66 Report on Sheaf-Binding Machinery at Shrewsbury. 
plots allotted to the competing' machines. The trials were 
resumed on field No. 3, oats after lea. The crop was over-ripe, 
the heads of the grain were broken down and much tangled, and 
occasional patches were laid. The cut was in a line with the 
ploughing, and the open furrows were in some places rather deep 
and wide. There was an entire absence of grass or weeds in the 
stubble. From the foregoing description of the crop, it will be 
inferred that the work done in this field was of a much more 
trying character than that done at Dinthill. Though the plots 
were somewhat uneven in character, owing to some having large 
patches of laid corn in them, jet the tangled and broken straw 
was much the same all over. Taking the nature of the crop 
into account, the whole of the competing machines turned 
their work out of hand in a highly creditable manner. Those 
machines which worked in the plots up to and including No. 8, 
were considered to have escaped laid patches. They were 
therefore sent consecutively round No. 1 Plot, which was not 
allotted to any machine on account of the crop it carried being 
so much laid. These machines respectively came well out of the 
ordeal. The cutting was good, but, as was to be expected, in 
the laid portions the sheafing and binding were not all that 
could be desired. There was also, with most of the machines, a 
tendency to drag the sheaves and to deliver them in pairs, the 
tangled straw being difficult to separate. So good was the work 
done in this field generally, that the Judges determined not to 
make — or at least not to publish — invidious comparisons until 
further trials. 
Wheat Trials. 
On the morning of the 8th of August, operations were 
resumed in field No. 10, which carried a nice level crop^of red 
wheat, standing about 4 feet to 4 feet 6 inches high, grown after 
two years lea, which had been mown once in each year and 
afterwards ploughed into breaks of 24 yards for the reception of 
this crop. The direction of the cut was again in line with the 
furrows, except in Plots 12, 13, and 14, which were cut across the 
furrows, and then the field carried a crop of very ripe white wheat. 
Security of binding and uniformity in the size of the sheaf were 
obviously important elements in the competition. The following 
notes and the table on p. G8, as to the comparative results of the 
work done in the wheat trials, will be found interesting : — 
Following the trials which had been made in oats, two-acre 
plots of wheat were set out for all the fourteen machines left in 
competition ; the plot for each machine was decided, as usual, 
by drawing lots, though, with the exception of one hollow, 
there was little or nothing to choose between the various plots. 
