502
EXPOSITION AT YIEXXA.
and what appears to me conclusively proved. That which, however, is good advice now may not always hold good for a long period of time, when improvement and advancement are as rapid as in our own age.
After being in Vienna for a short time, and while one day calling at the office of our Massachusetts Commission, I was for the first time asked to write their report on agriculture, being told that I must concentrate it into about so many pages of a specified size.
Now such a perfect report, as I can conceive might be written on this subject of agriculture which, although a science in itself, is at the same time a combination of almost every other recognized science, cannot possibly be condensed into the necessary space allotted me. I must, therefore, make such selections as I see fit, trusting that each subject will attract the attention of persons who will be benefited thereby.
On my arrival in the Austrian capital I found that the Exposition (May 19) was still in an extremely disordered condition in the parts assigned to almost every nation, and this applied equally well to both agricultural and other departments. Austria herself had then the outward appearance of completeness, and certainly seemed to be in the best order generally, but even here new articles were in a quiet way being daily placed on exhibition.
Going, as I first did, to see what Austria could show, and this being what one would naturally first inquire after, I will speak of w r hat she exhibited agriculturally.
The Agricultural Ministry
(Ackerbau Ministerium) was represented by a building of tasteful exterior, standing at the north-eastern corner of the Industrial Palace (see plan of grounds). It contained collections of a large variety of models, representing a variety of agricultural operations as well as implements, books, charts, the tobacco industry, collections showing the methods of applying chemistry to agriculture, exhibitions of experiments in connection with vine-culture, an historical collection of ploughs used in Austria, with colored illustrations of those implements and the animals attached to them. The