From the beginning, the newspaper press in almost every State in the Union gave its powerful aid in making known the purposes of the enterprise, and setting forth the vast benefits, social as well as industrial and commercial, which must necessarily result from an exhibition which would bring together the representative men of the great industries of the Union, which would display to the North the almost limitless resources of the Southern States; which would show the South the amazing inventive genius and mechanical skill of the Northern States; and which, manifesting the interdependence of North, South, East, and West, would tend to obliterate the recollections of civil strife and contention, and renew those ties of fraternity and good-fellow ship which should unite Americans, to whatever geographical section they may belong. "The grand central idea of the exposition," said Mr. Kimball, "the main shaft to which has been belted every wheel that has worked for its success, is concentrated in the one word, 'improvement '-improvement of the knowledge of the people as to the great resources at their command, as to the best implements and machines which inventive genius has contrived for their development; as to the most approved methods of converting crude wealth into refined wealth; as to the avenues of labor through which they might march out of the bondage of poverty into the freedom of industrial, commercial, and financial prosperity; and, better than all else, improvement of the fraternal and patriotic spirit that is becoming to a people of a common heritage and a common destiny."

Preparations. All the space had been applied for and allotted before the opening day; but, when that day arrived, there were piles of bales and boxes unopened and unarranged, owing somewhat to the dilatoriness of exhibitors, usual on such occasions, and somewhat to the inability of the railroads to forward them as rapidly as they were consigned. The unexpected number of applicants for space at the last moment made it necessary to provide increased accommodation. The managers generously preferred to inconvenience themselves rather than exclude any exhibitors. Thus, there was much work to be done for a month after the official opening, and during that time the buildings and the exhibition had an unfinished appearance; but the goods were put in position with wonderful rapidity, the work of the carpenters was pushed forward by day and night, so that even the early visitors were not disappointed, or the general effect of the show much impaired. Too much praise can not be given to the managers and their assistants, for the energy, zeal, and system which they manifested in the execution of the arduous and complex task which they had undertaken. Although none of them had any previous experience in the direction of such an enterprise, their good judgment, unwearying devotion, earnest desire to please, calmness and

good temper, in the countless details of their work, received the grateful applause of exhibitors and visitors.

The Opening. The exposition was formally opened by Governor Alfred H. Colquitt, President, on the 5th of October, 1881, in presence of all the high officials of the State, a number of distinguished visitors, and a vast concourse of people, accompanied by some military pomp. After prayer by the Right Reverend Robert W. B. Elliot, Bishop of Texas, addresses were made by Governor Colquitt, Senators Z. B. Vance, of North Carolina, and D. W. Voorhees, of Indiana, and Mr. H. I. Kimball, of Georgia. Immediately after the conclusion of the addresses the engines were set in motion by Governor Colquitt, Senator Brown, and Senator Vance, the exposition was declared to be formally opened, and the fact announced to the public by the firing of a salute by a battery of artillery.

Buildings and Grounds.-The site selected for the buildings, etc., was Oglethorpe Park, the property of the city of Atlanta, covering an area of between forty and fifty acres, situated about two miles from the center of the city, on the line of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, well laid out and cultivated, and previously used for the fairs of the State Agricultural Society, and of local associations of a kindred character. The close vicinity of this park, its capacity, and its easy accessibility by train and a line of street-cars, gave it advantages possessed by no other site that could have been obtained. The main building, in the form of a cross, planned for a model cotton-mill, and constructed of very heavy timber, was 720 feet long by 400 feet wide, admirably lighted and ventilated, supplied with ample steam-power, consisting of three engines in the main building and one in the agricultural annex, and eight lines of shafting arranged for the operation of all sorts of machinery. It was traversed in its length and breadth by wide aisles, the total length of which was eleven miles, on either side of which, and in the center, the exhibits were displayed. Besides this main building, but connected with it, there were: 1. A hall, called the " Agricultural Annex," 275 feet by 100, in which the agricultural implements and machinery were exhibited; 2. A building known as the "Carriage Annex," 210 feet by 100, devoted to the display of carriages, etc.; 3. Two buildings, set apart for the exhibit of minerals and woods, the respective dimensions of which were 200 by 150 feet, and 100 by 50 feet. Overlooking the main building on the north side of the grounds was the Art and Industrial Hall, 310 by 55 feet, open to the roof 50 feet high, with wide galleries, reached by convenient staircases, devoted to the exhibit of works of art and all sorts of manufactured goods. Close to the Art Hall was a commodious room, 112 by 88 feet, called the " "Judges' Hall," capable of seating 2,000, used for the meetings of the judges, and for the vari

ous conventions and societies which met during the exposition. There were several other lesser and tastefully constructed buildings in different parts of the grounds, the principal of which were the "Florida Building," erected by the State of Florida for the display of the varied products of the "Land of Flowers"; the "Department of Public Comfort," containing offices for the telegraph, telephone, messengers, cigars, newspapers, etc.; and a restaurant, 100 by 53 feet (two stories), containing diningsaloons, parlors, etc. The buildings, covering twenty-one acres of floor-space, were all of wood, the main structure being of sufficiently heavy timber to fit it to be used for manufacturing purposes. The work of construction commenced on May 1st, and on September 1, 1881, the principal buildings were completed. The cost of the buildings was $140,000. The steam-pipes (six miles in length), water-supply, etc., cost $20,000, making the total $160,000.

