312 Report on the Exhibition and Trial of Implements 



by the name of the " Roodee," and there the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England pitched their 25 acres of canvas and held 

 their annual meeting in the month of July, 1858. 



The Prizes offered by the Society at Chester — with the excep- 

 tion of the 500/. Prize for Steam Cultivation — were confined 

 exclusively to those implements and machines applicable to 

 " the conversion of farm produce," forming the third division of 

 agricultural machinery admitted to competition at the Society's 

 meetings within the last three years, the Prize List at Chelms- 

 ford in 1856 having been devoted to implements for " the pre- 

 paration of the soil," and that at Salisbury in 1857 to those for 

 " the treatment of t!ie crop from sowing to gathering." 



It will appear that the competing implements and machinery 

 at this meeting comprised those of the most important and 

 costly character, and the trials possessed features of unusual 

 interest, partly in consequence of the steam-engines and thresh- 

 ing-machines not having been publicly tested since the Carlisle 

 JNIeeting in 1855, and partly from a general impression that the 

 prize for steam cultivation, so long withheld, would now, in all 

 probability, be awarded. 



The entries included: — 



Steam-engines 112 Linsced-crasliers 72 



Tlircsi!hi,L;-iaacliincs 88 Oilcake-breakcrfi 84 



Coni-dressing machines .. .. 68 15one-mills 13 



Cliaff-cutters 197 Turnip-cutters ()7 



Grinding-niills Go rJoot-jiulpers 103 



And Claims 93. 



According to the old system this formidable list would also 

 have comprised ploughs, harrows, cultivators, drills, &c., thereby 

 entailins: an amount of business which could not have been 

 accomplished within the allotted period to the satisfaction either 

 of the judges, the exhibitors, or the public ; so that the advantage 

 of, or r.'ither the necessity for, triennial trials is very evident. 



Business commenced on Tuesday, the 13th of July — one week 

 previous to the admission of the public to the implement-yard — 

 in one of the trial fields on the farm of Mr. Nichols, with the 

 Steam Cultivators. The Judges appointed to conduct this trial 

 were — Professor John Wilson of Edinburgh, Messrs. John Clarke 

 of Long Sutton, Joseph Druce of Eynsham, and George Shackel 

 of Earlsley Court, assisted by Mr. Amos, the consulting engineer, 

 and his staff. 



The Council having decided that a plough moved by steam- 

 power might be considered to be a steam cultivator, all doubt as 

 to the precise meaning conveyed by the wording of the Prize- 

 sheet was removed. 



Mr. J. Fowler, jun., of London, competed with his steam- 



