Report on the Exhibition of Implements. 



527 



The Eastern Counties have long been celebrated for the manu- 

 facture of agricultural machinery; and on the occasion of the 

 Society's late Meeting at Norwich great exertions were made by 

 the implement-makers of that district to maintain their well- 

 earned reputation. The number of implements at York was 

 unprecedentedly large, yet three hundred more were exhibited at 

 Norwich; and it is satisfactory to be able to trace from year to 

 year a gradual weeding out of bad implements, and a progressive 

 improvement in their general principles of construction, which is 

 highly encouraging to those who take an active interest in this 

 department of the Society's proceedings. 



On no occasion has this improvement been more marked than 

 at the last Meeting, and it was particularly observable in the 

 steam-engines, carts, and waggons. The nature of the im- 

 provements introduced into these machines will be described 

 in a subsequent part of this report, and it will be sufficient to 

 state here that the rapid progress made in these cases may be 

 partly attributed to the improved mode recently adopted of testing 

 the machines under trial, and partly to the greater degree of 

 precision with which their faulty construction was pointed out in 

 the reports of the judges at the York meeting. 



This opinion is one the correctness of which it is desirable to 

 ascertain, as, if true, it goes far to prove that the rapidity with 

 which the improvement of agricultural implements progresses is 

 materially influenced by the mode of trial adopted, and the kind 

 of judges employed by the Royal Agricultural Society. The 

 whole question, therefore, has an important bearing on the future 

 management of these trials ; and to obtain data for arriving at 

 a sound conclusion respecting it, it will be necessary to give 

 a brief sketch of the progress which the Society has hitherto 

 made in rendering the exhibition and trial of implements effective 

 for the purposes for which they were designed. 



The Society's early shows of implements must be viewed chiefly 

 in the light of bazaars or expositions. Those who attended the 

 Cambridge meeting in 1840 will not have forgotten the brilliant 

 collection of implements exhibited by the Messrs. Ransome, and 

 though every one praised the excellence of their workmanship, 

 and admired the skill with which eighty different kinds of ploughs 

 were grouped tier above tier with- artistic effect, still it was evident 

 that this imposing array was not prepared in anticipation of such 

 a searching ordeal as that to which candidates for prizes are now 

 subjected, but was rather intended to teach the visitors what 

 sort of implements they ought to have, and to show them to what 

 perfection this branch of manufacture had been brought. 



Nor could it well have been otherwise, since the knowledge 



