510 REPORT— 1881. 



tbe crop and distribute it in swathes — in the case of tlie reaping machine 

 in bundles, but now, in the instance of these latter machines, are com- 

 petent to bind it into sheaves. In lieu of hand-tedding hay-making 

 machines are employed, tossing the grass into the air so as to thoroughly 

 aerate it, taking advantage of every brief interval of fine weather ; and 

 seeds and manure are distributed by machine with unfailing accuracy. 

 The soil is drained by the aid of properly constructed ploughs for 

 preparing the trenches, roots are steamed and sliced as food for cattle, 

 and the threshing machine no longer merely beats out the grain, but 

 screens it, separates it, and elevates the straw so as to mechanically 

 build it up into a stack. I don't know a better class of machine than 

 the agricultural portable engine. Every part of it is perfectly propor- 

 tioned and made ; it is usually of the locomotive type ; and the economy 

 of fuel in its use is extremely great. I cannot help thinking that the 

 improvement in this respect which has taken place in these engines, and 

 the improvement of agricultui'al machinery generally, is very largely due 

 to the Royal Agricultural Society, one of the most enterprising bodies in 

 England. 



I now come to the very last subject I jiroposo to speak itpon, and 

 that is Printing ^lachiner)/, and especially as applied to the printing of 

 newspapers. In 1831 Ave had the steam press, sending out a few 

 hundred copies in an hour, and doing that upon detached sheets ; and 

 thus many hours were required for an edition of some thousands. 

 The only way in those days of expediting the matter would have been 

 to have recomposed the paper, involving, however, double labour to 

 the compositors, and a double chance of error. At the present day we 

 have by the Walter Press the paper printed on a continuous sheet, at a 

 rate per hour at least three times as great as that of the presses of 1831 ; 

 and, by the aid of papier-mache moulds, within five minutes from the 

 starting of the first press, a second press can be provided with its stereo- 

 type plates and got to work, and a third one in the next five minutes ; 

 and thus the wisdom of our senators, which has been delivered as late 

 as three o'clock in the morning, is ready to be transmitted by the news- 

 paper train leaving Eus ton at 5.15 a.m. 



This is the last subject with which I shall trouble the Section. I 

 have purposely omitted telegraphy ; I have purposely omitted artillery, 

 textile fabrics, and the milling and preparation of grain. These and 

 other matters I have omitted for several reasons. Some I have omitted 

 because I was incompetent to speak upon them, others because of the 

 want of time, and others because perhaps they more properly belong to 

 Section A. 



I hope, Sir, although your address, dealing with the future, was un- 

 doubtedly the right address for a President to deliver, and although it is 

 equally right that we should not content ourselves with merely looking 

 back in a ' rest and be thankful ' spirit at the various progress which this 

 paper records, it may, nevertheless, be thought well that there should 

 have been brought before the Section, in however cursory a manner, 

 some notice of Mechanical Development during the past fifty years. 



