Trials of Traction- Engines at Wolverhampton. 575 
at Barnhurst. It is true that the weather had been to the very last 
deg^iee unfavourable to the use of these tyres. The question then 
arose in our minds, " Is the Barnhurst course a lair one over 
which to put an agricultural engine ; and would such engines be 
in practice required to be used on ground in the condition in 
which the Barnhurst course was ? " Upon this point we thought 
it right to take the opinion of the practical agricultural Judges of 
this year, and they told us that a farmer must be able, when his 
root-crops were ready to be drawn off the field, to take them 
away, no matter in what weather. This had to be done in 
autumn, and very commonly in the midst of weather quite as bad 
as that which we have experienced, and with the soil in the 
same condition. Now, looking at the fact that as agricultural 
locomotives become improved, and come more and more into use, 
they will replace to a large extent the horses upon a farm, and a 
farmer will then find himself at the mercy, as it were, of these 
machines. Clearly, other things being equal, the most merito- 
rious machine, therefore, is one which, under any circumstances 
of weather and of soil, can do its work ; and, in fact, a fine-weather 
machine is practically useless to the farmer. It was upon these 
grounds we felt that the "Sutherland," notwithstanding the excel- 
lence of its workmanship and the superiority of its tractive force 
upon a high road, was out of competition in Class XVII. We must 
not be supposed, however, to lay down as a doctrine that the mere 
surface of the iron wheels will give adhesive force in soil such as 
that at Barnhurst. Upon pressure and motion being applied to 
the upper part of such a sodden soil, it becomes made into a 
lubricating paste or fluid, which renders adhesion of any surface, 
whether iron or indiarubber, practically impossible. It is in 
this state of things that the iron wheels, by their ability to use 
paddles (say to the number of eight round about a 6-feet wheel), 
have a great advantage, for the paddles cut into the surface, and 
the ground immediately behind the paddle that has just entered 
being compressed by the weight of the wheel upon it, cannot 
escape vertically, nor can it readily escape sideways ; thus the 
paddle acts upon a block of soil some 3 feet long and the width 
of the wheel, and by pressing against this, it is enabled to find 
that foothold, if the term may be used, or that abutment or point 
d'appui which mere adhesion upon a surface cannot under these 
circumstances give. It may be that hereafter there will be exhi- 
bited engines provided with indiarubber tyres, and with the 
means of applying paddles when such engines are used upon 
farm land like Barnhurst. When these engines come for com- 
petition, we have no doubt the Judges who may then be in office 
will weigh their merits fairly ; but there was no such provision 
made, nor, indeed, does one see how it could very easily be 
