and Miscellaneous Implement^at Bristol. 
103 
conducted by Mr. Ricb, the Assistant-Engineer, every run 
being duplicated, so as to insure reliable results. I am justified 
in saving that on no previous occasion has this important part 
of the programme been more successfully performed. 
Whilst this work was in progress, Osborne and Co., having 
repaired a breakage which kept them out of the run on Monday, 
were set to work with the old machine (exactly similar to that 
worked last year at Aigburth), first in the oats, next in wheat, 
and lastly in barley. The crops being short and light, no diffi- 
culty was experienced in cutting and elevating, and, with occa- 
sional assistance, the binder-arm performed its work satisfactorily. 
Indeed, this very elegant and clever mechanism attracted much 
attention, and was deservedly admired. The same faults were 
apparent as last year ; there is no sufficient separation between 
the sheaf made and the inflowing grain, consequently instead of 
falling to the ground, the sheaves accumulate and hang together 
like a string of sausages. And as will be seen, when I come to 
describe the final trials, ordinarily long straw and average English 
crops cannot be dealt with by this machine in its present form. 
The Johnston Harvester Company's machine was, at the 
request of the Judges, brought out into the wheat, and although, 
for the reasons explained, it was not able to compete, enough 
was done to show that the knotting and binding mechanism 
was efficient as to the result, the band being sufficiently tight 
and the knot well secured. i\o opinion is offered as to the dura- 
bility of the machinery, if brought into regular work. Forty-two 
sheaves were made without a stoppage of any kind, and only one 
of these was loose, the string breaking, caused, it was said, by 
too great tension. No stoppage was necessary, as the end ol the 
string was caught by the jaws, and the next sheaf was properly 
bound. This appears a very important point ; an occasional 
unbound sheaf is of little importance compared to the delay 
which occurs from the breakage of wire. 
As a further test of the ability of McCormick's machine, a 
piece of wheat in another field, where the crop was considerably 
heavier than the trial-plot of the previous day, was selected. I 
should estimate the crop at 28 to 30 bushels per acre, straw 4 feet 
long, and the bottom full of grass and quite damp, owing to 
recent rain. No time was taken. Here again, as in all previous 
trials, this machine exceeded in its results all expectation ; driven 
with great steadiness and without, apparently, distress to the 
horses, it cut the plot, supposed to be half an acre, without 
stoppage of any kind, and the character of the work left nothing 
to be desired. As this was something like an average crop, the 
Judges requested that the binding mechanism might be left to 
work automatically. The result was a fair-sized sheaf, dropped 
