The  late  Lord  Vernon. 
437 
tionallv  give  an  undue  advantage  to  the  larger  manufacturers, 
and  cast  the  efforts  of  smaller  men  into  the  shade. 
His  proposals,  as  already  indicated,  resulted  in  a considerable 
reduction  of  the  list  of  standard  implements  put  down  for  trial 
in  rotation,  coupled  with  an  enlarged  power  to  the  Stewards  to 
select  for  trial,  in  either  the  current  or  any  future  year,  such  new 
implements  as  might  seem  to  them  and  the  Judges  at  any 
Country  Meeting,  to  promise  well  for  the  benefit  of  the  English 
farmer.  Without  attempting  to  give  a complete  statement  of  the 
operations  of  this  plan,  it  may  he  useful  to  recall  the  attention 
of  the  members  of  the  Societv  to  the  fact  that  self-binding- 
reapers  have  since  been  tried  twice,  and  hay-drying  machines 
once  ; although  under  the  old  system  of  a fixed  rotation,  neither 
of  these  novel  inventions  could  have  been  subjected  to  such 
exhaustive  trials  as  have  been  given  them  recently. 
At  the  Society’s  International  Exhibition  at  Kilbum,  in  1879, 
Lord  Vernon  accepted  the  position  of  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee appointed  to  receive  and  entertain  foreigners  of  distinc- 
tion, or  those  having  special  recommendations  to  the  good 
offices  of  the  Society.  L nder  his  guidance  visits  were  paid  on 
three  days  respectively  to  the  Royal  Farms  at  Windsor,  to 
Woburn  Abbey,  and  to  Rothamsted,  of  the  pleasure  of  which 
all  who  were  present  spoke  most  warmly,  attributing  much  of 
the  success  to  the  kindness  and  good  management  of  Lord 
Vernon,  who  cemented  some  old,  and  established  several  new, 
friendships  among  the  foreign  guests  who  followed  him. 
It  was  in  this  year  also  that,  after  an  interv  al  of  seventeen  years, 
he  was  asked  to  undertake  a second  time  the  office  of  Steward 
of  Implements.  He  had  considerable  hesitation  in  accepting 
the  post ; and,  coming  as  it  did  at  the  moment  when  he  was 
fully  occupied  with  the  work  of  the  Royal  Commission,  to 
which  he  had  been  appointed  in  August,  there  can  be  no  doubt  it 
was  a severe  tax  upon  his  strength.  During  the  Reading  Show, 
for  instance,  he  was  frequently  at  work  at  five  in  the  morning 
on  his  Royal  Commission  task,  in  order  that  he  might  have  the 
day  clear  before  him  for  his  steward’s  work — unusuallv  heavy 
that  year,  owing  to  the  protracted  trials  of  Hay-  and  Corn- 
Drying  Apparatus. 
Coming  from,  and  living  in  a dairy  county  like  Derbyshire, 
Lord  ^ ernon  was  sure  to  take  a great  interest  in  all  that  per- 
tained to  that  branch  of  agriculture ; and  long  before  the  recent 
depression  had  turned  the  attention  of  farmers  in  general,  and 
arable  farmers  in  particular,  to  the  production  of  more  butter 
and  cheese,  and  less  corn,  he  had  been  busying  himself  in  giving 
a helping  hand  to  the  introduction  of  cheese  factories  into  his 
county. 
