SEED COMPETITIONS AND MEDALS. 427 



general offer of medals given to local associations. The 

 returns showing the produce per imperial acre, the altitude, 

 exposure, and nature of the soil on which the crops were 

 raised, together with the dates of sowing and reaping, and 

 the weight per bushel, were published for several years in 

 the Transactions, and form till this day a valuable source 

 of reference. 



Considerable disappointment and loss having been 

 experienced for several years prior to 1843 by turnip 

 growers in certain districts, from inattention to the proper 

 selection and management of seed crops, the Society offered 

 in 1843 gold medals with the view of directing attention to 

 and encouraging the more careful growth of turnip seeds 

 from selected and transplanted stocks of several varieties. 

 The results were highly satisfactory, and induced the 

 Society to continue the premiums up to 1854. They were 

 offered in the counties of Edinburgh, Haddington, Linlith- 

 gow, Sutherland, Caithness, Ross, Ayr, Orkney, Aberdeen, 

 Banff, Kincardine, Elgin, Berwick, Roxburgh, Dumfries, 

 Perth, &c. 



Between 1842 and 1869, the sum expended on this 

 class was about ;^450. 



Saving Hay. 



In order to draw the attention of practical agriculturists 

 to the saving of hay, and to the papers on the subject which 

 had been published in the Society's Transactions, it was 

 resolved in 1838 to offer six honorary appropriate silver 

 medals for three years successively to the farmer, land 

 steward, overseer, or other person in the actual charge of a 

 farm, who should in any one year have stacked not less 

 than 500 stones of hay in the best condition, the produce 

 of his own farm, or the farm of which he was in charge. By 

 the regulations, there required to be three competitors in a 

 district, and the competitors had to appoint a judge to 

 decide upon the quality of the hay. In 1839, the medal 

 was awarded to O. Tyndall Bruce of Falkland, Fifeshire, 

 for having stacked hay, which was found to be the best in 

 condition at a competition in terms of the regulations. 



