United States, Russia, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg, Italy, Austria, Norway, Roumania, Denmark, Australia, and New Zealand. Roughly estimated, the division of space was as follows:

Spain and Portugal had separate buildings upon the Quai and showed their agricultural in connection with their alimentary products. Greece, Servia, and Japan included their agricultural with their industrial exhibits in the palace of the Champs de Mars. Algeria, Tunis, and other French colonies and protectorates had special buildings upon the Esplanade, while the South American countries generally had their own buildings upon the Champs de Mars and included their agricultural with their general exhibits. Germany was not represented at the Exposition.

In general all the exhibits, described later in detail, were very complete and most carefully arranged, and except from Germany, there seems to have been a general response among the nations to the request for agricultural exhibits, though two of the smaller countries failed to make any display in this branch of industry.

In addition to these exhibits there were two general shows of live stock, one of cattle, sheep, etc., held at Paris in July, and one of horses in September. There were also periodical exhibits of vegetables and fruits upon the Trocadéro, several competitive trials of agricultural machines, dairy appliances, spraying machines, etc., notably the one at Noisiel, and, finally, an international congress of agriculture, with its attendant excursions, was held, among other congresses, in July.

In preparing this report it has been my endeavor, as far as possible, to bring out the advances which the Exposition showed as compared with the previous Exposition of 1878; and in the preparation of the different chapters I have tried to avoid repetition of what was published in the reports of the Commissioner on the eighth group in 1878.

The scheme of classification for the Exposition, so far as the agricultural groups are concerned, was neither logical nor practical, nor was there much pretense to follow it in the exhibits themselves by the different countries exhibiting. Consequently, in preparing this report on the eighth group, I have desired to present a report that would represent as far as possible the agricultural interests as shown at the Exposition. It was therefore mutually agreed in the beginning, with the sanction of Gen. Franklin, that class 77, relating to aquatic animals (fish and crustacea, etc.), should be

reported on by Mr. A. Howard Clark in the seventh group, while class 71, vegetables and forage plants, and part of class 67, cereals, should, in exchange, be included in the report on the eighth group. In the French table of general classification cereals in the grain are placed under class 67, and vegetables, i. e., tubers, farinaceous seeds, roots, fruit, and green vegetables, under class 71, both of which classes form part of the seventh group, which is wholly devoted to alimentary products. Green vegetables are also placed under class 80, in the ninth group, which treats of horticulture, but it is remarkable that neither cereals nor vegetables are given any place whatever in the classification under the eighth group, which is properly agricultural and under which the most serious consideration of such products would naturally be expected.

In the French exhibit both cereals and vegetables were properly considered as agricultural products, and as such were shown under class 74, belonging to the eighth group, and are so catalogued, while the exhibits in the classes 67 and 71 consisted exclusively of alimentary products derived from cereals and from vegetables, respectively. Algeria and the Argentine Republic partly followed the example of France in their manner of exhibits, but the other nations generally followed the classification of the catalogue more closely, showing cereals and their products in class 67, and vegetables, together with the alimentary preparations derived from them, in class 71.

A person writing upon class 74 and strictly following the classification alone would altogether leave out the very important show of cereals and vegetables in the French exhibit, while should he follow the catalogue only he would describe the cereals in less than half of the foreign countries, and the vegetables only in one or two small countries other than France. In writing up class 71 in the French section and only describing what was catalogued and is to be seen in the "Palais de l'Alimentation" he would describe only about one-third of what is mentioned in the classification. In Chapter I, therefore (substantially class 71), is included the report on vegetables, together with cereals in the grain, or, treated in a strictly agricultural sense, the purely alimentary part of 67 to be reported by Mr. Clark in the seventh group. This arrangement is further justified by the fact that in 1878 Commissioner Woodman included classes 79 (corresponding to our class 67) and 73 (our class 71).

This chapter, which has been prepared at my request by Mr. Amory Austin from his own notes and observations at the Exposition, contains a full account of vegetables, forage plants, and cereals as shown by the different countries. And here, again, Mr. Austin has made his report most full in those particulars in which the report of 1878 was least complete. Of these particular products some countries made a better showing in 1878, judging from their reports, than they did in 1889. This may be said of Norway, Greece,

Portugal, Italy, Sweden, and Canada; whereas Roumania, Servia, most of the Central American and South American countries, the French colonies, the South African Republic, Japan, and the Sandwich Islands were all better represented in 1889. In this chapter is included an account of mushroom culture. Mushroom-growing in the cellars, quarries, and catacombs throughout Paris was fully described in the horticultural report by George W. Campbell in 1878, but without illustrations. The information in the present report which Mr. Austin has brought together is largely additional to that recorded by Mr. Campbell; whereas, a mere reference is made to the Generilliers sewer farm, which is very fully described by Mr. Campbell, leaving little to be added.

In Chapter II I have been led to give reviews of some of the organizations, governmental and civil, which exist abroad for promoting agriculture, and particularly those of the French Republic; for we have yet much to learn from the systems there prevailing. France has long been one of the wealthiest of European nations through her specialties and her thorough methods of applying science to industry, and these are in no small degree the outgrowth of her general agronomic systems.

