870=^04 The Royal Agricultural Society of England. | 
offered for competition, and the plan has been pursued ever sin< \ 
under various regulations. For some years, with few exceptions 
no particular classes of implements were indicated as those whicl 
were specially designed for trial. As the stamp of the Society 
approval, by the award of a prize or a medal, became appn^i 
ciated by the public, and therefore more desired by the maan| 
facturers, more new implements were exhibited year after yeajl 
and a continually increasing number had to be tried in tnl 
comparatively short time available for the purpose, in the wea| 
preceding the Show. The effect of the system pursued' wall 
however, very marked ; and, after an experience of ten yeawj 
was thus described in the Reports of the Stewards of Implement 
for 1848 and 1849 :— 1 
Its advantages, " 'p}^g principal advantages to be derived from Shows of Implements may 1 
classed under three heads, of which the first and most important is, that tl 
awards of prizes should point out to every farmer who enters the Showyard tl 
best implements in their respective classes which the kingdom produce 
Farmers, as a body, have neither the means nor the leisure required for travellii: 
about to visit the manufactories of the various imjjlement-makers ; nor, if th 
were practicable, could they safely decide on the comparative efficiency of the 
respective productions by merely seeing them in the makers' yards. It i 
therefore, a great advantage to the farmers of any district to have a large sho 
of implements brought into their neighbourhood, especially when the best ( 
each class are pointed out to them by competent judges after a fair trial.* 
" The attention of some of the leading members of the Society (especially < 
the late lamented Mr. Handley) was earnestly directed to the improvement i 
this department, and they soon perceived that little was gained by coUectin 
implements in a Showyard for people to <.;^aze at, unless an adequate trial coul 
be made of their respective merits. To attain this end great exertions wei 
made, and every improvement in the mode of trial was followed by so marke 
an increase in the number and merit of implements brought forward at subs( 
quent Shows, as to prove the strongest incentive to further effort. . . . Tt 
additional amount offered in prizes at the later meetings has undoubtedl 
assisted in creating this great increase of competition, but it cannot be coi 
sidered the principal cause, since the implement-makers are unanimous i 
declaring that, even when successful, the prizes they receive do not reimburs 
them for their expenses and loss of time. How, then, are the increase 
exertions of the machine-makers to be accounted for ? Simply by the fac 
that the trials of implements have gradually won the confidence of the farmei 
so that, when selecting implements for purchase, he gives tl^e preference t 
those which have received the Society's mark of approval. . . . 
" It thus appears that, concurrently with the extension and improvement c 
the trials, a corresponding increase and improvement has taken place in th 
exhibitions of implements ; and though it is difliuult to^* oi;e that the one ha 
been the cause of the other, still the i)robability that such is the case almos 
amoxmts to certainty, when it is found that classes of implements whicl 
are so faulty in construction as to be strongly animadverted on by the Judge 
at one Meeting, are at the next nearly free Irom those delects which had beei 
previously pointed out. ... If the foregoing reasoning be correct (and tb' 
facts on which it is founded will not admit of question), the Society niayfairl; 
• ' Journal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England,' vol, is., p. 378. 
