344 Report on the Exhihition and Trial of Implements 



Waggons. — In this class there were six exhibitors, the construc- 

 tion and the price of each waggon varying considerably. To 

 build the best waggon for all general purposes requires much 

 judgment, and it would be a task to point out what it should be. 

 Wanted for all purposes, whether in the field or the road, to 

 carry corn in the straw and corn out of the straw, a really useful 

 waggon on a farm is most desirable. The waggon aimed at 

 should be one that reduces as far as practicable the amount of 

 labour required in loading, as well as the tractive power. For 

 harvest purposes the waggons generally shown were too high on 

 the body, giving the harvesters unnecessary toil in throwing up 

 the corn. It is no question here, whether carts or waggons are 

 most valuable in the harvest-field ; the former would decidedly 

 have the preference before the high waggons exhibited, some of 

 which would create a mutiny in the harvest-field. It is the 

 opinion of the judges (at least of one of them) that too much 

 value is placed upon the plan of turning the fore-wheels under 

 the waggon-body. To arrive at this, two evils have to be encoun- 

 tered — the high body before complained of, and the low fore- 

 wheels used generally in waggons of this class. It happens most 

 frequently that the fore- wheels carry the greater weight, and, 

 having many more revolutions to make than the hind-wheels, 

 there is a corresponding increase in the tractive power required. 

 To meet this difficulty, Mr. Busby has constructed a waggon to 

 carry nearly the entire load on the hind-wheels, the fore-wheels 

 being useful more as a means of steerage to the machine, which 

 looks like a four-wheeled cart rather than a waggon. The 

 attempt to remove the load from low fore-wheels shows that the 

 principle of draught is studied by the builder if it be not under- 

 stood. Mr. Crosskill's waggon, being lower in the body and 

 lower in price than some exhibited, was considered the best for 

 general purposes, and received the Society's premium. 



Carts. — The carts exhibited were upon the whole a better class 

 of implements than the waggons, and the judges had some dif- 

 ficulty in determining which was the best. The contest lay 

 between those who had copied the plan of Busby, for which he 

 obtained well-earned premiums at Lewes and Exeter, and others 

 who retained the horizontal traction and other advantages of this 

 class of carts, but gave, without additional weight, more room in 

 the body, and a reduced price. In this class the Society's pre- 

 mium of hi. was awarded to Mr. Thomas Milford, of Thorverton, 

 Devon, for his cheap and useful cart, containing no superfluous 

 labour or decoration, and offered at IIZ. \0s. This cart is well 

 adapted for all farm purposes, such as carting lime, sand, or stone, 

 as well as manure from the farm-yard ; at the same time it is 

 light and handy, and capable of carrying sufficient to load a pair 



