686 Report on the Exhibition of Implements at Kilhurn. 
Most people are wise after the event, and many suggestions 
were made during the Show of what ought to have been done, 
one of which was that the whole ground should have been 
asphalted, which, at a rough calculation, would have cost about 
100,000/. There is no doubt that could such a state of things 
have been foreseen, much might and would have been done to 
obviate the difficulties that afterwards arose, and it may be 
that we had not fully realised the enormous growth of the 
Exhibition or the vast weight of machinery to be brought on to 
the ground ; but I, for one, will vouch that it was not for lack 
of forethought or exertion on the part of all concerned, more 
especially of our indefatigable Secretary and the Steward of 
General Arrangements. 
The ground, which was about 100 acres in extent, had been 
thoroughly drained during the previous winter, at a cost of 
upwards of 1100/., but owing to the severity of the weather this 
work was prolonged much longer than under ordinary circum- 
stances it would have been, and it was February before it was 
completed, and the ground consequently had not the time to 
settle that it should have had. There is no doubt, however, that 
the drainage acted thoroughly during the whole of the meeting, 
although in some of the newspaper reports I saw it stated that 
the drainage had been more than useless. Beyond the drainage 
there was a further sum of about 2500/. expended in levelling, 
road-making, &c., before the commencement of the Show. 
The implements took up considerably more than one-third of 
the whole yard, there being 22,903 feet of shedding, showing 
an increase of 7357 feet over Bristol last year, and 11,154 feet 
over Cardiff seven years ago. This will give some idea of the 
enormous traffic, over all parts of the ground, which had to take 
place before all the implements, machinery, and other articles 
could be deposited in their various stands, and no one who saw 
the ground afterwards would under-estimate the difficulties that 
had to be contended against. 
In the first instance sleeper-roads had been made for short 
distances from each entrance, but when some of the heavier 
machinery began to come in and the ground to be cut up, to 
become shortly a sea of mud, in many cases knee de^, it was 
found to be absolutely necessary, if the remainder of the exhibits 
were to be got in at all, for the sleeper-roads to be continued 
down the whole of the main avenues, seven in number ; and as 
this work could only be done during the time that other traffic 
was stopped, men and horses had to be kept at work for days 
up to ten and eleven o'clock at night, and from daybreak in 
the morning, which was then about three o'clock ; and manfully 
they stuck to it — many of the men having been employed 
