336 



T!lc Country Gcntlcinaiis Magazine 



^lic 



J;arm. 



ARTIFICIAL HARVESTING. 



SUCCESSIVE heavy showers, although 

 welcome for many reasons, have served 

 to remind us that in saving our harvests 

 we are not to reckon on a continuance or 

 a frequent recurrence of such weather as we 

 recendy experienced, which not only enabled 

 farmers in many parts of the kingdom to cut 

 down, but also to secure the kindly fruits 

 of the earth, without a shower intervening 

 to hinder operations. We all know what it 

 is to endure the inexpressible dreariness of 

 a wet harvest, and the feeling of utter help- 

 lessness which besets us when "the rain it 

 raineth every day." How gladly, under such 

 circumstances, is the return of sunshine wel- 

 comed, and the sharp breeze which whistles 

 through the soaked sheaves is regarded with 

 feelings of the highest gratification and thank- 

 fulness. 



The wet harvest of 1866 gave occasion to 

 certain writers — outsiders as regarded agricul- 

 tural pursuits — to refer in somewhat harsh 

 terms to what they were pleased to consider 

 the backwardness of farmers in not having, long 

 ere now, devised some means by which they 

 would be rendered independent of the weather 

 in securing the ripened crops of the farm. But 

 it was much easier to find fault than to point 

 out any feasible remedy, and the farmer's 

 volunteer advisers just left him where he was. 

 The Society of Arts, however, believing that 

 some light might be thrown on what is cer- 

 tainly a question of vast importance, went to 

 work in a practical manner, and in the course of 

 last year offered a gold medal and a prize of 

 fifty guineas, for the best essay or report on the 

 harvesting of corn in wet weather. The re- 

 sult was that twenty essays were received, 

 and, as we intimated some time ago, the 

 gentlemen who acted as judges — namely, Mr 

 J. C. ^lorton, Mr C. S. Read, M.P.', and 



Mr Chandos-Wren Hoskyns — awarded the 

 prize to Mr W. A. Gibbs, of Gillwell Park, 

 Essex, and at the same time commended 

 several essays which had been sent in by 

 other competitors. Mr Gibbs' essay has now 

 been published, and we are thus enabled to 

 judge, in some measure, of the plans he has 

 tried for harvesting corn crops, and even 

 hay crops, under adverse circumstances ; 

 l)lans which his experience, so far, enable 

 him to recommend to the attention of agri- 

 culturists, and which have received the 

 sanction of the Society, acting on the judg- 

 ment of those experienced gentlemen to 

 whom the competing reports were submitted. 



A considerable portion of Mr Gibbs' essay 

 is taken up with a review of the expedients 

 which have been already resorted to in this 

 and other countries, for partially averting the 

 effects of unfavourable weather, and that 

 portion should not be overlooked, for al- 

 though those expedients are comparatively 

 it\^ and meagre, still the information given 

 is of a useful nature. Mr Gibbs next pro- 

 ceeds to give the details of his own attempts 

 in conducting a series of definite experi- 

 ments upon the artificial drying of hay and 

 corn in wet seasons. Those details consist 

 mainly, as he remarks, of a history of failures, 

 and his apology " for recalling some of these, 

 before giving final results, rests upon the 

 hope that one man's failures may either sug- 

 gest other men's successes, or save fellow- 

 labourers in the same task from wasting fruit- 

 less labours upon methods already proved 

 impracticable." 



For the details of those experiments, as 

 well as of the final results, we must refer our 

 readers to the essay itself, as published by 

 Bell & Daldy. The plan finally adopted con- 

 sists of a drying-house, made of iron or 



