26 i The Development of Agricultural Machinery. 
ished. Did tliey say, — Your- expansion gears are too compli- 
cated for use by farm-engineers . The second valve disappeared, 
and still the consumption of coal remained economical. Did 
they say, — There shall be no more " Racers.'"' The engine of 
commerce stood ready to accomplish all that the " Racer " had 
done. Did they, finally, say, — We impose no further condi- 
tions ; show us now what can be done by compounding. 
Newcastle answered by more than one engine which, although 
of trifling horse-power and non-condensing type, equalled in 
economy of fuel anything that has hitherto been accomplished 
by the largest and most economical condensing engines in 
existence. 
That which is true of steam-engines is true of other im- 
plements. To admit that the former may be considered as 
the children of conditioned trials, while other machines which 
have come under the influence of the Society's tests are of 
independent development, is mere trifling. It is as if a man 
should say, " Chemistry is the child of the balance, and physio- 
logy of the scalpel ; but commercial success may be ensured 
without a balance-sheet, a wholesome house without a spring 
clean." Many trials were, no doubt, inadequate, and some ver- 
dicts were fallible ; but the question is not " Do judges never 
make a mistake ? " but " Are they not right in a large majority 
of instances ? " Opponents of the Prize System " fix their atten- 
tion too exclusively on defects and shortcomings from which no 
system is free, and thus lose sight of the sterling advantages 
which belong to it, and which have been so long enjoyed that 
they are taken as a matter of course." (H. S. Thompson, 
Journal, 18G1.) 
The defects and shortcomings in question, due for the most 
part to haste, coupled with the fearful strain which an annual 
trial of every class of implement entailed alike upon makers 
and Judges, brought about a change in 185G. Triennial trials 
were first introduced at Chelmsford in that year, and these 
subsequently became, first quadrennial in 1859, then nonennial 
in 1873, and lastly, non-periodic, as they remain to-day. The 
period subsequent to Chelmsford has been characterised by a 
constantly increasing refinement in the character of the tests 
themselves, and by the diminution of haste in their application. 
Taking the last trials of steam-engines (Newcastle, 1887) as 
an example, it is scarcely too much to say that it was the com- 
pleteness of the tests then applied which enabled the engineers 
to compile probably the most useful and accurate Dr. and Cr. 
account which has ever yet been struck between thermal energy 
and mechanical effort, The hay-pressing trials at Nottingham 
