Report on the Exhibition and Trial of Implements. 343 



prove tbeir estates, are deterred from so doing by the large out- 

 lay required for erecting buildings such as we in Scotland deem 

 necessary ; but as I have found that the steading, of which the 

 above is the description, could be constructed, exclusive of 

 machinery and carriage of materials, for 1000/., previous to the 

 late rise in the value of labour and cost of materials, which may 

 be estimated at 20 per cent,, I thought these few explanatory re- 

 marks, and the accompanying plan, might not prove unacceptable 

 to your readers. The details have not been laid down on any 

 theoretical principle, but are the result of practical experience ; 

 and I have only to say, that the increased returns from my farm 

 and reduction of expense since the adoption of this plan, afford 

 me undeniable evidence of its efficacy. 



Yours faithfully, 



KiNNAIRD. 



XXIII. — Judges Meport on the Exhibition of Implements at the 

 Gloucester Meeting^ 1853. From Sir Matthew White Ridley, 

 Bart., Senior-Steward. 



At no time since the commencement of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England, in 1839, have its proceedings been attended 

 with greater success or usefulness than at the meeting lately held 

 at Gloucester. The implement yard has been, as usual with 

 visitors, the chief object of attraction, while the number of imple- 

 ments exhibited shows a marked increase on previous years. 

 But it is not in numbers only the Gloucester meeting is remark- 

 able. The mechanical intelligence of the country has been taxed 

 to the utmost in the competition for the Society's premiums, and 

 the result has been a collection of implements at once creditable and 

 honourable to the manufacturers and exhibitors. The moral effect of; 

 such a combination of mechanical ingenuity concentrated on one par- 

 ticular spot is fully shown by the critical examination given to the 

 different machines and implements, and by their utility or defects 

 being continually pointed out. Many a useful and practical hint 

 has been gathered by the manufacturers from the arguments and 

 observations of visitors, who sometimes, however, condemn what 

 they do not fully understand. At the same time such visitors are 

 no less ready to point out for recommendation such machines or 

 tools as they are practically acquainted with, and which may be 

 with them in every-day use. Improvements are, however, con- 

 tinually made in the construction of agricultural machinery. That 

 which twenty years ago was thought impossible has been attained ; 

 and such are the powers of invention and machinery, that the 

 word impossible appears to vanish from the mechanical vocabulary. 



