THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE. 



153 



The machine best adapted for Mowing Grass and Clover 

 for agricultural purposes. 



The prize of £20, to Burgess aud Key, Newgate-street, 

 London. 



The machine best adapted for Reaping agricultural crops, 

 £10. 



[The final trial of Reaping Machines deferred until Harvest, 

 when the prizes will be awarded.] 



The machine best adapted for Pressing Hops (in cloth) for the 

 home market, £10. 

 The prize of £10, William Weeks, Maidstone, Kent pattern 

 hop-pressiug machine. 



The Design for the most economical building the best 

 adapted lor drying hops, to be illustrated either by plans 

 or models, accompanied with a specification and estimate in 

 detail of the cost. 



Prize of £30— not sufficient merit. 



The Apparatus best adapted for drying Hops. 



Prize of £20— not sufficient merit. 



HOPS. 

 Judges. — F. Felton, London. 

 W. White, London. 

 Samples of Golding Hops. 

 First prize of £10, to Robert Berrimau, Langrish Manor 

 Farm, Petersfield, Hants. 

 Second of £5, Earl Darnlej', Thong, near Gravesend. 



Sampks of any other kind of Hops. 

 First prize of £10, Matthew Bell, Bourne Park, near Caii- 

 terbury (Golden Grape). 



Second of £5, George Eley, Tong, Sittingbourne, (Jones' 

 Hop). 



The best managed sample of Golding Hops. 

 First prize of £7, Thomas White Collard, Westgate, Can- 

 terbury. 

 Second of £5, Robert Berriman. 

 Third of £3, Hope Theobalds, Godmersham, Canterbury, 



Best managed samples of any other kind of Hops. 

 First prize of £7, George Eley (Jones'). 

 Second of £5, Matthew Bell (Golden Grape). 

 Third of £3 — no competition. 



WOOL. 

 Judges. — B. Chaffey, Yeovil. 



T. Johns, Chelmsford. 

 Six Kent Fleeces, combining quality and quantity, of One 

 Year's growth. 

 The prize of £10, Charles Collard, Wickham Court, Wing- 

 ham, Kent. 



Highly commended.— George Neve, Sisainghurst Castle, 

 Staplehurst, Kent. 



Six Long-wool Fleeces, Kent or otherwise, combining quality 

 and quantity. 

 The prize of £10, Frederick Murton, Smeetb, Ashford 

 (Kent). 

 Six Short-wool Fleeces, combining quality and quantity. 

 The prize of £10, Lord Walsingham (Southdown). 

 Commended. — Thomas Horton (Shropshire). 

 The following Local Societies contribute from their funds 

 towards the Local Prizes : — The Kent Cattle and Implement 

 Association, and the Faveraham, Deal aud Dover, Ashford, 

 Nonniugton aud Winghaiu, Sittingbourne, Chartham, lale 

 of Thauet, Gravesend, and Rochester Agricultural Associa- 

 tions. 



THE DINNER 



Took place on the Tuesday, when nearly all the four hundred 

 seats provided were occupied. In fact, the Music Hall was 

 very well filled. Lord Walsingham, as President of the year, 

 of course occupied the chair, and he was supported by Lord 

 Powis (the President elect). Lord Berners (a past President), 

 Lord Winchilsea (the President of the Kent County Agricul- 

 tural Society), Sir Courtnay Honey wood (the High Sheriff of 

 the County), Lord Leigh, Lord Cunningham, Lord Sondes, 

 Lord Nelson, Lord Darnley, Lord Camden, Lord Erroll, Lord 

 Sheffield, Sir Brooke Bridges, Sir Watkyn Wynne, the Hon. 

 Colonel Hood, the Mayor of Canterbury, and the Dean of 



Canterbury. There were also present Messrs. T. Dyke 

 Acland, Neville Grenville, Wren Hoskyns, C. Barnett, Jonas 

 Webb, R. Milward, T. Pain, W. Fisher Hobbs, E. Pope, N. 

