lxxx Monthly Council 
important question for manufacturers 
to consider, and when it came before 
the manufacturers of these machines 
they saw that it would not answer 
their purpose to compete for the 
prizes. 
With regard to the letter which 
had been brought before them, he 
was not aware until yesterday that 
the Chairman of their Implement 
Committee was a Director and Chair- 
man of one of the large engineering 
firms, as a member of which the 
letter had been addressed to him. 
That letter he (Mr. Ransome) con- 
sidered a perfectly private communi- 
cation. Mr. Frankish had thought 
it his duty to bring it before them, 
and he had nothing further to say, 
but he should not feel that he did his 
duty if he did not protest against this 
letter being made public. Occupying 
the position of Chairman of the 
Company, Mr. Frankish knew that his 
firm, or rather some of the members 
of it, were members of the Associa- 
tion. As the Society had a perfect 
right to issue prizes without consult- 
ing the Engineers' Association, so the 
Engineers' Association had a perfect 
right to decide whether they should 
compete or not. Mr. Huston's name 
was in the letter, and the entry which 
Mr. Frankish had alluded to was 
made informall} 7 , and, he believed, 
without Mr. Euston's own knowledge. 
Under these circumstances, he 
thought the Agricultural Engineers 
were quite justified in consulting 
one another as to whether they should 
enter into this competition or not. 
The Society had been perfectly fair 
to meet them in having published the 
conditions, and they had this time 
certainly consulted the makers as to 
what the points of excellence should 
be. Whether these firms competed 
or not there would certainly be some 
firms enter for the competition, and 
the conditions should be as perfect 
as possible. 
Mr. Frankish said the letter was 
not marked private in any way, and 
even if it had been, he considered it 
his duty to the Society in some way 
or other to expose what was going on. 
Mr. Dent, as one of the oldest 
members of the Council, as having 
taken considerable interest in the 
trials of implements, and remember- 
ing the line which had been taken 
before by his late friend Sir Harry 
Thompson, wished to express, as 
an individual, his gratitude to Mr. 
Frankish for his action in the matter. 
(Hear, hear.) He was a warm ad- 
vocate of an extensive and an ex- 
haustive trial by this Society of 
agricultural implements. The whole 
action of the Society in giving prizes, 
and the constant competition in its 
showyard trial-fields, had done an 
enormous amount of good in the 
promotion of improved agricultural 
machinery. He did not agree with 
their late friend, Mr. Randell, that 
the heavy expense in connection with 
the steam cultivator trials was a 
proper reason for giving them up. 
They had recently heard from the 
Agricultural Press, and he believed 
from the Association of Agricultural 
Engineers, how very much this Society 
was neglecting its duty in not doing 
as much as it could to promote the 
prosperity of implements. They had 
seen the former trials of the Society 
justly contrasted with the very little 
encouragement given of late to agri- 
cultural machinery. They did nothing 
now but give a few medals to new 
implements, many of which did not 
appear to be of very much worth. 
When he saw these liberal prizes 
given for that most important imple- 
ment, the steam threshing machine, 
he hoped they were now coming back 
to the better practice of old times. 
He had lately Tead an account of 
a large maltster offering prizes for 
barley which was the least injured 
for the purposes of malting. They 
wanted to see whether it was care- 
lessness in working, or whether im- 
proved machinery was required to 
turn out English barley better than 
any other barley in the world. Just 
when they were going io do some- 
thing of the kind, they had brought 
forward a letter that was called a 
private letter, and which seemed an 
attempt on the part of agricultural 
implement firms to boycott the 
Society. By no means let the Society 
give up the idea of giving the prizes. 
If those gentlemen did not like to try, 
let them stand out in the cold, and 
see if there were not as good men 
behind them. They did not want to 
get into hot water with the Engineers' 