The architects were Mr. W. H. H. Whiting, of Boston, Massachusetts, Messrs. Norman & Weed, and Messrs. Fay and Eichberg, of Atlanta. Mr. D. A. Lockwood, of Providence, Rhode Island, was the consulting engineer. Immediately outside the inclosed grounds were a number of plots planted in cotton at different dates and with every variety of seed, wherein the public could see the cotton-plant in every stage of culture, and could judge of the relative value of the various modes and systems of tillage.

In order to insure the accommodation and comfort of visitors, and supplement the capacity of the city hotels and boarding-houses, the managers built an hotel 330 by 200 feet, close to the park, capable of entertaining comfortably one thousand guests. Besides this, the best citizens of Atlanta made arrangements in their private residences to entertain visitors. Thus, it was computed, ample accommodation was provided for thirty thousand daily visitors. Classification of Exhibits. - The exhibits were divided into nine departments, which were subdivided into several groups, as follows:

I. Mineral and metallurgical products, divided into five groups: 1. General and State collections; 2. Öres, combustibles, building and refractory stones; 3. Mines, wells, and mining surveys; 4. Metallurgy; 5. Fertilizers. -II. Tools, implements, and machinery, divided into nine groups, viz.: 1. Preparing cotton and cotton-seeds; 2. Textile manufacturing; 3. Tilling, planting, and harvesting; 4. Motors and means of transmitting power; 5. Printing and telegraphy; 6. Breaking and dressing stone, working wood and metal; 7. Furnaces, blowers, and pumps; 8. Preparing agricultural products other than textile; 9. Transportation. -III. Manufactures, general, divided into seven groups, viz.: 1. Collective exhibits; 2. Chemical and pharmaceutical products, soaps, and perfumery: 3. Bricks, tiles, terra-cotta, chemical clay, and glass-ware; 4. Fire-arins, military

accoutrements, and saddlery; 5. Medicinal preparations and surgical instruments; 6. Railway supplies, builders' mill and metal work; 7. Safes, clocks, and ornamental metal-work.IV. Manufactures, textile, divided into five groups, viz.: 1. Cotton yarn, cloth, and prints; other vegetable fabrics; 2. Woolen, mohair, and mixed goods, woven and felted; 3. Silk and silk-mixed goods; 4. Clothing and millinery; 5. Paper and blank-books.-V. Home and social improvement, divided into five groups, viz.: 1. Furniture and musical instruments; 2. Mirrors and table ware; 3. Heating, cooking, and lighting; water-supply; 4. Education and natural science; 5. Fine arts.-VI. Forest and agricultural products, divided into ten groups, viz.: 1. Forestry and general agriculture; 2. Cotton; 3. Fibers other than cotton; 4. Cereals, forage, and root-crops, sugar and tobacco; 5. Farinaceous and kindred foods, oils, and spices; 6. Animal products other than fiber; 7. Agricultural engineering; 8. Fruits, wines, flowers, and ornamental plants; 9. Cattle, mules, sheep, swine, dogs, and poultry; 10. Dairy products.

The system of awards adopted by the Centennial Exposition was followed substantially by the International Cotton Exposition. Competent and disinterested judges-112 in allwere appointed for the examination of the exhibits in the several departments which were entered for competition, who, after a careful and minute inspection of them, and with a specific statement of an expert before them as to the peculiar merits of each exhibit, awarded the prizes to the successful exhibitors. The "certificate of merit" was considered the highest testimonial of award; but with a view to encourage the collection of minerals, woods, agricultural products, and machinery for the preparation and manufacture of cotton, cash premiums, amounting in the aggregate to $10,000, were offered to accompany the certificate of merit. In cases where a cash premium of $100 or upward was awarded, the exhibitor was entitled to receive instead of the money a gold medal of equal value.

