power to the plough, or by a steam engine on a new system.

They have a great many Dibbling machines in England; we have but few of them in use in America. They pierce holes in the soil, drop and cover the seed as they go. In this way the seed is equitably distributed. Beets, corn, beans, &c., can in this way be sown with great exactness. In the Exhibition we meet with many Dibbling machines, all of which profess to be improvements on the old imple

ments.

A Scotchman has offered a machine for sowing grain and grass seed broad cast, which he claims will distribute the grain over the surface with exact regularity. A man can sow with it as fast as he walks.

A clod-crusher, that a single horse could move, and that takes up the clods and crushes them as it proceeds seems to be an improvement on our old plan of a great log or huge roller that crushes some clods and sinks others, hardening the ground as it goes along. One horse would go over a large space in a day with this clod-crusher.

Spading is better than ploughing; and this may be one reason why beds in gardens do better than fields on the farm. But spading by hand is a slow and back-breaking business. Here, however, is a patent machine for digging, turning over and pulverising the soil, which no doubt it will do very faithfully and expeditiously. By changing some of the keys, the machine may be made to answer the purpose of a cultivator or scarifier amongst growing crops.

A portable hand garden-engine is a good thing for washing trees, &c. in gardens. It will throw the water fifty feet high in a continuous stream.

Farlow exhibited a cheap netting for protecting fruit and flowers. This may be valuable to many gardeners. But we have proceeded far enough for once amongst the English implements of husbandry.

Let us turn to the right and notice a few things in the court that contains woven and felted fabrics. Here we notice some beautifully embossed silk and velvet used in book binding. Also embossed velvets and furniture linings for decorations. And there are some embossed paper hangings which we should like to hang upon the walls of our home parlor.

Here are some specimens of machine printing on velvet; eight colors, produced at one operation, at the rate of sixty yards per minute!

One

A curiosity of manufacture is sent in from Manchester. It consists of cotton yarn spun so fine that a single pound of cotton is made to extend a thread 338 miles. pound of double thread is elongated to 324 miles and cost $140. The most remarkable example, however, is the specimen by which a single pound is extended to 480 miles. This is the finest that ever was spun. It is useless for all manufacturing purposes, being too fine to be serviceable, or even handled.

Here is a communion table-cloth of fine linen, made in Leeds. The figures woven into it represented, as its centerpiece, the Saviour administering the last supper to his disciples. The border, running right and left, was composed of Corinthian scrolls, with the passion-flower and wheat and grapes. The middle contained the Holy Scriptures and the mitre, and the sides had each a large cross with "I. H. S." The design is admirable. Why are not such articles in the market in this country?

Next to this court we pass into a room filled with the Hardware of Sheffield. Here is a case containing the preparations of steel wire, showing all the stages in the process of manufacturing needles. It take as many men to make a needle as a house.

In the furniture division we witness a display of papier mache goods. It is curious to see what can be made out of paper inkstands, trays, chairs, cots, and even piano-fortes. One of the latter is here with tortoise-shell, and another with pearl, keys. Here, too, are samples of veneering, for which we thought the Yankees ought to have the premium; for I recollect my friend Burnup, of Belfast, twenty-five years ago, invented a machine for unrolling a log, as a merchant unrolls his cloth, and making veneering as wide as the log is long, and as many yards long as the log, cut into a thin sheet will allow. This is of immense benefit; but I think it never was patented; and now it is exhibited in England as a new thing.

An alarm bedstead attracts our attention. A clock is at its head to give the alarm at any desired time. See that fellow lying on the bed to be awakened. Soon the clock strikes; and if in precisely two minutes he does not arise, the head of his bed is thrown up, and he is pitched over the foot without ceremony! He is awake and up now, no doubt, and may dress himself if he will. The invention is a capital one for lazy bones.

A family freezing machine is here, which will convert water into ice in the hottest of weather. Ice houses are no longer necessary.

The English Statuary Room is next to this. It is filled with figures in wood, plaster and marble, of all sorts and sizes. Some of the finest sculptures in the world are here. We are struck with St. John baptising our Saviour, and the Descent from the Cross, as amongst the best. The Babes in the Wood attract the attention of all; for all remember the story.

In the Mineral Department, we see what can be made of slate, from house roofs to ornamental loo tables and ladies' work-tables. Who knows but our Maine slate quarries will yet supercede the Penobscot lumber mills in the furnishing of materials?

In the court assigned to leather, we notice a splendid model of a spirited horse, that looks, for all the world, like a live one just ready to spring, completely equipped, with a gold trimmed saddle and bridle, and holsters with silver mounted pistols. Behind the saddle is slung a unique case of whips. It is an effective advertisement. Here is a great variety of shoes, in none of which, however, are our American shoes exceeded, except by the Ladies' shoes, which have thick double soles. There is no reason in the world why women should not have their feet as dry and warm as men; and in England you never see the ladies walking out of doors with kid slippers on. They wear boots and shoes with thick soles, and are not ashamed, in wet weather, to walk with clothes raised so as to prevent all draggling in the mud. English women look fresher and healthier than our Yankee ladies, and the reason is obvious. Our shoe shops are as accountable for consumptions, as grog shops are for pauperism. But we can go no further in this little part of the English Department.

LETTER XXXIII.

WALKS IN THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

Furniture Rooms-Portable Pulpit-Invalid Bedstead and WashstandSelf-swinging Cot-New Room-Paper and Cloth-A Druidical ChairDevotional Chair-Iron Bedsteads-Self-propelling Chair-Manufacturing Rooms-Cotton Gin-Mules-Electric Telegraph-Sewing Machine ---Curvilinear Sawing.

LET us advance to the furniture room, and see what there is there that I am not very familiar with in America.

And the first thing I notice is a capital contrivance for itinerant preachers -one specially to be commended to the travelling apparatus of those settled ministers, who settle over new societies about every week. It consists of a portable self-supporting pulpit, with hand-rails for a stair-way, a platform to stand upon, and a silk table on which to lay a book, notes, &c. It is light, and when folded up may be taken under the arm of the pedestrian, and carried along till he feels moved by the Spirit to settle over some society, where he can re-pitch his pulpit, mount the rostrum, and hold forth till a new settlement is needed. The idea is certainly not a bad one- especially for street preaching, for field meetings, pic-nic assemblies,