Butter. Six premiums; best to Mrs. B. H. Cutter, Little Neck, and Miss Mary L. Mott, Hempstead. The quality was pronounced to be very superior. Grain.-Seventeen premiums; wheat fair, oats very good, and the samples of corn shown by S. T. Johnson, Rockaway. S. M. Titus and W. T. Carpenter, Glen Cove, were exceedingly fine. Vegetables.-Forty premiums. The show in this class was ample, as might have been expected, when the fair was held amidst the market gardens of the county. Oliver S. Denton, of Hempstead, exhibited the best and greatest variety of potatoes. Farm Implements.-Only seven premiums were awarded. The Buckeye and Monitor received the mowing machine premiums. Carey & Cartney, of New-York, exhibited a revolving mould board plow, which attracted considerable attention. L. Green, of Peekskill, also exhibited a plow so constructed as by the use of three small wheels, one in the bottom and two on the land side; this it is claimed will reduce the friction and increase the efficiency of the plow, and greatly lessen the amount of power necessary to work it. Among the new implements exhibited and tested was "Evan's Rotary Cultivator." The ground was so dry and baked that none of the implements had a fair trial. It was stated that one hundred thousand dollars had been expended to bring this machine to its present perfected condition. A great deal is claimed for it—more than we are prepared to allow. 1. That it will revolutionize the present mode of cultivating the soil. 2. Diminish the cost of preparing the soil one-half. 3. Increase the crops at least fifty per cent. 4. Shorten the time of preparing the ground. 5. Hasten the growth and ripening of crops. 6. A safeguard against drouth in dry seasons, and flooding in wet seasons. 7. That any person, even a boy or woman, can easily and safely work it. So much for its claims. The report on examining the machine in operation was as follows: "The machine is about thirty inches in width, and about the size of a mower or reaper, weighing from eight to nine hundred pounds. It has steel teeth, about an inch wide, resembling those of a spading-fork, attached, two by two, to broad, flat, endless chains or belts, which pass around rollers as the machine goes forward. These rollers are so arranged that the teeth or spades are pressed almost perpendicularly into the ground by the weight of the machine as it progresses, while the earth is thrown up and thoroughly pulverized by the short, sharp leverage across the hind rollers as the teeth or spades pass over them. The earth is crumbled and thrown up as the machine goes forward, somewhat as water is thrown from the weeels of a steamboat. The machine is mounted on wheels similar to a Buckeye mowing machine, and, when desired, the teeth can be lifted from the soil by means of a lever. The machinery is so adjusted that the soil may be pulverized at any depth from one to eight inches. Two to four horses are required to operate it. It is claimed that on light soils, one man and two horses can do the work of two men and four horses with plows, and that the soil is left in the best possible condition for cropping. We are not disposed to second the claim that unskillful labor may profitably be employed to operate it, but that it would require the direction of a skillful and competent manager, one with a clear insight and knowledge of the machine. The condition of the soil was not such as to give it a fair opportunity, but when tried on ground from which a crop of potatoes had been taken, it seemed to work well. We should like it tested away from the excitement of a county fair." Plowing Match.-The first plowing match for several years, John Baxter, Jesse Easton and Alex. Baxter received premiums, and deserved credit for their work, which, considering the dryness of the soil was well done. Poultry-Seventeen premiums; about the best show we have had for several years. Sylvester Roe, of Flushing, exhibited Brahma pootras of splendid proportions. "Corn from the top of a barrel" would be quite within the reach of the rooster of this family. Fruit and Flowers.-Twenty-six premiums; the fruit in Queens this year may be considered a failure, except grapes raised under glass. S. C. Underhill, of Glen Cove, B. H. Cutter, Little Neck, and S. Wauser, Cedar Swamp, took the first premium on apples. G. Marc and Isaac Buchanan, of Astoria, for pears, and Thomas Messenger, Great Neck, and C. P. Leverech, Newtown, for superior grapes. David Thompson, Green Island, exhibited twelve varieties of native grapes, very fine. The first premium for flowers was given to Wm. Supple, gardener to Hon. B. Wood, Manhasset, for a very large and superb "Temple of Flora," said to contain more than one hundred varieties. James Skinner, gardener to E. Hoyt, Astoria, exhibited a large collection of house plants. W. A. Burges, Glen Cove, for the best cut flowers, and A. C. Burgess, East New York, for the best seedling dahlias. O. Judd, Flushing (an agriculturist), exhibited fifty-eight varieties of dahlias, and a fine show of phloxes. Needlework. The show of needlework and fancy articles was extensive; about thirty premiums; among them, fourteen silver butter knives. The ladies of Flushing and Newtown vied with each other in making this part of the show attractive, and displayed great taste in the matter of decorations, which were more elaborate than for several years past. Superintendent L. B. Prince directed this department, who, with