260 The Development of Agricultural Machinery. 
but, though every one praised the excellence of their workman- 
ship and admired the skill with which eighty different kinds of 
ploughs were grouped, tier above tier, with artistic effect, still 
it was evident that this imposing array was not prepared in 
anticipation of such a searching ordeal as that to which can- 
didates for prizes are now subjected, but was rather intended 
to tell visitors what sort of implements they ought to buy, and 
show them to what perfection this branch of manufacture had 
been brought. Nor could it have been otherwise, for the 
knowledge of these matters possessed by a few of the leading 
manufacturers was altogether in advance of the general agri- 
culture of the day. Neither Stewards nor Judges had yet ac- 
quired the experience requisite for the adequate discharge of 
their office, so that such men as Messrs. Garrett, Hornsby, 
Ransome, and a few others, would have laughed in their sleeves 
had they been told they could learn anything in the Society's 
show-yard. In spite, however, of a creditable display on the 
part of a few leading firms, the majority of the implements 
exhibited at the early Shows were of inferior construction and 
workmanship, and the general appearance of the exhibitions 
meagre and unsatisfactory." 
But a few members of the Society, among whom the late 
Mr. Handley deserves special mention, soon saw that nothing 
was gained for scientific agriculture by collecting implements 
in a show-yard, unless adequate trial could be made of their re- 
spective merits. It was not, however, until after the appear- 
ance of Mr. C. E. Amos as Consulting Engineer to the Society 
in 18 48 that any important changes were made in the system 
of trials. There had been great ploughing-matches in all pre- 
vious years, which, being open to the public, gratified sightseers, 
but, giving no results that could be depended upon, disappointed 
all practical men. A number of Judges perambulated the yard, 
inspected the machines, and reported, in a more or less per- 
functory way, to the engineer, who, after correcting some of 
the cruder conclusions thus arrived at, forwarded his own, and 
these various reports, to the Council. 
Such a state of things could not long continue in a Society 
numbering many men like Mr. Handley among its members. 
Four years only had elapsed from its first founding, when J udges 
withheld prizes (at Derby in 18 13), alleging, as a reason for so 
doing, that the machineiy upon which they were asked to adju- 
dicate ought to be subjected to " lengthened and accurate trial," 
and suggesting, first, that the public should be excluded from 
the trial fields, and secondly, that a proper catalogue of such 
implements as were to be tried should be prepared beforehand. 
