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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



at " newfangled notions and graceless innovations" 

 — each gathering fresh experience from its predecessor 

 —have resulted in those gigantic combinations, which 

 alike please from their novelty, and teach lessons of prac- 

 tical worth from their utility, and of which that recently 

 displayed at Salisbury has been the most remaricable. 

 Nor although the last few years have witnessed such mar- 

 vellous strides towards perfection — of which each suc- 

 ceeding show has been the exponent — need we look for- 

 ward to our speedily arriving at the culminating point ; 

 with such a wondrously expansive science as that of agri- 

 culture, we still progress towards a point which each 

 year may to us seem like perfection, but which expe- 

 rience shows us is as far off" as ever. Much has been 

 written and uioi'e has been said about the uselessness of 

 these shows ; but while freely admitting that there may 

 be and is much to reform connected with them — that the 

 prize system, to wit, may cause merely spasmodic efforts, 

 which have the appearance of life, but are in reality' 

 dead ; and that the implement trials might, with bene- 

 fit, be made to have as much reality as they have now of 

 name, and of real work and less of play about them — 

 still we think that tlie services rendered to the cause of 

 agricultural progress, by the holding of stated agricul- 

 tural shows, have been neither few nor unimportant. 

 They may be termed bazaars merely; but granting they 

 are this and "nothing more," in bringing men to them 

 we enlarge their ideas; we rub the rust off them by con- 

 tact with other material ; and truly he who rubs shoul- 

 ders with his fellow-men in the world's busy marts, has 

 a better chauce of becoming world-wise, and " getting 

 up to a thing or two" likely to be of use to him, than he 

 who sits at home, "contented wi' little," but with an 

 unfortunate indifference to the possession of " mair.'' 

 And surely he has little chance of getting in a good stock 

 of the newest and the best of articles, who sneers at the 

 utility of going to a full market, but puts up at the 

 nearest huckster's shop. We can scarcely conceive of 

 the dullest fellow who ever trod in " high-low " or 

 sported "smock," walking through the alleys of an 

 agricultural show without having some new thoughts 

 awakened, or some slight desire to know what it was all 

 about. And the slowest farmer might well be inclined 

 to ask if none of the implements he stood gazing at 

 could be of use to Jdm, and whether he could raise and 

 rear such mighty cattle, or such gigantic sheep, as rouse 

 his wonder. For spreading knowledge, it is a great 

 matter to rouse curiosity and incite to inquiry. Our 

 shows have done this good — the amount of which it is 

 difficult to estimate — they have roused curiosity and sti- 

 mulated inquiry. If they have not taken the high po- 

 sition and assumed the positive usefulness of a guide- 

 book, which points out the pleasant spots on the road to 

 be visited, or the dangers to be avoided, they have at 

 least acted as finger-posts to indicate the direction in 

 which the traveller may quickest and most economically 

 arrive at his destination. And this, though apparently 

 a humble, is in reality — we perpetrate no pun, good 

 reader — an exalted position to occupy. With these 

 introductory remarks, not altogether uusuggestive we 

 hope, we now proceed to detail some of the more strik- 



ing novelties which were displayed at the Salisbury 

 Show. 



Some of our readers may not be aware that, so far as 

 the trial of implements and machines was concerned, a 

 very important change of procedure in the routine of 

 proceedings of the Royal Agricultural Society was in- 

 augurated in 1850. Up to that year it had been the cus- 

 tom to have the trials — and consequently the prizes 

 awarded^ — extended over all the vast range of implements 

 and machines indiscriminately. This plan, in the early 

 years of the Society, did not result in much inconve- 

 nience, from the paucity of examples exhibited ; but as 

 agricultural science progressed, and its mechanism re- 

 ceived a corresponding stimulus, the number of imple- 

 ments and machines increased amazingly, till at last the 

 inconveniences attendant upon the trial of the whole 

 range of agricultural mechanism indiscriminately became 

 so striking, and resulted in decisions so unsatisfactory, 

 that it was wisely determined to limit the trials of each 

 year to oneclassof implements— leaving the other classes 

 to remain for exhibition merely, without any reference to 

 prizes. For this purpose the Council adopted the plan 

 of triennial trials ; the classes being divided as follows™ 



1st, Implements for tillage and drainage. 



2nd, Machines for the cultivating and harvesting of 

 crops. 



3rd, Machines for preparing crops for market and 

 food for cattle. 

 The first class was tried last year at Chelmsford ; the se- 

 cond came into rotation this year at Salisbury. The 

 class embraced drills, manure distributors, horse-hoes, 

 hay machines, mowing and reaping machines, horse- 

 rakes, carts and waggons. To the list of prizes for 

 these was added a special prize of ^^500 for a steam- 

 cultivator. 



This special prize last mentioned may be said to have 

 been the feature of the trials. Cultivation by steam is 

 a matter on which, for many reasons, public attention is 

 fixed, and the trial for so handsome a prize was likely to 

 create much interest. The prize was announced in 

 terms as follows : " For the steam-cultivator that shall, 

 in the most efficient manner, turn over the soil, and be an 

 economical substitute for the plough or spade." The 

 reader will here notice an ambiguity of statement, which 

 is apt — indeed is likely, as recent events have shown — 

 to lead to grave misunderstanding. We would here have 

 the reader to note the marked distinction that exists be- 

 tween the terms " steam. ploughing" and " steam-culti- 

 vation." The first is definite beyond any misunder- 

 standing ; it simply means the application of a new 

 power to an old implement, the plough, the peculiar 

 characteristic of which is, that the soil is laid over in 

 slices, all at a definite well-known angle. This is plough- 

 ing, and only one implement we have can perform it. 

 This precision of meaning does not apply to the term 

 " steam cultivation." This may include operations from 

 the simple ploughing, down through a variety of grada- 

 tions, to that of harrowing or pulverizing the soil. It 

 may include ploughing ; anl it may also, nay does, in- 

 clude rotary cultivators and steam digging-machines. 

 To a neglect of the obvious distinction between the two 



