at the Plymouth Meeting. 375 



brought within a reasonable compass. In the class of reaping- 

 machines with self side-delivery, this improvement is most 

 marked, and we are disposed to believe that eventually a 

 modification of this principle will to a great extent supersede the 

 manual machines. The tendency of all improvements in agri- 

 cultural machinery is to relieve the labourer of the heavier 

 drudgery of his calling ; and to rake off in a heavy crop is 

 probably almost as hard as to work the treadmill. Since Leeds, 

 the sheaf-delivery has been invented, and the better machines of 

 this sort are admirably adapted for crops of medium bulk. Some 

 objection has been urged against this system on the ground that 

 those crops which require to lie for a time before being tied up 

 are better in swarth. But this advantage is more apparent than 

 real, as the sheaf is laid so lightly and fanned out so nicely that 

 the sun and air can penetrate almost, if not quite, as well as if 

 the corn lay in swarth. A more valid objection exists in the 

 irregular size of the sheaf in variable crops. One maker has 

 attempted to obviate this by making the rake controllable by the 

 driver, but at present the attempt has not proved very successful. 

 The mowing trials were principally carried out on Friday, the 

 14th July, a lovely day, and the exertions of the Stewards, Judges, 

 and other officials, to secure a full, fair, and satisfactory contest 

 were rewarded with success. Thirteen machines were brought 

 into competition, most of them possessing great merit, and many 

 noticeable for very ingenious mechanism. The chief alterations 

 since Leeds appear to consist in devices of various kinds to 

 render the knife-bar flexible, and give it, so to speak, an inde- 

 pendent power of adapting itself to irregularities of surface, ridge, 

 and furrow, as also to enable the driver, either by hand or foot, 

 to raise the whole or either end of the knife ; and in one case to 

 alter the angle of the knives without lifting the bar. With all 

 these thoughtful appliances the weight has been decreased, until 

 in some case it appeared almost as though the implements were too 

 light to face and stick to heavy work. It should be remembered by 

 the makers that, although a racer prepared for trial may possibly 

 win, unless a machine can earn a good character for durability, 

 the public will not endorse the decision of the Judges. It was 

 perhaps fortunate for both public and Judges that the trials were 

 so severe, that only the machines with staying powers had any 

 chance of a place ; at the same time it may be well to explain 

 that, in all these trials both of mowers and reapers, the Judges 

 very properly did not regard the quantity of work done in a given 

 time, nor pit one machine against another : had they done so, 

 the merits of horses and driver must have had to do with the 

 result, and the size of the cutter-bar. The dynamometer trials 

 afforded most of the data required. 



