528 



'Report on the Exhibition of Implements 



of these matters possessed by a few of the leading manufacturers 

 was quite in advance of the general agriculture of the day. 

 Neither stewards nor judges had yet acquired the experience 

 requisite for the adequate discharge of their office, so that such 

 men as Messrs. Garrett, Hornsby, Ransome, and a few others 

 would have laughed in their sleeves had they been told that they 

 could learn anything in the Society's show-yard. In spite, how- 

 ever, of a creditable display on the part of a few leading firms, 

 the majority of the implements exhibited at these early shows 

 were of inferior construction and workmanship, and the general 

 appearance of the exhibitions meagre and unsatisfactory. 



The attention of some of the leading members of the Society 

 (especially of the late lamented Mr. Handley) was earnestly 

 directed to the improvement of this department, and they soon 

 perceived that little was gained by collecting implements in a 

 show-yard for people to gaze at, unless an adequate trial could be 

 made of their respective merits. To attain this end great 

 exertions were made, and every improvement in the mode of 

 trial was followed by so marked an increase in the number and 

 merit of the implements brought forward at subsequent shows, 

 as to prove the strongest incentive to further effort. 



At the Cambridge and Liverpool meetings, when these trials 

 were in their infancy, their main attraction consisted of ploughing- 

 matches on a large scale, which gratified sight-seers, but gave no 

 results that could be depended upon, and, therefore, disappointed 

 all practical men. It would occupy time unnecessarily to trace 

 the gradual changes which have led to the discontinuance of these 

 showy exhibitions, and the substitution in their place of quiet 

 business-like trials in the presence of stewards and judges alone. 

 Suffice it to say, that what they have lost in display they have 

 gained in efficiency, and, consequently, in favour with those classes 

 for whose benefit they were designed. At the York meeting the 

 improved mode of trying the threshing-machines supplied a de- 

 ficiency which until that time had been much felt, viz., the 

 absence of any means of ascertaining the amount of power ex- 

 pended in working the machines under trial ; and it may now 

 be asserted with some confidence that, with the exception of an 

 occasional error or accident, the best implements are uniformly 

 selected for prizes. 



It now remains to answer the question proposed for con- 

 sideration, viz., to what extent the great improvement made of 

 late in agricultural implements is due to the exertions of this 

 Society, and with this view a tabular statement is subjoined, 

 which shows the relative extent and importance of the Society's 

 two first and two last shows of implements : — 



