THl-: FARMER'S MAGAZINK 



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mere spectator. Tlie public, however, will never rest 

 content until their reasons I'orthis award are explained. 

 In the matter of " duty," or run, the other Lincolnshire 

 firms had again the best of it. The time-table is thus 

 officially announced : — 



Tuxford and Sons' . ran 2 hours 57 minutes. 



Clayton and Shuttleworlh's 2 hours 41 minutes. 



Ransomo and Sims' ... 2 hours 20 minutes. 



Hornsby and Sons' ... 2 hours 2o minutes. 



And Hornsby receives the first prize ! It does not 

 seem probable that a manufacturer would differ much 

 in his plan of constructing either a twelve or eight- 

 horse engine. But, under auy circumstances, this case 

 shows the necessity of an early report ; and it is even 

 said that Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth have asked, 

 or are about to ask, for an official explanation of the 

 Judges' decision. Still the working value of Hornsby's 

 machinery is proverbial, and perhaps the more we in- 

 vestigate it the less may we question what the Judges 

 have decreed. 



Barrett, Exall, and Andrewes arc declared to have 

 the best fixed engine — a plan that at one time threat- 

 ened to supersede the moveable, but that has latterly 

 rather receded in practice. The Reading firm, how- 

 ever, did capital work with theirs. Ransome makes 

 the best boiler for engines; and Boby's is indis- 

 putably the best screen for machines. It sounds 

 almost strange that the thrashing-machine and the 

 engine should not go together. But, in equal merit, 

 it would appear they do not. The Tuxfords, for in- 

 stance, have not yet taken a prize for a thrashing- 

 machine ; and the four selected for the great two-hours' 

 trial on Wednesday were— Clayton and Shuttleworth, 

 Hornshy, Humphries, and Ransome ; their merits being 

 pronounced as we have placed them. Clayton and 

 Shuttleworth have, indeed, a very marked supe- 

 riority here, while the trials were entered on 

 with unusual energy by the Judges; an enume- 

 ration of points having been previously very 

 nicely adjusted by them. The Messrs. Hornsby 

 and Garrett are the next selected from, as with the en- 

 gines, whole hosts of opponents. When we say there 

 were not less than 105 engines entered, and 87 thrashing 

 machines, it will be seen how good either must actually 

 be, to take any place here. As Mr. Stratton said of his 

 short-horns, the Ransomes and Garretts may say of 

 their implements, " It must be pretty good stock to get 

 any notice at all at such a meeting as this." 



If the great majority of the visitors had the look of 

 people who had seen heretofore but little of such sights, 

 they were certainly not merely idle or uninterested spec- 

 tators. The manufacturers have seldom had a better 

 time of it. There was scarcely a man amongst them but 

 who was " doing very well indeed." But there was a 

 moral, too, in the way the company crowded round 

 those entries which had this year received the stamp of 

 approval from the Society. They bought engines, 

 thrashing-machines, and even steam-ploughs. There 

 were plenty of prizes for such smaller implements as 

 chaff-cutters, mills, pulpers, and so on, and quite as 

 many people to purchase them, The unrivalled Mr, 



Comes must have had a busy time of it ; and Richmond 

 and Chandler, Samuelson, Garrett, and Ransome also 

 drove a roaring trade. The public really meant busi- 

 ness, and did in a day or two, what it would take their 

 historian a week to go fairly through. We shall 

 hereafter, however, " try" carefully through the 

 different lines, and endeavour to do something like jus- 

 tice to a branch of home manufactures that has taken a 

 very high rank amongst us. The great men of Manchester, 

 we are assured, were much struck with the excellence of 

 the workmanship, which now so generally characterizes 

 the implements of agriculture.. 



As a whole, we must repeat, this section of the show 

 has seldom, if ever, come to a more satisfactory conclu- 

 sion than it has this year. The natural consequence of 

 this is, then, that the triennial system will be renewed. 

 Such certainly would read like a settled fact ; but so far 

 no one can say anything for certain. The Implement 

 Committee, it is reported, will not meet to consider the 

 subject before November ; and in the interim the manu- 

 facturers are all at sea as to what is to come next. Of 

 course such a delay is in every way injudicious and re- 

 prehensible. It was whispered the question would be 

 asked at the general meeting on Friday, but this broke 

 up in twenty minutes, after a merely formal sitting — 

 thanks to the Mayor, the President, the Railways, and 

 for the use of lands. 



It was considerably " past one o'clock" before the 

 Judges of stock had concluded their duties on tlie Wed- 

 nesday. This of itself went some way to confirm the 

 rumoured excellence and extent of the entry. When 

 once the rush at the doors was conquered — and we never 

 remember it so great — a very passing glance tended to 

 assure one that any expectations of a great show would 

 not be disappointed. Testing it by the combined 

 strength of numbers and quality, it is the best exhibition 

 of animals the Society has ever yet brought together. 

 There was of course a weak place or two ; but as a whole 

 either established breeds or more local varieties seldom 

 came out in greater force. It is a nice question, to be- 

 gin wi^;h, whether there ever was ere this such a lot of 

 Shorthorns — so many to be seen, and at the same tim 

 so few of an inferior description. The proof of this is 

 easily arrived at — some of the most famous of our exhi- 

 bitors having had to be content with a mere commendation, 

 or at best but a second place. This was the case with 

 Colonel Towneley, whose Brother to blaster But- 

 terfly was only highly commended, while from no less 

 than ten yearling heifers he reached no higher than next 

 best. But then this was a most extraordinary class, both 

 for merit and the many competing. There were thirty- 

 three for the Judges to pick from, and their premier se- 

 lection was generally allowed to be the best animal of the 

 yard. She is one of Mr. Booth's famous sort, by his 

 well-known prize bull Windsor. With that really 

 graceful appearance that so generally distinguishes the 

 Warlaby herd of cows, "The Queen of the Isles" is, 

 for her age, wonderfully well developed, and very heavy 

 fleshed. As a class, the aged cows rank only next to 

 the heifers, and here again Mr. Booth has the first place 

 with a broad, roomy, and altogether most handsome cow, 



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