57G 
The Plymouth Meeting. 
of mercury, the scale from 40° upwards standing in the vertical 
instrument as high above the milk as possible. It is also im- 
portant that the glass should be exceptionally strong and as much 
protected as practicable. Some of the thermometers which were 
entered indicated inaccurate temperatures. The prize was awarded 
for an instrument that was fixed between two metal barrels float- 
ing horizontally ; it could also be used in a vertical or in an- 
inclined position. 
In Classes 6 and 7, for non-returnable parcel-post boxes to 
carry butter, the prizes were awarded for strong cardboard boxes 
bound at the angles with metal clips. The boxes appeared to 
be sound, clean, and free from auy disagreeable smell. 1 lb. 
boxes cost 6s. 9d. per gross, 2 lb. and 3 lb. boxes 7s. 9cl, and 
the larger sizes are proportionately moderate in price. 
Class 8, " vessel to contain preserved butter, closed hermet- 
ically, without the use of solder," drew forth but one exhibit, 
this being an admirably made wooden keg, which, however, the 
Judges considered too heavy and expensive for general adoption. 
No prize, therefore, was awarded. 
In Class 9 — " sieve or sile for use in a dairy " — there were 
several sieves or strainers. No award, however, was made, the 
Judges being of opinion that in no instance did the appliance 
conform to the requirements of a good daiiy. Most of the 
strainers were provided with brass wire gauze, either at the 
bottom, at the side, or in the form of a cone raised above the 
bottom. Gauze is objectionable, as it is easily clogged and soon 
w T ears out. When the dirt strained from a pailful or two of milk 
has collected, the succeeding milk necessarily passes through it 
unless it is cleaned, and this cannot always be done in a moment. 
Moreover, the strainers were adapted either for the railway milk 
churn, or for the cheese vat, and in no instance for both, or — as 
they should have been — for cheese-making, butter-making, and 
milk-selling. The Judges considered the simplest and most 
practical system of straining to be that adopted by Mr. Pond 
(No. 907), in which an ordinary strainer cloth was simply fitted 
between the two boards of a metal cheese strainer, but the 
appliance was not adapted for any other purpose than that of the 
cheese vat. 
The Horse-Shoeing Competition. 
The Royal Agricultural Society has, during the last four 
years, done its best by competitions of shoeing smiths in its 
Showyards to encourage good farriery throughout the country, 
and the official reports of these competitions, which have 