his assistants, deserves especial commendation. Taking all things into consideration, the society has done better than was expected this year, and when we take into consideration that no large cities or manufacturing towns are in our county, that the largest village probably will not contain more than twenty-five hundred or three thousand inhabitants, we may congratulate ourselves that the farmers of Queens have nobly assisted the managers in bringing to so successful a termination the twenty-fourth exhibition of the Queens County Agricultural Society. THE WINTER MEETING was held at the court house, on Tuesday, Dec. 5th 1865; the attendance was quite large. Thirteen premiums, were awarded on grain. Joseph D. Armstrong, North Hempstead, received the first premium on winter wheat; Samuel M. Titus, Glen Cove, for corn, and Wm. F. Oliver, Hempstead, for buckwheat. The grain was all measured in a sealed half bushel, and weighed by the judges. James S. Van Wyck, N. Hempstead, exhibited a pair of turkeys, geese, ducks, and fowls, the whole weighing 104 lbs., ard Platt Wiggins, Mineola, the same number of poultry, weighing 98 lbs. Miss Patience Usherwood, Rockaway, aged 14 years, walked nearly ten miles to exhibit butter and cheese of her own make. Very fine specimens of Garnet Chili, and other potatoes, originating under the care of the late Rev. C Goodrich, of Utica, were exhibited. At 12 o'clock, a meeting was organized for discussion, John A. King jr., Esq., presiding, and Benj. D. Hicks, Esq., Secretary. At the request of several members, the subject selected was "Agricultural Products of the County." Mr. Harold was invited to read the following: AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF QUEENS COUNTY, COLLATED FROM THE CENSUS OF 1865, BY JOHN HAROLD, HEMPSTEAD. By an act of the Legislature, passed April, 17th, 1862, county agricultural societies, in order to receive the annual appropriation of money and books, or either, are required to procure the collection of statistics of agricultural and horticultral products in their respective counties, and forward the same to the Secretary of the State Agricultural Society. The consideration, to those taking the necessary enumeration is fixed at a copy each of the Transactions of the State Agricultural Society, and of the American Institute. After the returns are made, it is the duty of the county society to foot up, average, and place a valuation to the products in order to make the returns of any importance. So far, it has been very difficult to find persons willing to give the required time to make the returns, merely as a labor of love, and it is idle to expect that this service will be properly executed, unless a fair compensation is allowed for the same. The important question-"What articles of food are being produced; in what amount, and at what expense can they be obtained?"-can only be answered by a true and correct enumeration of the products, with their values, and cost. To take these statistics as they should be done, requires persons appointed from such sources as will give confidence and security to the farmer, that the tax assessor is not seen in the shadow of the enumerator, and that whatever facts are given, shall not be used to the prejudice of the individual giving them. The previous agricultural statistics of Queens county were taken by persons appointed in pursuance of the law, in each school district, and, so far as they were taken, it is believed they were correct. This year, we have availed ourselves of the labor of the enumerators in taking the State census, and regret to say, they do not afford that correct, full, and uniform information that we had a right to expect, from the large amount expended in taking them, and are far from affording such satisfactory results as the labor of those persons who were appointed by the State Agricultural Society. In order to establish the fact of the incomplete returns, and which were perhaps the best the enumerators could obtain, we would instance the returns of values of products of market gardens from Oyster Bay, at only $5,998, when it is believed that the single article of onions alone, raised at Matinecock, sold for twice that amount, and probably asparagus for an equal sum. Again, we doubt that any farmer in Newtown, would be desirous of claiming 28 bushels of wheat, as the average yield per acre for that town, or that those from Oyster Bay, would be content to acknowledge that their town only averaged about 13 bushels of wheat. By the returns procured by the State Agricultural Society in 1862, the produce of market gardens in one town (Newtown), was valued at $368,915, while this year from the whole six towns the value is only returned at $492,806. But the most singular fact, is a return by one enumerator of about 4,000 pounds of butter from one district, yet not a single cow to make it from. not striking ile, but is a very curious way of striking butter. This error, of course, has been remedied. The returns from Jamaica were very creditable to the enumerators, as were also, those from a few districts in the other towns. This is We have spent much time and labor in collating the returns, and making them, as far as we can, acceptable, but do hope, when we are again called to perform this duty, the enumerators will be more correct, and the appointments more judiciously made than were those whose duty it was to take the census of 1865. |