and Miscellaneous Articles. 
579 
pressing force than is required merely to get the time-honoured maximum of 
1-1 cwt. into a " pocket," and is easily worked by one man. The process of weigh- 
ing the pockets after they have been pressed is admirably and quickly effected 
by means of an iron lever working on one of the columns of the presser as a 
fulcrum. The shorter end of this lever has a hook to which the " jjocket " to 
be weighed is attached, by aflixing a handle, like that of a pail, to the iron (or 
wooden) hoop of the " bagging hole." A lialf-hundredvveight, placed on the 
longer arm of the lever, indicates the usual weight of I5 cwt. The lever may 
be lengthened or shortened, and heavier or lighter weights attached, according 
to the quantity required to be put into the " pocket." There is also an iron cir- 
cular case which clasps the pocket tightly as it is filled, keeping it smooth and 
even, and preventing the " ribs " which disfigure pockets badly " trod " or 
pressed with the old machine. 
In Class IV., " for any other improved implement or implements used in 
the cultivation or management of hops," Messrs. Weeks's Sulphurating Machine 
(No. 3671), price \2l. 12s., was deemed worthy of the prize of 101. The 
improvements in the machine are a great reduction in size and weight, an 
arrangement by which the sulphur sent out by the revolving blowing-fan can 
be guided upwards in diflerent directions, and an improved regulator of the 
quantity of sulphur used. By this as little as 40 lbs. of sulphur can be distri- 
buted evenly over an acre of hops, which is most desirable, as in certain 
stages of the growth of the plant it is injurious to use sulphur in wholesale 
quantities. 
Messrs. Weeks also showed a portable tank for creosoting the end of hop- 
poles, a hop-bine cutting machine, an improved fire-basket for drying hops in 
kilns, and several other machines and implements used in the cultivation and 
management of hops. 
(Signed) Charles Whitehead. 
H. B. Caldwell. 
II. Miscellaneous Articles. 
The hands of the Judges in the Miscellaneous Department were tied by 
the 3rd and 4th Clauses in the " Instructions to the Judges," so that to find 
anything new in agricultural implements that was not included in the 
quinquennial trials was next to an impossibility. There were various 
so-called improvements, but those improvements were chiefly, if not totally, 
belonging to implements scheduled in other years' trials, and all the Judges 
can do is merely to report on what they think may be considered desirable 
improvements. At the head of their list they place a novelty (though it is 
not properly in this year's schedule), and this is " an American Revolving 
Mouldboard Plough" (so called by the Trent Foundry Company) ; it was, 
in the eyes of the Judges, worth much more than the Silver Medal, which was 
awarded for the ^'■Adaptation of the Revolving Mouldhoard" only. The fact 
is, the said plough is plough and cultivator combined, and far surpassed in its 
operations on the land at Barnhurst the smashing-up tools of Smith and 
of Fowler, and rendered harrows and drags unnecessary by leaving a ready- 
made seed-bed behind it. The Judges came to this opinion after trying it as 
a hop cultivator (for which it was entered), and they think also, that if made 
stronger and applied to steam, it will prove invaluable to farmers. 
While on ploughs, we call attention to the new steerage on the double 
ploughs of G. W. Murray (Stand 48), though we doubt whether the movement 
of the wheel (furrow-wheel) might not be clogged, and be difiBcult to work on 
account of rust and dirt collecting on its axle. Want of trial of course 
prevents one judging of its merits ; though with a good ploughman there is 