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The exhibits made exceeded slightly eighteen hundred, embracing apparently every article in the range of American industry from a Corliss engine to a potato-peeler; and yet, though it surpassed in size and importance the most sanguine expectations of its promoters, the exposition did not fully justify its name. It was not "international" in the full meaning of the word. The goods, wares, and merchandise exhibited were exclusively American, with the exception of one roller-gin made in Oldham, England; of some combing machinery of for eign make, included in the large and attractive exhibit of the Willimantic Thread Company; of a valuable collection of foreign cotton fibers collected by Mr. S. M. Inman; and a highly interesting collection of hand-made native fabrics from China and Japan, contributed by Messrs. Russell, of Shanghai, and exhibited by

Mr. Edward Atkinson. This is not attributable to any failure on the part of the managers to invite the participation of foreigners. The character and purposes of the undertaking were made known to the leading representatives of the great industries in all the principal cities in Europe, South America, etc., and, from the cordial recognition of its importance in those countries, it was expected that they would have contributed to its exhibits in sufficient number to justify its being styled "international." The misnomer in this respect is due to the non-realization of reasonable expectations. It was not exclusively a "cotton " exposition, as its title would indicate. It was not intended to be so. It was the first exhibition of any magnitude that was ever held in the Southern States; and, while it was designed not to confine its scope to cotton and the interests germane to it, it was deemed appropriate that it should derive its name from the great staple product which forms the basis of Southern industry. While prominence was given to cotton and everything relating to its production and manufacture, care was taken to embrace all other branches of industry.

Agricultural Implements and Machinery.The collection of implements for the cultivation of cotton, and of machinery for preparing, packing, spinning, and weaving it, and for the treatment of cotton-seed for every purpose for which it is used, was the great feature of the exhibition. It has never been equaled in variety and number of articles in any former display, and it is doubtful if it can be excelled until the inventive genius of the future shall have outstripped its capacity in the present time. Here were displayed plows of every size and shape for the mechanical improvement of every kind of soil, from the four-horse screw pulverizer of the Maywood Company, of Chicago, Illinois, capable of breaking from twelve to twenty acres per day with one hand, to a depth of seven inches, to the graceful pony chilled plow of the Niles Chilled Plow Company, of Niles, Michigan; universal riding plows, steel plows, sulky plows, chilled plows, subsoil plows, garden plows, adamant plows, pulverizer plows, in apparently endless number. Here were harrows, cultivators, scrapers, choppers, seed-sowers, fertilizer-distributors, seed-drills, manure-spreaders, cottonpickers, the capacity and ingenious construction of which amazed the farmer, ignorant of their existence and accustomed to the use of the primitive implements hitherto employed in the preparation of the soil and the cultivation of his crops. The sight of these "implements of precision," each fashioned to perform its destined work in the best possible manner, in the quickest time, and with the least expenditure of manual labor, showed him how time, labor, and money could be saved, and the yield of his crops at the same time largely increased. As an evidence of the extent to which the Southern farmers have learned the lesson

taught by this branch of the exposition, the most approved of these implements are being ordered in greater numbers than the manufacturers can supply them. The makers of the Thomas smoothing harrow, of Geneva, New York, received orders from Southern farmers for upward of 1,000 harrows, costing from $20 to $22 exclusive of freight. The Chicago screw pulverizer and seeder attracted consid erable attention, and when seen in operation was said to fulfill satisfactorily all that its makers claimed for it. Of the machines which could be classed as "labor-saving" in the department of farm implements, this was preeminent. With it an intelligent farmer can plant his crops at half the cost of the ordinary plows. It cuts a strip eight and a half feet wide and from three to seven inches deep, dependent on the angle at which the cuttingblades are adjusted. Driven by one man and drawn by four horses, it will scarify and pulverize from fifteen to twenty acres in a day; and when used as a seeder it will sow and cover upward of twenty acres of wheat, oats, rye, barley, millet, peas, and grass-seed. The ease with which four horses can break so much soil is attributable to the fact that the horses draw upon a lever like a wagon-wheel, on the same principle that they can draw a heavier load upon a wagon than on the ground. It is not pretended that the machine will work on wet, rocky, stumpy, or hilly ground. After the crop comes up the machine can be taken apart in two sections, and each section used as a cultivator, stirring and cleaning thoroughly the entire space between two rows of corn or cotton. À special prize of a gold medal, or $100, was awarded to this machine. The Globe Cotton Planter of the Remington Agricultural Company, to which a similar mark of distinction was adjudged, was also universally commended for the thoroughness, with the least amount of manual labor, with which it performed its work. The collection of agricultural implements suited to Southern husbandry, exhibited by Brennan & Co., of Louisville, Kentucky, was much admired, and public opinion fully justified the award of a gold medal which the judges recommended. The cotton-pickers, of which four were exhibited, showed a great deal of mechanical ingenuity, but practical farmers did not believe that they furnish a reliable substitute for the fingers of the darkey. A cotton-wormkiller, invented and exhibited by Jackson Warner, of Texas, was an ingeniously devised implement, certified by numbers of persons who had tested it to be thoroughly effective in destroying the cotton-caterpillar, army-worm, boll-worm, and other insects which are so destructive of the cotton-crop. The machine. filled with the poisonous liquid, which, unlike Paris-green and other worm-poisons, is not injurious to those who apply it, is strapped on the withers of a horse or mule in front of the rider, and distributes a shower on each side

