THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



515 



being appointed on the committers of the Royal Agricultural 

 and of other societies to Cx tlia conditions of trials, the mat- 

 ter were entrusted to practical men who tliorouglily under- 

 stood what the implements were required to do, there would 

 be no difficulty in biinging about an agreement between 

 the societies and those who competed. ,But, even then, 

 he believed it would not be desirable to adhere to the 

 system which had hitherto been followed, of giving awards 

 in the shape of piLses as a sequel to the trials which were 

 made (Hear, hear). He could not agree with his friend 

 Mr. Crosskill and some other speakers, ihat the trials of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society had not been productive of 

 benefit. He believed they had been productive of very 

 great benefit in two ways ; first, by directing the attention 

 of that section of the agricultural public who required 

 such assistance to the existence of improved machinery 

 for farming purposes ; and secondly, by bringing before the 

 agricultural community the results of dynamometrical and 

 other tests, which could not otherwise have been obtained' 

 But at the same time he did think that the awards which 

 followed these tests frequently partook of the character of a 

 non sequitur. The reports of the judges might be re- 

 lied on as a conscientious statement of facts, but the 

 opinions based upon them might not be of equal 

 value; and he held that.if those who were called judges, and 

 who, he believed, generally discharged their duties with 

 great ability, and with perfect impartiality, would confine 

 themselves to the making reports on trials, leaving far- 

 mers to form their own opinions as to what in each particu- 

 lar case would best meet the requirements of individuals, 

 those reports would command an amount of respect and 

 attention, which was not given to their awards and to the 

 prizes which they conferred (Hear, hear). 



Mr. WiLSOx (Althorue, Essex) had not intended to take 

 part in the discussion, but the speeches seemed directed to 

 find fault with the Royal Agricultural Society and its pro- 

 ceedings, and not to the subject introduced ('■ No, no " . 

 Have not the principal machine makers ceased to exhibit at 

 the Society's shows ? If the judges give wrong decisions, 

 let them bear the blame. I remember the formation of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society by the late Mr. Handley. His 

 object was the information of the farmers, not the profit of 

 the implement makers ; and the shows were established to 

 enable farmers to become better acquainted with the ma- 

 chines connected with their trade. The remarks, there- 

 fore, made against the Society appear to me both unkind 

 and unjust. The Society does not desire the machine 

 makers to exhibit unless they find it profitable to do so. I 

 believe that the object of Mr. Hobbs, in bringing forward 

 this discussion, is to show that a greater acquaintance with 

 machinery would be advantageous to the farmer ; and in 

 that opinion I concur. 



Mr. A. Ransome wished to say a word or two in explana- 

 tion. Mr. Wilson had assumed that his remarks were 

 made in a spirit of hostility towards the society, whereas he 

 had commenced by disclaiming on his own part, and on the 

 part of those with whom he was associated on this ques- 

 tion, any such feeling. No man perhaps valued the Royal 

 Agricultural Society more highly than he did ; he admitted 

 that it had in many respects done a great deal of good ; 

 that the general diffusion of the knowledge of agricultural 

 implements, and the increased sense of their value on tlie 

 part of agriculturists, was owingin a great degree to the course 

 which it had pursued. He did not impugn the motives 

 either of the council or of the judges ; but he thought that 

 the proceedings with regard to prizes were not adapted to 



aid coiTCCtly tho judgment of farmers. He and his friends 

 thought that the circumstances under which the trials took 

 place were not such as to render the decisions of the 

 judges reliable, and justice to themselves required that 

 they should take steps to save themselves from the unfair 

 disadvantages that must arise to them, or perhaps to all 

 of them in turn, from the saddle not being put on the right 

 horse. 



Mr. J.A.Williams (Caydon, Hungerford) would have 

 taken no part in the discussion had it not been for the ob- 

 servations of Mr. Sidney, that the judges had completely 

 ignored Mr. Smith's system of steam cultivation. He 

 thought, after the pains those gentlemen had taken to ascer- 

 tain the cost per acre of coal, time, manual labour, itc, they 

 deserved to be more courteously treated than appeared to 

 him had been done that evening. He thought it desirable 

 that the trials of the Royal Agiicultural Society, and 

 more particularly those which had to do with steam cultiva- 

 tion, should be conducted on a larger scale. Steam culti- 

 vation would, he believed, within a few years be found pre- 

 vailing over a very large proportion of the soil of Great 

 Britain, It ought not to be conducted on a small scale, for 

 it required the fields generally to be enlarged ; and he main- 

 tained that fields of twenty acres each at least were required 

 for the experiments. A field large enough for this could 

 seai-cely be found in the month of July, but an adjourned 

 trial could take place after harvest, when suflieient space 

 could be obtained, and tlie merits of each system would be 

 more fully developed. AVith a field of five acres a fixed 

 machine appeared very simple, and might afford all that 

 could be desired ; but in the case of a larger field, when 

 shifting the tackle must be resorted to, the result might be 

 clearly in favour of a portable one. 



Mr. Freee wished to say a few words, his motive being 

 the interest which he felt in the subject, and not any 

 special knowledge or experience with regard to it. He 

 was certainly of opinion that the trials should be more 

 fall than they had been ; and that in order that they might 

 be fuller, they should be fewer in number; As regarded 

 prizes, it was but natural that when the Society was 

 founded they should be offered for all the objects which 

 it was desired to collect at the show. That was the usual 

 course of proceeding; and the onus prohandi, with regard 

 to deviation from it, rested, he thought, on the objectors 

 to prizes (Hear, hear). Prizes must be continued until 

 good and sufficient reasons had been shown for departing 

 fiom the national mode of getting up a good show. The 

 societies, he might add, were not so flush of money as 

 to continue spending a portion of their funds in prizes, 

 if they thought the end could be realized without that 

 (Hear, hear). What, then, was the use of prizes? He 

 thought they might be of service to an ingenious man 

 without capital — a man who had funds enough of his own 

 to bring one implement into the yard, and whom a prize 

 would enable to raise money afterwards for the creation of 

 a number of the same implements. Prizes might, he said, 

 tell in that way in favour of the small rising man. He 

 doubted whether a favourable report would be equally 

 efficacious in procuring him loans (Hear, hear). He would 

 aho remark that the question, in his own mind, whether 

 he should order a machine which he required, at Ipswich 

 or at Bedford, had depended not so much upon whether 

 Mr. Ransome or Mr. Howard obtained che first prize at the 

 last meeting, as upon there being a continuous line of rail- 

 road to convey it to his place ol residence. The general 

 public did not know how much injury was done to an 



