DIFFICULTIES OF THE JURORS 201 



do some work that day in the implement department. 

 That evening we attended a sumptuous entertainment 

 given to the juries and chief officials by the Burgo- 

 master. Nothing could have been in better taste, and 

 every attention, with due honour, was paid to us by 

 Herr Von Postau and his colleagues. To show 

 the utter ignorance of our Holstein friends of our 

 English system of awarding prizes, they knew 

 nothing whatever of a trial ; and when I told 

 them that I should not think of giving a prize hap- 

 hazard, without a practical proof of the utility of the 

 implement, they were astonished. I was desirous 

 of showing the visitors to the show the value 

 of a thrashing-machine, which only a very 

 few people had ever seen. I prevailed on them 

 to give me a load of sheaves of corn, and the 

 next day put in operation one of Marshall's (of 

 Gainsborough) thrashers, to whom we gave the silver 

 medal. I shall never forget the astonishment of the 

 bystanders when they saw the sheaves enter the 

 machine at the top, and on my catching in my hands 

 the corn as it emerged from the spouts already fit 

 for market, at one operation : their astonishment was 

 unbounded. The same occurred when I persuaded 

 the authorities to supply us with a few acres of 

 standing grass, or clover, to try the mowing- 

 machines. These acres were placed at my disposal, 

 and I was accompanied by most of the judges, 

 including some Frenchmen, none of whom had ever 

 seen one of these invaluable machines at work. 

 When Mr. Walter Wood, the well known American 