which is said to be as efficient in the destruction of "blind-worms crawling in the grass," as the miraculous agency of St. Patrick. One man and horse, with this machine, in the course of a day, can kill the worms on a large cotton plantation. The display of cotton-gins was very large. One of the main objects which the exposition was expected to demonstrate was a gin made on the knife-roller principle, which would equal in speed and in quantity of lint the ordinary saw-gin. While one or two proved capable of somewhat higher speed than any roller-gin hitherto seen, none of them came near enough in ginning power to the sawgin to warrant the belief that they will take its place on cotton-farms. In the vast number of gins displayed, some very simple, some quite complex, in their construction, it was remarkable that the foundation principle of them all is precisely similar to that the invention of which has made Eli Whitney as famous as Watt throughout the civilized world. The modern gin is of course a great improvement on that of Whitney-an exact model of which was exhibited and was an object of much interest-but the scientific principle, though amplified and perfected, is the same. Another anxiously anticipated result of the exposition was the production of a machine which would cleanse cotton thoroughly from the motes, consisting of bits of leaves, bolls, and trash from the field, dust and trash from the gin-house, and which would remove the almost impalpable sand or dust which is found in cotton grown on many soils and does great injury to the machinery of the factory, and which would thus benefit the producer by enhancing the value of his crop, particularly that known as 66 storm-beaten " cotton. It is estimated that the present rude method of preparing cotton for market costs the producer at the lowest calculation from two to five per cent on his entire crop. In other words, if all the raw cotton were properly ginned and cleansed from the above-mentioned impurities, and then properly packed, so that no rain or dirt from the bagging or yard could penetrate it, the value of the larger part of the entire cotton-crop would be enhanced five per cent to the producer and probably as much more to the consumer. The profit to the latter from wellcleansed and well-baled cotton would arise partly from the saving of time and labor now spent in picking and carding, but mainly from the greater strength of the yarn, which is now much injured by the mechanical appliances employed in factories to remove the trash and dust. Machines to do this important work were exhibited by Joseph Ralston, of Brenham, Texas, and by the Clark Seed-Cotton Cleaner Manufacturing Company, of Atlanta, Georgia. The machines of both inventors were highly approved by large numbers of farmers who had fully tested their merits, and who stated that by their use "storm-cotton" had been enhanced in value from three to four

cents per pound. The display of their power to do what is claimed for them, which was made daily at the exposition in presence of numbers of practical and intelligent planters and manufacturers, proved beyond question that they are of incalculable value. The modus operandi in cleansing dirty cotton is to subject it to the action of "beaters" before the fiber has been removed from the seed. The seed with the lint attached, being of greater specific gravity than the trash, dust, etc., mixed with the lint, is detached and carried by the action of the beaters away from the trash, and the trash is deposited in receptacles prepared for it. The judges, believing that the Ralston Cotton-Cleaner is the best that has ever been devised for the accomplishment of the long-desired end, awarded it the "Grand Prize of the Exposition "-five hundred dollars, or a piece of plate of equal value. The Clark machine had also great merit. It was distinguished by the award of one hundred dollars in money or plate. The demand for these machines is now so great that the Ralston and Clark factories will find it difficult to fill the orders already received. An intelligent planter of large experience-an extensive cotton-grower-remarked, when looking at the cotton-cleaner at work, "That machine alone is of sufficient value to pay the South the cost of the entire exposition ten times told." This is no exag. gerated estimate. Of the 6,000,000 bales of cotton now produced, far more than 1,000,000 bales are graded as ordinary " and "lowmiddling," in consequence of the trash, sand, and dirt which they contain. A machine which would remove this trash, and give to the price of even 1,000,000 bales an addition of one cent per pound, would add $5,000,000 to the annual value of the crop.

Of cotton-presses with power sufficient to compress a bale of cotton so as to make it impervious to rain or dust, under the rough treatment it receives when in transit between the gin-house and the factory, several were exhibited. One press, that of P. K. Dederick & Co., of Albany, New York, displayed power to compress a bale to forty pounds to the cubic foot, giving it the density of elm-wood, without, as is alleged, any injury to the fiber. The main advantage of this compression accrues to the carrier by land and sea. The good effected by making the bale proof against rain and dust is done away by the increased difficulty caused by compression in removing motes and other trash from the lint. The price of these powerful presses is so great, and it being by no means a settled question that great pressure does not injure the elasticity of the fiber, that farmers in general are not likely to purchase them.

Another agricultural machine well worthy of notice was Kemp's Manure-Spreader. It is a cart with large broad-tired wheels, capable of holding between 30 and 40 bushels of ordinary manure, with a short tongue to connect