DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0111
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 83
Let us, then, now open our eyes and admire the vast fertility of nature, and contemplate
with thankfulness the various means of food and subsistence that the bounteous hand of
Providence has provided for the benefit of mankind. An American gentleman, walking
through the Exhibition, was somewhat cheered, when looking round on the empty spaces
and half-filled cases devoted to the United States, by the remark of an Englishman, that
at any rate America had the advantage in her specimens of corn and maize and salt
meat, which might be said to be the raw material of the whole Exhibition. This is a
true statement of the fact, and it indicates the most important relation of America to
Europe. The inhabitants of the Old World do not seek the shores of the New to in-
dulge their taste in the fine arts, or provide themselves with luxuries to deck their
tables and adorn their palaces. It is the demand for food—lying at the root of all more
transcendental tastes—which drives the European to America. How fitly, then, were the
United States represented by ploughs, harrows, drills, waggons, sacks of corn, ears of
maize, and barrels of salt meat—by indications of the space and specimens of the fruits
which they had to offer to an over-crowded continent! It was one of the drawbacks to
the testing here the substances used as food, that the visitor was not allowed to try
them by the sense to which they especially appeal. We can, therefore, report only
from sight; and, so far as that enabled us, with regard to the United States' exhibition
of these articles, we may say that the samples of wheat, maize, and other grain, indicated
at once the fertility of the soil and the good management of the farms on which they
were grown. It is not our intention to speak generally of the substances used as food
which were to be found throughout the various divisions of the great Exhibition, but
more particularly of Class III., according to the catalogue. First, let us take those from
the vegetable kingdom. In this department were found a very extensive series of cases
and fittings devoted to a display of the vegetable substances used in food, medicine,
and the arts from Scotland. This Scotch exhibition was almost an epitome of the raw
produce of the vegetable kingdom throughout the British islands, as there are few things
of any use that will grow in any other part of this country that will not grow in Scot-
land. These specimens, which had been got together by the Messrs. Lawson and Son,
of Edinburgh, were regarded with interest on account rather of their completeness than
of their rarity. Here we had the various cereal grasses of Europe, as wheat, barley, oats,
rye, &c., and the varieties which are commonly grown in Scotland, or which are produced
in that country as used in other parts of the world. Not only were there exhibited the
grains or fruits of those plants which are employed, and the various substances which are
manufactured from them, but we had dried specimens of the plant in blossom, and
during the time of the ripening of its fruit. The various kinds of farm and garden
produce used for food were also represented here. In cases where the vegetable sub-
stance could not be kept or dried, wax casts were substituted. Thus, we had a series
of specimens of roots, as carrots, turnips, &c. Casts also of rare specimens of curious
forms, and of the varieties cultivated were exhibited. The grasses grown and used as
fodder for animals were shown on the same scale. On either side of the entrance to this
Scotch compartment in the south gallery were found two living specimens of an inter-
esting grass, the Tussack grass (Dactylus c&spitosa), a native of the Falkland Islands,
which have been grown in the Western Hebrides, and have produced flowers and seeds,
so that it may be hoped this valuable grass may be shortly naturalized amongst us.
Most of our native British plants which are used in medicine were also to be found
in this collection. In the glass eases looking north were a series of blocks of wood in
their rough and in their polished condition, with also dried specimens of the branches,
leaves, and flowers of the plants that have yielded them. Those who were anxious to gain
a general view of the products of the vegetable kingdom in Great Britain, might have
Let us, then, now open our eyes and admire the vast fertility of nature, and contemplate
with thankfulness the various means of food and subsistence that the bounteous hand of
Providence has provided for the benefit of mankind. An American gentleman, walking
through the Exhibition, was somewhat cheered, when looking round on the empty spaces
and half-filled cases devoted to the United States, by the remark of an Englishman, that
at any rate America had the advantage in her specimens of corn and maize and salt
meat, which might be said to be the raw material of the whole Exhibition. This is a
true statement of the fact, and it indicates the most important relation of America to
Europe. The inhabitants of the Old World do not seek the shores of the New to in-
dulge their taste in the fine arts, or provide themselves with luxuries to deck their
tables and adorn their palaces. It is the demand for food—lying at the root of all more
transcendental tastes—which drives the European to America. How fitly, then, were the
United States represented by ploughs, harrows, drills, waggons, sacks of corn, ears of
maize, and barrels of salt meat—by indications of the space and specimens of the fruits
which they had to offer to an over-crowded continent! It was one of the drawbacks to
the testing here the substances used as food, that the visitor was not allowed to try
them by the sense to which they especially appeal. We can, therefore, report only
from sight; and, so far as that enabled us, with regard to the United States' exhibition
of these articles, we may say that the samples of wheat, maize, and other grain, indicated
at once the fertility of the soil and the good management of the farms on which they
were grown. It is not our intention to speak generally of the substances used as food
which were to be found throughout the various divisions of the great Exhibition, but
more particularly of Class III., according to the catalogue. First, let us take those from
the vegetable kingdom. In this department were found a very extensive series of cases
and fittings devoted to a display of the vegetable substances used in food, medicine,
and the arts from Scotland. This Scotch exhibition was almost an epitome of the raw
produce of the vegetable kingdom throughout the British islands, as there are few things
of any use that will grow in any other part of this country that will not grow in Scot-
land. These specimens, which had been got together by the Messrs. Lawson and Son,
of Edinburgh, were regarded with interest on account rather of their completeness than
of their rarity. Here we had the various cereal grasses of Europe, as wheat, barley, oats,
rye, &c., and the varieties which are commonly grown in Scotland, or which are produced
in that country as used in other parts of the world. Not only were there exhibited the
grains or fruits of those plants which are employed, and the various substances which are
manufactured from them, but we had dried specimens of the plant in blossom, and
during the time of the ripening of its fruit. The various kinds of farm and garden
produce used for food were also represented here. In cases where the vegetable sub-
stance could not be kept or dried, wax casts were substituted. Thus, we had a series
of specimens of roots, as carrots, turnips, &c. Casts also of rare specimens of curious
forms, and of the varieties cultivated were exhibited. The grasses grown and used as
fodder for animals were shown on the same scale. On either side of the entrance to this
Scotch compartment in the south gallery were found two living specimens of an inter-
esting grass, the Tussack grass (Dactylus c&spitosa), a native of the Falkland Islands,
which have been grown in the Western Hebrides, and have produced flowers and seeds,
so that it may be hoped this valuable grass may be shortly naturalized amongst us.
Most of our native British plants which are used in medicine were also to be found
in this collection. In the glass eases looking north were a series of blocks of wood in
their rough and in their polished condition, with also dried specimens of the branches,
leaves, and flowers of the plants that have yielded them. Those who were anxious to gain
a general view of the products of the vegetable kingdom in Great Britain, might have