490 Report on the Exhibition and Trial of Implcwents 
they appear to me to have taken great pains to arrive at a right 
decision. 
Speaking however from my own experience, both as a Judge at 
the Royal Agricultural Society's Meetings, and as a farmer, both 
in Norfolk and in Wiltshire, I must say that I can see little use 
in a reaper which has not a side delivery. This remark ajiplies 
especially to the long and bulky straw-crops of Wiltshire. Those 
Avho have had experience of the labour of raking off a good crop 
of corn, will, I am confident, bear witness to the severity of the 
work. It ried in Wiltshire a machine which drew the corn on to 
the platform, so that the man had only to rake it off, and yet the 
work was too severe for a strong man to keep up for an}' length 
of time. 
In the Kentish trial, the crops are described by the Judges as 
"average." I am told that the longest wheat was only 3 to 4 
feet high, and the barley about 1 foot. 
The Judges were, no doubt, influenced in their decision by 
the cheapness and portability of the Prize Implement, as well as 
by the crops on which it was tried ; and if these latter fairly 
represent the produce of the district, for such a district that im- 
plement may be the best. 
It must not be overlooked, however, that the prize was a local 
prize, awarded by Local Judges ; and if, on the one hand, they 
might fairly select for the prize the reaper best suited to their 
own neighbourhood, — with them, on the other hand (and not with 
the Royal Agricultural Society), must rest the chief respon- 
sibility of the decision. In this last fact may perhaps be found 
a reason for the objection made by some implement makers to 
Local Prizes. 
To return, however, to the Prize-reaper, the dynamometer 
made it take two-thirds of the power of the machine which had 
the side deliveiy, and which, by the Judges' Report, was cutting 
more, by three acres per day. It may tlierefoi-e be doubted 
whether even for the generality of wheat-crops the prize imple- 
ment will be found preferable ; but if we take the case of a good 
barley-crop, with a strong clover ley, which must be laid and left 
in a swathe until it is properly weathered for the stack, I think the 
importance of securing a side delivery will appear a still graver 
matter of consideration. In support of this view let me refer to 
a passage in a speech of Sir James Graham, delivered in Carlisle 
in, I think, 1851 : — " Before these machines will be of much 
use to the farmers of England, they must be made self-acting, 
and deliver the corn without the aid of the man who now works 
so hard." I believe these words to be perfectly true. 
In the preceding remarks I have strongly advocated a side 
delivery, because after having long felt an interest, and paid 
