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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



MONEY PRIZES, OR, CERTIFICATES OF MERIT.— THE BATH 

 AND WEST OF ENGLAND SOCIETY. 



At the last Council Meeting of the Bath and West of 

 England Society, " Mr. S. Pitman brought up the 

 Rei)ort of the Implement Prize Sheet Committee, who 

 had, in obedience to the wishes of the Council, again 

 considered the subject of the annual trials of imple- 

 ments, and the expediency of awarding two classes of 

 certificates of merit in lieu of money prizes. The Com- 

 mittee now strongly recommend that the system of 

 money prizes should be abolished, and the report was 

 received and adopted by the Council." It will strike 

 every one as a peculiar omission that this said Report 

 was not published with the other proceedings of the 

 day. There could scarcely be a more interesting docu- 

 ment offered for the consideration of the agricultural 

 world. Whence comes it that the prize system, after 

 doing so much good, is now so decisively condemned ? 

 Pray enumerate to us the irremediable ills and crimes 

 associated with its continuance. Let us, moreover, only 

 give due honour to those to whom honour is due. Who 

 were the discoverers and successful assailants of these 

 monstrous abuses? Were they the members of the Society 

 that complained ? Did the jurlges volunteer to de- 

 nounce the impracticability of money prizes ? Was it 

 the general body of exhibitors who objected ? Did 

 the farmers and visitors in the show-yard find fault 

 with the system ? Or, was it the close observation of 

 the Implement Committee itself that has led to so im- 

 ])ortant an alteration in the future meetings of the 

 Society ? 



Then, again, what arc the promised advantages of 

 certificates of merit over money prizes? The great 

 want, the one point to be improved on, in our agricul- 

 tural gatherings, is the better trials of the machinery. 

 More time and more scrutiny are required to test them. 

 The Royal Agricultural Society of England has already 

 arrived at this by the adoption of the triennial plan, 

 but with, of course, the usual series of premiums to be 

 awarded on an adjudication being agreed to. Tiie Im- 

 plement Committee of the West of England Society, we 

 are sorry to say, refer in no way — at least so far as we 

 are allowed to hear — to any such annual division of the 

 entries, but simply depend on the assumed superiority 

 of their Certificate of Merit. In what can this excel ? 

 Surely no one will be bold enough to say that a cer- 

 tificate of merit will ensure a fairer trial than a money 

 prize! But "these money prizes are not wanted, 

 the implement makers will not have them, 

 or would rather be without them." Seriously, we very 

 much question this. A few gi'eat firms who have been 

 taking money prizes for years past, and at times be it 

 remembered when the trials were not half so good, nor 

 the judges anything like so well up to their work as 

 they now are — may be well content to remain as they 

 are. But are there no rising men to be encouraged — 



no young blood to be drawn out, even in the limits of the 

 West of England territory ? We can answer from our 

 own experience that there are many such, to whom the 

 award of a money premium would be in every way a 

 consideration. Assume that some people refuse to 

 come amongst you— are getting, in fact, rather above 

 taking your money ; is that any^reason you should not 

 continue to encourage, or that you should despair of 

 gradually making up a good show from, your own 

 strength ? There is hardly one of the leviathans 

 but has had a beginning — but that has increased his 

 trade, improved his manufactures, and realized his pre- 

 sent eminence, by his attendance and competition at our 

 great agricultural meetings. 



As for any benefit arising from the change, we 

 believe the fact of having money to award has 

 made the judges especially careful in their deci- 

 sions ; whereas we fear mere certificates of merit 

 will soon come to mean little or nothing. Of course 

 they will be allowed to distribute as many as they 

 like; and A will have his certificate for this, and 

 B for that, and C for something else. At some of the 

 small commercial schools there is a very similar plan 

 in practice for increasing the patronage of the institu- 

 tion. Master Brown takes home a testimonial for 

 writing, Master Jones for reading, and Masler Robin- 

 son — a terrible blockhead, who can neither read nor 

 write — has one for "general good conduct." Every 

 boy must have a testimonial of some sort, or his parents 

 will never be satisfied. It will be very much the same 

 at the West of England meetings, or the parents will 

 never be satisfied. The most palpable failure must at 

 any rate be a meritorious attempt, and so of course 

 there will be a certificate accordingly. It is, after all, 

 but the old principle of the twelfth-cake lotteries — all 

 prizes and no blanks ; although but a taste or so of 

 what you get will most probably make you soon very 

 sick of it. If, however, the certificate of merit is good 

 one way, it must surely be so another. Let the 

 Society at least be consistent, and save their money in 

 every shape. Let them give no more prizes for stock-— 

 only certificates of merit — and we promise that in two 

 or three years or so they will be spared all further 

 trouble in the arrangements of their meetings. 



We hold the total abolition of the system of money 

 prizes to be nothing more nor less than a dead lock 

 to improvement. With wholesale first or second-class 

 certificates of merit, be they one or the other, the 

 character of these meetings will quickly sink into mere 

 advertising fairs. This is very good, and that is very 

 good ; and so the man with the loudest voice or the 

 cheapest wares will do the most business. But, again, 

 we say let us have this Report. So far, for the very life of 

 us, we cannot understand why, if we are to have better 



