530 
Implement Sliow at Manchester. 
itwenty-five per cent., those sliovvn in 1868 ; and by nearly 3000 
those shown at Bury St. Edmund's in 1867, which was almost 
exclusively an exhibition of implements. Technical education 
must rapidly follow the increased desire for general education, or 
agriculturists will be unable fully to appreciate and adopt the 
extraordinary efforts and inventions of the English manufac- 
turers to cheapen the productions and facilitate the labours of 
the farm. 
As the flail has of late disappeared from the barns of this 
country, and been replaced by machinery, so, after this successful 
exhibition, will the scythe and sickle gradually cease to be used 
in our fields. 
One great feature of the Manchester Meeting was the ex- 
ceedingly severe trial of the reaping and mowing machines. Of 
the former no less than 84 were selected for trial by the Judges, 
and of the latter as many as 52 competed. The prizes were not 
adjudged until Tuesday in the week of the Show, in consequence 
of the number of implements to be tried and the closeness of the 
competition. The trial ground produced a fair crop of rye and 
a good crop of grass, and was most conveniently situated for 
visitors to the general Show. 
A comparison of the report of the trial of implements at 
Plymouth, in 1865, with that of this year, will show the great 
progress made by the exhibitors in the mowing and reaping 
machines ; and it required the utmost discrimination in Mr. 
Sanday and his brother judges fully to test their various merits. 
The greatly increasing competition at all the annual trials is 
a proof of the importance attached by the exhibitors to the 
possession of a prize. Although many of the same implements 
are exhibited at local shows, purchases are often not completed 
until after the test has been applied by the Royal Agricultural 
Society, and the prizes have been awarded by them. 
More work appeared to be thrown on the judges in this 
department than, with the best management, they could possibly 
achieve before the opening day of the Show. It is obviously to 
the advantage of the exhibitors that the trials should be over 
before the public are admitted. Every implement intended 
for competition ought, therefore, to be so entered that the ground 
may be measured and prepared beforehand for trials. The first 
day has been annually lost in the selection of implements, which 
might thus be utilized. To this plan the exhibitors have hitherto 
objected, but the loss to them and to the public who visit the 
Show, and perhaps leave before the awards are published, should 
induce the manufacturers to meet the wishes of the Society in 
every way which may tend to facilitate their arrangements. 