The history of our own efforts looking toward the establishment of national associations of an agricultural character is, substantially, one of failure, and the vastness of our territory will always make it difficult to continue for any length of time any such national body in a truly representative way; but there is no reason why some of the French methods might not be profitably adopted. No reference is made in this chapter to the statistics and organizations of Germany. Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, and some of the northern European countries, for the simple reason that these countries made no exhibit upon which to base a report.

Chapter III, on organizations, methods, and appliances of instruction, has been made quite full, believing that with the recent organization of our own State experiment stations and with the impetus given to agricultural experiments and education, a consideration of the methods abroad, especially in France, will be of decided advantage to our people in any report on the agriculture of the Exposition. I can not but feel that we might profitably copy in many directions, and especially the French system of recompense and of missions, by which the best men are constantly selected for important work which is to benefit the State.

The simple and inexpensive system of experiment stations, wherein, by reciprocal arrangement, both the State and the farmer on whose farm the experiments are made, derive benefit, is well worthy of being followed. The Ministry of Agriculture in France is so organized that the Director of Agriculture remains substantially a permanent officer. The present incumbent has held the position for some

twenty odd years, thus giving a stability to the establishment in striking contrast to the notorious instability of the ministry. Something similar will be necessary in our own National Department of Agriculture, and we might profitably adopt a system similar to that of France that would give the Department one permanent officer who should be sufficiently severed from politics and independent of changes of administration,

Chapter IV is based on class 74, which included specimens of farm improvements and agricultural work. In reality this class was of a decidedly miscellaneous character at the Exposition and seems to have been used for almost everything which had no special place elsewhere, or that was crowded out at the last moment. Among the foreign exhibits the example of France was sometimes followed and sometimes not. There was, in fact, much confusion, and the labor of preparing a report upon the class was by no means lightened thereby. A more definite classification and strict adherence to it is a desideratum for future expositions. Some matters strictly belonging to this class have already been included in Mr. Austin's Chapter 1, such as the Sahara irrigation lands, Tunisian farms, and the "Polders" of Holland. As it is prepared the chapter includes accounts of some of the model farms of France. The admirable manner of combining on one farm the most diversified and most scientific culture which prevails on some of the best farms of France ought not to be without its lesson, and I see no reason why a similar system, adapted to American climate and wants, should not prove successful with us, especially near our large cities, and bring into profitable use many of the abandoned farms of New England. As already stated, this class, according to the French exhibit included the grains and forage plants which, however, have already been treated of in Chapter I. They would, indeed, not be out of place in this particular class, except in so far as they involve methods of handling and baling; but I have preferred to treat of some other matters which more appropriately belong here and in which there has been the most marked improvement since 1878. Among these is ensilage. Mr. Knight gives a very full description in the report for 1878 of the system then in vogue and of underground silos. Since then, the system has materially changed; for in France underground silos are no longer generally used, but, instead, openair stacks. I have also included some account of hops, cider appliances, presses for olive oil, and of dairy appliances, in which the advances have been great, and finally appliances for poultry-raising, the French being far ahead of most other countries in the perfection of their arrangements for this particular industry.

In Chapter v I have included principally the consideration of machinery that was particularly tested in the different field trials held during the Exposition, believing that more practical informa

tion is thus obtained than by a consideration simply of the machines on exhibit, and their merits as expounded by the inventors or agents. After a good deal of reporting in past years on machinery at our State and county fairs, I am convinced that the important facts are most likely to result from such actual trials. This chapter does not strictly come within the eighth group, but belongs essentially to class 49, which, however, is closely allied to class 74; and I have prepared the report on field trials at Gen. Franklin's request. Here, again, I have endeavored to confine the notices and illustrations as much as possible to the machinery introduced and perfected since the Exposition of 1878, thus making them as far as possible supplemental to the extended and admirable report by Dr. Edward H. Knight on the machinery of that year.

A host of steam engines, both stationary and portable, for farm use were exhibited in class 49, and here again the prevailing tendency already noted towards increasing simplicity and lightness, combined with greater efficiency, was plainly shown. A like advance was noticed in machines for thrashing grains and in the divers mills for preparing crops for the food of animals, including strawcutters, grain-crushers, oil-cake breakers, root-cutters, and foodcooking apparatus. But on all these subjects I have made no report. Of the several groups of machinery represented in these trials the second group-apparatus to filter wine and its sediments-will be treated in connection with a special chapter on wine-making; the third group, comprising insecticide and fungicide machinery, is treated independently of the matter contained in Chapter VI (class 75); the fourth group, dairy apparatus, is not considered, as arrangements were made by Commissioner Franklin for a separate report by Prof. Jas. Cheesman. In the sixth group, apparatus for gathering, preparing, drying, preserving, and packing of dry fruits, there were no entries and hence no trials. The seventh group, comprising machines and apparatus for the decortication of ramie (rhea or China grass) is fully considered in a special report to Commissioner Franklin by Charles R. Dodge, and hence further reference to this group is omitted.

The classes of farm implements particularly treated are: The first Group, comprising seeders and distributors of fertilizers (and insecticides); and the fifth, Group v, including mowers, reapers, twinebinders, and hay presses.

The field trials and exhibits in the last-mentioned group were of greatest interest, not only from the important part taken by American exhibitors, but also from the very marked improvements effected since 1878, particularly in the self-binding reapers.

A number of important classes of farm implements were not entered for competitive trial. Among these may be mentioned plows and implements for the preparation of the soil for crops, threshing