 G. Barthropp, W. Rigden, J. Druce, J. Clayden, T. Crisp, E. 

 Green, T. Murton, R. W. Baker, J. T. Noakes, Wilson, Clay- 

 ton, Shuttleworth, Rausome, G. P. Tuxford, H. Corbet, Hall 

 Dare, and the Abbots, Lakes, Neaiues, Murtoua, and a 

 number of other local gentlemen connected with the city and 

 county. 



After the chairman had given the customary loyal and pa- 

 triotic toasts — which, however, were received with no great 

 explosion of Kentish fire — 



The Earl of Winchilsea rose to propose " Success to the 

 Royal Agricultural Society." In doing so, he said : I have no 

 doubt but that many of the gentlemen I now have the honour of 

 addressing were among those who first joined round the council- 

 table of the infant society. To these I would address myself, 

 and their reply to the one question I have to put to them 

 will, ^more than anything I could say, attest the successful 

 career of this great society. I ask, then, whether, upon a re- 

 view, they do not find that the society has far exceeded all 

 that its first promoters ever contemplated ? It is impossible 

 for one who has been at the show during this week, and wit- 

 nessed the ingenious implements, and the tine cattle that were 

 in exhibition there, not to feel strongly impressed with an 

 idea both of the usefulness of this society, aud of the dispo- 

 sition of the agricultural class to do what they can for the im- 

 provement of their science. It is said sometimes that they 

 are a slow Bet : gentlemen, I think it is a slander upon them, 

 and the show of to-day proves it. It proves that there is not 

 any class, business, or profession, that has more at heart the 

 advancement of their art than the cultivators of the soil. It 

 proves, also, that agriculture has made an unparalleled stride 

 during the last few years. I will tell you how I prove this. 

 The greater part of the implements exhibited in the yard are, 

 with the exception of the steam-plough, articles of luxury 

 rather than necessity ; and that the agriculturists are willing 

 to ataist and encourage the invention of such instruments, is 

 a striking indication of their earnest interest in the science. 

 In other respects improvements have taken place. In the ma- 

 nagement of certain soils chemistry has come to our help, and 

 dissipated the ignorance that once prevailed. Our cattle, too, 

 are no longer exhibited in that state of gross fatness they were 

 once famous for (laughter) ; on the contrary, some of them to- 

 day seemed rather too lean. But I am intruding on subjects 

 on which I speak with the vagueness that comes of imperfect 

 knowledge, and I leave to Lord Leigh n province which he is so 

 much better acquainted with. Suffice it to say that, for the im- 

 provements in all the particulars I have mentioned, we are 

 chiefly indebted to the Royal Agricultural Society of England; 

 because it has given rise and play to that spirit of competition 

 and healthy rivalry which is the cause of every useful inven- 

 tion and of moat grand discoveries. The benefit that this ex- 

 hibition will confer upon the farmers of East Kent are too 

 many for enumeration ; but one of them is this, that it will 

 introduce them to the beat breeds of cattle; and when they 

 have once found what their best breeds are, they will not very 

 easily fall back to the propagation of inferior sorts. The 

 British farmer may be hardly moved, aud his improvement 

 may be slow, but he does not retrograde. When he has got 

 hold of a good thing, he keeps to it. The advantage of ma- 

 chinery over hand-labour was at first, to many people, and 

 perhaps especially to farmers, doubtful : it is uo longer so. 

 To this circumstance I attribute that extiaordinary aud un- 

 equalled stride which during the last few years we have made 

 in the discovery of every kind of implements. We have 

 pointed out the way in this respect to the rest of the world. 

 Not only in England have we minor associations springing- up, 

 but in foreign parts societies of the same kind have come into 

 existence, the offspring of this great primary and parent so- 

 ciety. The inhabitants of other lauds have come to witness 

 our annual meetings. They see what we have done during 

 the year ; they inspect the newest implements, and inform 

 themselves about the latest discoveries. The knowledge thus 

 gained they carry home with them, aud there it takes root 

 and expands, and sometimes brings forth fruit more valuable 

 than the tree which gave it birth. In fact, we open our market 

 to all the world, and doing so we act wisely. There is nothing 

 lost, but rather much gained in the end by this system. For 



