Agricultural Implements and Produce. 41 



In carrying out the details of the experiments, the able assist- 

 ance rendered me by Mr. f]dward Combes, C.E., of Paris (a 

 gentleman recommended by Piofessor Wilson), Avas eminently 

 useful. C. E. Amos. 



The trials, for the reasons above mentioned, could not be con- 

 sidered entirely complete or satisfactory. The indications of the 

 dynamometer were unduly favourable to the ploughs of the 

 lightest draught ; but making the fullest allowance for this, the 

 difference between the resistance offered by the different ploughs 

 will appear very remarkable. 



The best French plough, tlie " Grignon," was light, cheap, 

 simple in construction, and did very good Avork ; but in com- 

 parison with Howard's plough, tlie dynamometer marked 29 as 

 against 16 ; in comparison witli the best Belgian plough, 

 *' Odeurs," 57 as against 16.* 



It was objected against the English ploughs, and indeed 

 against the English machines in general, that they were too 

 heavy and too costlv ; but the trials showed that a light plough 

 does not always make light work, nor is an implement, cheap at 

 first cost, always the cheapest in the end. Tlie same objections 

 against iron ploughs, and in favour of the old wooden ones, have 

 been freely made at home, but they are passing away under a 

 longer experience. To do good work in the field you must have 

 strong and well-constructed implements. The best implements 

 are the cheapest in the end; they are fast superseding inferior 

 machines at home, and they will no doubt in time obtain the 

 same preference wherever they shall be put fairly to the test.j 

 The value of solidity and strength was fully recognised in the 

 implements akin to ploughs, drags, scarifiers, and broadshares, 

 by which so much of the labour on the best cultivated farms is 

 now effected. The implements by Garrett, Bentall, and Cole- 

 man were the first of their class, and their superiority was not 

 contested. 



The position of the English exhibitors of agricultural imple- 

 ments was not an encouraging one. They sent specimens of 

 their newest inventions and most approved machinery. These 

 might be examined, c()])ied, ])urchased as models, l)y foreign 

 competitors. The individual machines exhibited might indeed 

 be sold at the close of the Exhibition, on the payment of a duty 



* Further trials on the 1st and 2nd of August, and on tlie 1-1 th and I'lth of 

 August, made with the dynamometer of General Morin, varied in some decree 

 these results. They were made in the absence of tlie English makers and their 

 workmen. They were favourable to tlie light draught of the Grignon plough. 



t Howard's plough was bought on the grouud for the Government Establish- 

 ment at Grignon. 



