pied many of them. The fanning-mill,
porcelain and the _cheng_ may be fairly credited to her. The last is the
original of all our free-reed musical instruments. It is shown here, and
was also at the Centennial, and it was the carrying of one overland to
Russia, where it fell into the hands of Kratzenstein, the organ-builder
to Queen Catharine II., which initiated the free reed in Europe, and led
to the accordions, concertinas, harmoniums and parlor organs which
perhaps afford the cheapest and loudest music for a given expenditure of
muscle and wind of anything we have.

The spinning and winding machinery of China is simple enough, but so
much like that of our great-grandmothers that it does not arrest
particular attention. It is otherwise with the irrigating-machine, which
in its various modifications produces, by the fruitfulness induced, the
food of scores of millions in China, India, Syria and Egypt--the cogged
wheel on a vertical axis, with an ox travelling beneath it, and a
horizontal shaft moved thereby and carrying an endless chain of pots or
buckets, either hanging from the cord or moving in an inclined chute.

The ploughs, harrows, rakes, flails, spades, hoes and forks are of the
usual clumsy description, not to be apprehended by the reader without
cuts, and many of them only reasonably effective even in the mellow soil
repeatedly stirred and occasionally flooded with water. The seed-drill
for planting one row, with a share on each side to turn soil on to the
grain, is an anticipation of some later inventions nearer home. The
thresher is a square frame drawn over the grain--which is spread upon
the bare ground--and is furnished on its under side with steel blades
which not only shell the grain out of the ear, but also reduce the straw
into chaff, which is desirable, as storing for feed more conveniently.
Southern nations have but little conception of our use of hay. Grain for
the man and straw for the beast is the usual division. The ancient Roman
_tribulum_ and the modern Syrian _morej_, were or are similar, and the
"sharp" threshing instrument of Isaiah may be seen to-day in the Tunis
exhibit, being a frame of boards with sharp flint spalls inserted into
its under surface.

We might linger with profit over the elaborate models of Chinese
manufactures--sugar, rice, tobacco, paper, etc., showing the stages of
cultivation, manufacture, and packing for transportation and market--but
perhaps it will be as well t