596 Report on the Exhibition of Implements at Birmingham. 
striking^ novelty ; but the workmanship of the several exhibits 
showed in many instances a decided improvement. 
The regulations of the Society provide that the silver medals 
shall only be awarded to a machine which is so superior in 
novelty of design and adaptation to its particular purpose, as an 
agricultural implement, as to call for special recommendation, 
or where it contains the germ of such apparent excellence that its 
further development is desirable. The Stewards found only three 
implements which fulfilled these conditions. The first of these, 
in Catalogue order, was Aspinall's Potato Digger, No. 1885, 
exhibited by J. W. Robinson and Co., of 125, St. Anne Street. 
Liverpool. This machine, which may be termed a sequel 
to the " Potato Planter," which received a silver medal at 
Taunton, fully satisfied the Judges by performing its work-in 
a practical and efficient manner. 
The next medal was given to Messrs. Havward Tyler and 
Co., for (No. 520(5) their Caloric Engine for Pumping Water, 
driving chaff-cutters or any other work not requiring more than 
two-horse power. This, as explained by the Society's engineers 
and the exhibitors, appears a very economical power, claiming 
to raise 700 gallons of water per hour 70 feet high, using in a 
day of ten hours only 20 or 30 lbs. of coal. 
The third medal was awarded to Messrs. Marshall, Sons, and 
Co., for No. 5760, an adaptation of a band-cutter to a self-feeder 
for a corn-threshing machine. This ingenious apparatus cuts 
the bands of the sheaves by three saws, which revolve trans- 
versely, at about 160 revolutions per minute, in front of the 
feeder. It was tried carefully by the Judges, and although not 
always successful, yet, with a little knack on the part of the 
workman, seems calculated to perform the work intended satis- 
factorily. 
The "Sheaf Binder" (No. 1902) of Walter A. Wood, which 
was exhibited without being attached to a reaping-machine, 
appeared on the stand equal to performing its duty ; but the 
Judges, not having any opportunity of testing its merits in a 
crop, could only form a superficial estimate of the actual benefit 
of a machine necessarily of such a complicated character. 
I now proceed to notice the Implements, as entered for trial, 
and here my task is materially lightened by the fact that the 
trial of reaping-machines did not take place until harvest-time, 
and a detailed account of the merits of the different machines 
will be written by the official reporter of the Society. The crops 
on which the machines were tried were on the sewage-farm near 
Leamington, the property of the Earl of Warwick, who kindly 
placed them at the service of the Society. They were viewed 
by the Stewards during the Show, and appeared calculated to 
