides, many manufacturing centers are springing into life and usefulness in various parts of the state, and these should receive our encouragement. Our citizen inventors and mechanics, after expending years of toil and large sums of money in developing labor-saving machinery and operating the same for the benefit and gratification of all who attend our fairs, ought to receive greater encouragement at the hands of our society.

To find that a pound of butter, a cheese, a bushel of beans, a bushel of pease, an ear of corn, a bunch of flowers and hundreds of other articles which might be mentioned, that cost no genius and but a few shillings, leave the fair grounds covered with blue ribbons, and the owners pockets filled with prize money, while the creators of labor-saving articles, leave it with possibly an honorable mention in the report of some committee, never to be read, and finds in many instances that his invention is practically but the cat's-paw to pull some one's else chestnuts out of the fire.

Premiums, though small, would entail more than a cash value to those who receive them, and would be contended for with spirit. Contest or strife, is the touch-stone of human energy. Strife and rivalry on which some valuable thing depends, begets their kind, and contending forces augment as waves before the gale. You advertize a trotting match or race without a horse or judge to decide upon and proclaim the victor, and you might as well sow your track to thistles. Without a contest of elements, nature hereself is dull; without strife between human minds, mens' actions become insipid and spiritless. The best results will come from stimulating a fair rivalry in all departments.

I therefore recommend that the society offer a liberal list of premiums in this department of our fair, not only because I believe it will redound to its financial benefit, but because I believe no invidious distinction ought to exist between equally meritorious classes.

Confident that these points merit serious attention of the society, I respectfully urge them on the earliest attention of the Executive

Board, in the assured hope that the resultant good will outweigh any possible evils, real or imaginary.

I heartily endorse the recommendations of the aforesaid committee, that still closer division of labor be inaugurated. This will be imperatively necessary, should premiums be offered as suggested, enabling the committees to give more time to the thorough examination of all machinery, and by placing each competing machine in kind in juxtaposition, that their relative merits may be more easily determined.

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE.

To the Executive Board of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society: The undersigned, the judges appointed to examine numerous articles and machines, entered in Classes 37 and 38, in Division C, hereby submit the following report so far in their judgment as " special premiums" or "honorable mention" are deserved, intending hereafter to submit a more formal report on general merits and qualities of the various articles exhibited:

Your judges respectfully recommend the following awards by the Society as a seal of its appreciation for merit:

The special premium offered by Pierce & Whaling for "Best steel crossing-plow," $25.00, the judges have awarded to E. J. and William Lindsay, of Milwaukee, for the Deere Moline-plow, and to W. F. Whitney, for the Moline-plow Company's plow, second premium, $10.00.

The following are recommended:

W. F. Whitney, Milwaukee-For thresher and separator, diploma. For the Liddell horse-power, for its extreme lightness and efficiency, a silver medal.

Lanton Bros., Racine-For excellent straw-cutter, diploma.

J. B. Bennett, Watertown-Separator and horse-power, with valuable features, diploma.

A. P. Dickey, Racine-For large display of meritorious fanning-mills, diploma. W. G. Raynor, South Bend, Ind.-Breaking and cross plows, with chilled coulters and shear combined, and other valuable elements, diploma.

B. B. Downs, Eau Claire-Bag-holder, diploma.

John O. Frenzel, Sauk City—Sausage-cutter, honorable mention.

N. E. Wood & Co., Elgin, Ill.-Lever clothes-wringer, diploma.

E. J. & Wm. Lindsay, Milwaukee-Garden and field-hand tools, extra finish and excellent quality, diploma. Also, Way's lever clothes-wringer, diploma.

J. L. O'Conor, Oshkosh-Pruning-knife, diploma.

Badger & Blood, Kenosha-Rubber-scrubbers, honorable mention.

U. L. Ward, Racine-Washing machine and table combined, honorable mention.

E. B. Heinship, Racine-Twelve wooden pumps, with vitrified iron valve-tubes, honorable mention.

O. D. Hudson, Waupun-Hydrostatic scale, diploma.

E. E. Park, Darien-Washing-machine, honorable mention.

Willard Van Brunt, Horicon-Seeder, for valuable device in force-feed, &c., diploma.

Lockhart Bros. & Co., Waterloo, Ind.—For pivoted three-section land-roller; also, valuable device for weighing, diploma.

Furst & Bradley Manufacturing Company, Chicago-For variety splendid plows, cultivator and sulky-rake, diploma.

