THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



509 



practices may be said to bo out of boasou." Agniu he 

 says, " J3ut wliether tlio iiuicliLiic be a little or a great 

 oue, it ought never to be stumped with the approval of 

 uu agricultural society, without first being submitted 

 to so thorough and practical a test that no doubt can 

 exist of its being a useful farmers' implement." 



B. says : " You plough, and the land is utterly unlit. As a 

 farmer you would not plough under such circum- 

 stances : it would be lost time and madness to do it. 

 You reap by the same rule, with corn as green as grass, 

 and totally unfit for operation." 



C. : " The trials of field implements should not take place 

 if the soil is not in a tit slate for them. How can 

 ploughs and harrows fairly work upon land baked as 

 hard as a stone? Or how can clodcrushers and rollers 

 fairly work iu soft wet land? Therefore these trials 

 should be postponed, if the soil is unsuitable and the work 

 is unbusiuess-like. riea()ing machines should be tested 

 on ripe corn only; mowiug. machines before the grass 

 is dead and tough ; liay-teddiug machines, immediately 

 the grass is mown ; hay-rakes, as soon as the hay can 

 be wumowed. Steam cultivation should be specially 

 tested in all its variations, on difi'erent soils and under 

 all the varied conditions of the land." 



E. states, " I think a much longer trial should be given to 

 the more complex machines; as sleam-ploughs, com- 

 bined thrashing-machines, reapers and mowers, than is 

 the present practice. The simpler machinery, as cake- 

 crushers, bruisers, chafl'-cutters, &c., have not so many 

 chances of disturbance in theu' arrangement, and 

 therefore need less-prolonged trials; these, however, 

 are generally knocked oft' far too quickly. In all cases 

 J would test the different machines at the season for 

 which, in practice, they are intended to work." 



F. : in referring to a public trial of ploughs in July, says : 

 " The land was baked as if in an oven ; the day was 

 broiling hot, and the men and horses irritable from 

 excitement and the heavy nature of the work; never 

 was patience more required and given, to decide tlie 

 contest." 



H. says • " The trials of agricultural machinery are much 

 too short, and in all cases the judges should have really 

 a private trial, so as to be perfectly satisfied with the 

 merits of each machine ; it is impossible in the shore 

 space of time of five or ten minutes to arrive at a satis- 

 factory decision. When the judges have decided, then 

 give the public every opportunity of forming their own 

 opinion. In the second place, the truest mode of 

 testing each machine individually, would be the work- 

 ing it at the season of the year on the crop for which it 

 is intended." 



J. : "I tbiuk that more time should be given to each imple- 

 ment than is generally the case, particularly in refer- 

 ence to mills, cake-breakers, &c. Care should be taken 

 as to durability: I have known a prize cake-crusher 

 purchased, and all the small teeth smashed at the first 

 trial with hard cake, when attached by a strap to an 

 engine." 



M. : " Time should be given at any meeting, to enable 

 judges to make such experiments as fully to qualify 

 them in supporting their decisions." 



N.: "The public trials of implements at our agricultural 

 shows, and especially at those of the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society, should be so conducted as to give the 

 judges appointed to decide on the relative merits of the 

 implements which are brought under their notice 

 the fullest opportunities of coming to correct conclu- 

 sions : otherwise, the public can have no proper re- 

 liance on their decisions. The trials of the steam 

 ploughs and cultivators take place under very excep- 

 tional conditions. The generally favourable nature of 

 the land selected, and the small amount of it, can give 

 no real test of their capabilities on the generality of 

 farms. The actual cost, and quality of the work, on 

 soils of a mixed and variable character ; their liability 

 to derangement, by breakage and other casualties; 

 their power of overcoming the difficulties incident to 

 fields of great inequality of soil and surface, and also 

 irregularity of boundary ; their capabihty also of com- 

 pletely ploughing or grubbing the whole of fields so 

 circumstanced, and finishing them in a workmanlike 



manner — these are all points upon which the judges 

 should have the fullest opportunities of coming to cor- 

 rect conclusions, and are very essential couditiona on 

 which their decisions should be based. With regard 

 to thrashing and dressing machines, 1 have seen many 

 occasions on which the shortness of the trials has 

 been very conducive to the credit which some of 

 them have gained, and which a trial of proper dura- 

 tion would have altogether negatived. They start with 

 their riddles, screens, shakers, &c., all perfectly clean, 

 and are just coming to that point when they are about 

 to choke and waste the corn, when the trial ends. 

 With regard also to the reaping machines, the time of 

 trial renders it impossible to obtain fairly ripened corn. 

 The small quantity of unripe rye assigned to each ma- 

 chine renders the trials little better than a farce." 



The next point is, " The nature of the ground and the 

 season of the year best adapted to the different kinds of 

 macliinery;" and with this I may associate the policy of 

 having such trials more frequently adjourned to seasonable 

 periods, There is no doubt that the consideration of this 

 feature must be attended with considerable dilficulty, which 

 would be especially felt by agriculturists, who, however 

 much they may be inclined to give up two or three days for 

 an object, will not be very leady to repeat the sacrifice. 

 Now, if we have several meetings, at several seasons of the 

 year, according to the character of the machinery to be 

 tested, it would be not only next to impossible, cren if it 

 desirable, to collect together a large attendance, but the 

 difficulty of obtaining efiicient judges would be further in- 

 creased, and this is already very great. Under the triennial, 

 or, as it is now, the quadrennial system, it is so arranged 

 that certain classes of implements only come on for trial 

 in the same year, and so far the difficulty may be said to be 

 solved; but, is the month of July the best time for testing 

 the merits of some of our field implements ? If not, it 

 would seem at the first blush that two meetings would be 

 necessary — one for the show of stock and the esliibition of 

 implements at the usual time, and another for the trials of 

 those implements whose liirn is on for that year. I fear it 

 would be very impolitic to attempt to organize two such 

 distinct meetings, and hitherto the difficulty has been over- 

 come by the adoption of adjourned trials ; that is, by de- 

 feiring the adjudication of certain implements until the 

 season of the year when they come properly into use. This 

 has been attempted with some success in the case of the 

 reaping machines; and I do not see why such an example 

 might not be adopted with some other field implements 

 which might then be put upon the land at a time when it 

 is more fit for their use, and when the farmer himself could 

 more thoroughly judge of them at work. The third item 

 in my category is " The duties of the judges, and the ne- 

 cessity of some earlier report from them." In touching 

 upon this subject, let me say, I believe that the 

 duties of the judges of implements have been very 

 ably and conscientiously performed. They are, too, 

 entirely "labours of love," and are frequently pur- 

 sued under difficulties, annoyances, and an amount 

 of hard work, which none but those engaged upon such 

 occasions can have any due conception of. I believe, 

 moreover, that the intelligence and fitness of the judge for 

 his oflice have generally advanced as the machinery which 

 he inspects has itself improved. No man, in short, with 

 his wits about him, serves an apprenticeship with more ad- 

 vantage than a judge, or, T may add, a steward of the im- 

 plement department. The actual duties of a judge should 

 be self-evident. In the first place, he must be a man of 

 unimpeachable integrity ; he must likewise have greac prac- 

 tical acquaintance with the class of implements he under- 



