m 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



THE LEADING FEATURES OF THE IMPLEMENT DEPARTMENT 



OF THE CHESTER SHOW. 



In a series of articles in this Journal it was our privilege 

 last year to record tlie progress made in the implemental 

 department of agriculture, as exemplified in the contri- 

 butions to the wide-spreading and crowded " stands" of 

 the Salisbury Show. That great gathering of the votaries 

 of Ceres which was the head and crowning point of for- 

 mer experience, and which shot far ahead of its prede- 

 cessors in extent and variety, has, in its turn, been ex- 

 celled by the still grander gathering at Chester, the 

 leading features of which it will now be our privilege to 

 record, and out of the crush and confusion of its wide- 

 stretching alleys, pick some points of interest on 

 which to dilate, marshalling them in something like fair 

 and decent order for the quiet consideration of our 

 readers. 



To those privileged to witness the gaiety and anima- 

 tion, and to mix in the festivities of the high feast of the 

 Genius of Agriculture, held but a few weeks ago at the 

 ancient city of Chester, striking evidence must have 

 been afforded of the fact — suggestive of most important 

 considerations — that agriculture has now fully and fairly 

 entered upon a new phase of existence, a wider, fuller, 

 and more expansive field of usefulness. Not many years 

 ago, the words " agricultural meeting" would have con- 

 veyed to a very trifling extent the meaning which they 

 now bear. To the majority of minds, they would only 

 have conjured up pleasant thoughts of the soft summer 

 time ; of green fields and waving corn ; of babbling 

 brooks, flowing gently through quiet meadows shaded 

 by waving leaves ; of balmy breezes and sweet-scented 

 flowers; of cloudless skies ; and of that sound so mazily 

 mystic, so all-pervading — the delight of the lover of 

 the country — the hum of countless worlds of insect life. 

 Few would have associated with the words, or deemed 

 that the time would ever come when they would be asso- 

 ciated together, the dingy houses of great towns, graced 

 with flaring flags and banners bright — their dusty streets 

 spanned by arch-triumphal fresh with evergreens, all 

 alive with the stir and strife of expectant multitudes, 

 waiting to welcome the entry of the Genius of Agricul- 

 ture, attended by her high priests, and surrounded with 

 her votaries. Ytt all this, which not long ago would 

 have been considered as the day-dream of enthusiasts, 

 is but matter of sober fact, and is exemplified in each 

 year which the Royal Agricultural Society is adding to 

 its existence. Contrasting the high prominence which 

 is given to, and the wide- spread interest which is taken 

 in agricultural meetings now, with that which was the 

 wont and usage some few short years ago ; when we see 

 them visited by their tens of thousands ; when we wit- 

 ness an interest in them taken even by those who erst 

 indulged in gloomy anticipation of the future, and in 

 unfair strictures on the utility of agriculture as a call- 

 ing — " stale, unprofitable, slow,"' as they were pleased to 



term it — we have every reason to have feelings of exul- 

 tation at the high status which agriculture is fast taking 

 among the arts and sciences which have tended so much 

 to contribute to the national greatness of our country, 

 and the social well-being of her people. Not yet, 

 O men of Cottonopolis ! do we believe, despite all you 

 declare, that agriculture is effete and in the death 

 throes. Nor yet is there any likelihood of the truth of a 

 saying of a celebrated man of your " school" being 

 realized (woe for England if there was any chance of 

 its being so !), " that it would be better if not an acre 

 of land in England were cultivated, and all engaged in 

 commerce." Agriculture, nevertheless, is a great fact ; 

 it is the most important of all the sciences ; and, not- 

 withstanding yort?- dictum, it is the " mother of all the 

 arts." Not here to investigate the causes which 

 operated so long and so strongly in keeping agriculture 

 at a low position, sufficient for us now to know that 

 she is thoroughly alive to the importance of her pri- 

 vileges, and that in the ranks of true progress she is 

 marching forward with the tramp of a giant, in all the 

 vigour of a renewed and healthy existence. 



Not further to detain our readers with these general 

 reflections — albeit, not unimportant and unsuggestive, it 

 is hoped — we proceed to the more immediate purposes 

 of our papers, taking up the features at which we pro- 

 pose to glance in the order in which the implements with 

 which they are connected are employed in every- day 

 practice. 



This arrangement, which will tend to the economiza- 

 tion of space, brings us at once to the cultural imple- 

 ments, and in connection with these we have our atten- 

 tion immediately directed to the grand feature of the 

 Chester Show, namely, the trials of those plans by 

 which the giant power of steam is proposed to be applied 

 to the cultivation of the land, either through the medium 

 of the time-honoured plough, or by a newer and more 

 ambitious implement. 



The competitors entered for the great prize (,£500) 

 were four in number — Fowler, Burrell, Howard, and 

 Ricketts". The two first of these competitors have for 

 their cultivating implement the plough ; the third em- 

 ploys, on a more extended scale, an old implement 

 known as the grubber, but modified in principle of 

 action ; while the fourth carries out cultivation on the 

 rotatory principle. 



In an article published in this Journal, under date 

 November 30, 18o7, we fully explained and illustrated the 

 mechanism adopted last year by Mr. Fowler. Since that 

 period Mr. Fowler has succeeded in simplifying it to a 

 considerable extent. While retaining the general fea- 

 tures, as there explained — the portable engine, the mov- 

 ing and self-adjusting anchors — he has adopted a new 

 method of working the wire rope, obviating the great 



