10 PROCEEDINGS AT BOAED MEETINGS, 



read: — " In accordance with tlie resolution of the Local Committee adopted in Glasgow, 

 a trial of the turnip-thinuing machines exhibited at Glasgow took place on Friday the 

 6th instant, on the Home Farm of Craigie, near Ayr. Four machines were tr'iecl — 

 namely, No. 1134, exhibited by Messrs R. Bickertou & Sons, Berwick-on-Tweed; No. 

 1214, exhibited by Mr John Dickie, Girvau; No. 1572, exhibited by Mr Thomas 

 Hunter, Maybole; and No. 1573, also exhibited by Mr Hunter. Two other imple- 

 ment-makers were nuable to have their machines on the ground at the time. The 

 turnips were sown after the removal of a crop of early potatoes, and the soil was like a 

 piece of garden ground. It offered, perhaps, too little resistance to the action of the 

 machines. The machines were tried first on a field where the crop was going past the 

 best stage for singling, and afterwards in a field where the plants were scarcely ready 

 for the hoes. In our opinion Mr Himter's machine, No. 1573, made the best work, 

 and his other machine came next to it. We do not think, however, that they should 

 be placed first and second, as they are substantially the same. The one has slower 

 action than the other, and on that account it worked better on the light soil at Craigie. 

 We would place Mr Hunter first, and Mr Dickie second. There was no great difference 

 in the quality of the work done by the two machines ; but any difference was in ]\Ir 

 Hunter's favour, and he has a further advantage in the cheaper machine. We cannot 

 •speak very strongly as to the utility of the machines. They may he useful for sending 

 over drills at an early stage of the growth, at times when turnips are coming away 

 rapidly and hands are scarce. The turnips would then be less susceptible of injury 

 from delay in thinning. But the advantage to be gained by using the machines when 

 the crop is ready for singling was not very obvious at the trial. 



(Signed) " James Drennan. 



"John Young. 



" J. HN Murray. 

 "Ayr, August 6th, 1875." 



Self-Delivery Reapers. — The following report was read : — " We beg to report that 

 we tried this day a self-delivery reaper, exhibited at the Glasgow show by Walter A. 

 Wood, 36 Worship Street, London, stand No. 67, article No. 767. The reaper was 

 tried in a field of wheat belonging to -\Ir Gibson, Woolmet. It was a fair crop, and 

 well fitted to test the machine, which, in our opinion, did its work exceedingly well. 

 The principal improvement in this machine is that the rakes are under the control of 

 the driver ; it is a very simple arrangement, and not likely to get out of order, being a 

 cord attached to a lever at the driver's foot; it then passes round a small pulley, and 

 the other end of the cord being attached to another lever at the side of the upright 

 shait of the machine. From the end of this lever a wire passes up in a groove cut in 

 the upright shaft and fixed to another lever on the top of the machine, which acts when 

 required on the rakes as they go round, thereby enabling the driver to make the sheaves 

 small or large at will. There is another improvement in the fixing of the knife, which 

 is done by a spring rod and keeper, avoiding the use of screen bolts, which are very apt 

 to be overhauled. In other respects the machine is the same as was exhibited and tried 

 at Stirling in 1873. The draught of this machine, as tested with" the dynamometer, was 

 2h cwt. The reaper exhibited by William Anson Wood, 5 Upper Thames Street, 

 London, stand No. 68, article No. 778, was tried, on the 27th and 2Sth of A^igust, on 

 a field of wheat belonging to Mr Bryden Monteith, Libertou Tower Mains ; but after 

 being in operation a few minutes both days, it broke down. He got the opportunity 

 of another trial at Woolmet on the 31st, but he could not get another machine forward 

 in time. 



" John Gibson, Woolmet, Dalkeith. 

 " James D. Park, Engineer. 

 " Edinbui ofi, 31s< August 1875." 



The Board awarded a silver medal to Mr Walter A. Wood. 



Manure Distributor and Potato Planters. — The following report by the Imple- 

 ment Committee was read :^ 



" On the 12th of October trials of the above implements were, by the kind permis- 

 sion and assistance of Mr Monteith, made on his farm at Liberton Tower, on a field 

 from which a crop of potatoes had just been lifted, and was in every respect suited 

 for the trials. 



" The members of committee present were — Mr Hunter of Thurston, Mr Munro, 

 Fairnington; Mr Swinton, HolynBank; Mr David Stevenson, C.E.; and Mr James D, 

 Park, engineer. 



" 1. Manure Distributor. —This machine is the invention of Mr Robert Parker, 

 Culhorn Parks, Stranraer, by whom it has been patented as a combined roller and 

 manure distributor. 



" The distributing parts of the machine consist simply of a pair of hoppers or feed- 

 ing-boxes, in the interior of which two sets of teeth are made to revolve in such a way 

 as to admit of the manure escaping in a perpetual stream from an aperture in the 