J. I. Case & Co., Racine-For their excellent thresher and steamer-power, of their own make, diploma.

P. K. Dederick, Albany, N. Y.—For hay-press, of rare merit, diploma.

C. F. Durall, Milwaukee-For thresher with turn-table connected for power, honorable mention.

J. M. Stryker, Kenosha-For combined corn marker, planter, seeder and cultivator, diploma.

Althouse, Wheeler & Co., Waupun-For best wind-mill, being self-regulating by means of centrifugal action on the fans, diploma.

A. P. Dickey, Racine-For hand-shears for cutting iron, steel, &c., very meritorious, diploma.

W. E. Waterhaus, Milwaukee-Blacksmith-bellows, large size, diploma. Emerson & Co., Rockford, Illinois-For fire-setting, fire-contracting and fire-expanding machine, diploma.

S. L. Sheldon, Madison-Grain-drill and broadcast-seeder, for special device in force-feed, excellent make, &c., honorable mention.

Harris Manufacturing Company, Janesville-For broadcast-seeder, with special lift-arrangement, &c., honorable mention.

E. J. and Wm. Lindsay, Milwaukee-For potato-planter, diploma. Also, Rowell's seeder, with special improvements, honorable mention. Also, for best display agricultural implements, diploma.

James Little, Sheboygan Falls-Diamond mower; for novel and valuable device in sickle-movement, diploma.

W. F. Whitney, Milwaukee-Clover-huller, honorable mention.

D. N. Fairman, Wilmington, Ohio-For best feed-cutter, the special device being a bearing each side of the knife, insuring easy and certain cut, diploma. Chester Hazen, Ladoga-Wind-mill, diploma.

We further respectfully submit the following observations: Without intending in the least to encourage financial exhaustion, the judges are constrained to remark that the premiums offered do not seem to fully meet the "eternal fitness of things" and the view we take of it is better illustrated by referring to

the fact that the society offers near $150, in premiums for garden flowers, boquets, &c., and over $100 in premiums on poultry, while not a farthing is offered to that large, meritorious class who devote their lives and their fortunes to the creation and production of labor-saving machinery.

A man spends from $100 to $10,000 and the best years of his life in the production of labor-saving machinery, and the only recognition the society greets him with, is the privilege of exhibition and a committee of judges to look over his invention, and if found worthy, to honor him with favorable mention in the almost secret archives of the society; while to him who feeds a peck of corn to some brahma or shanghai chickens, or to her who sows the seeds and culls the flowers that nature produces "ready-made” in her garden-requiring no genius, little expense and very little care -the society lavishes its cash premiums.

Now, while we offer not the least objection to this encouragement to poultry-raising, flower-picking, &c.,-believing it proper to encourage any laudable enterprise that serves to cheapen the cost of subsistence or ennoble the human faculties, we nevertheless submit that in the line of merit, regard should be had to the true value of results and the relative cost of their production.

Take away the machinery-feature of our fairs and they would soon dwarf into horse-races, and we cannot too highly appreciate the valuable assistance that are rendered to our annual fairs by inventors and artisans.

It may be said, as is not unfrequently claimed, that the exhibition of machinery, as an advertising medium, is worth the cost and trouble of exhibition. This is true to a certain extent as to machines already in the market. It is equally true of stock and poultry raising, and why not give the same practical encouragement to the one as the other? We are aware that the financial part of the argument is in some cases formidable against too liberal offer of premiums, but as an encouragement to those from whose brains spring labor-saving machinery, as Jove sprang from the brain of Minerva, the judges would suggest that moderate premiums be offered for all novel and meritorious improvements on machines already in use, or the production of serviceable new machines, our main object being to so distribute our tokens of appreciation, that the mechanic, inventor and artisan, shall not be overlooked and thereby discouraged.

This display of machinery, though good, was by no means what it ought to have been to keep pace with our general per cent. of improvement, and we cannot but charge the fact, in part, at least, to a general want of interest as a too natural result from the seeming want of appreciation by the society.

The grounds and the general arrangement of machinery seems to have been all that could be desired, and the superintendent, Major Rufus Cheney, deserves just credit for his faithful and indefatigable exertions to render his department a suc

cess.

The division of labor suggested in our last annual report, has been partly consummated with very beneficial results, making it possible for the committees to end their labors in tolerable season, and yet another subdivision would be still better, and would be more beneficial to the judges as well as exhibitors, since more time could relatively be devoted to the various meritorious articles on exhibition.

The following shows the exhibitors and the number and kind of articles exhibited: