510 Report on tlic Exhibition and Trial of Implements 
(lesigaed to collect weeds, convert them immediately into manure, and spread 
them on the land. It consists of a kind of scarifier-frame, with wheels and 
shafts ; the row of scarifier-tines collects the weeds ; between these tines 
revolving teeth carry up the weeds on to an endless web ; this web further 
carries them up and throws them into a lighted furnace in a barrel or drum the 
vvidth of the machine, from which they are thrown ur scattered through 
gratings on to the soil as the machine passes along : we had it tried more as 
a matter of curiosit}^ than to prove its efficiency, feeling assured that it must 
be useless, and so it proved. We also, for an instant, saw the gorse-machinc 
of Messrs. Picksley and Sims in work : it unquestionably fulfilled its promise 
of reducing gorse effectually, and rendering it fit food fur cattle. 
The only money prizes coming directly under our adjudication were the prize 
lor field-gates and the prize for hand-tools suited for hop-grovmds. For 
the latter there was very little real competition, and we were enabled, with 
the sanction of the Local Judges for hop-cultivators, to award the prize of 51. 
to Spear and Jackson of Sheffield. 
For field-gates there was an extensive and good competition ; many, how- 
ever, were excluded by the condition that the price was not to exceed 11. 5s. 
After a prolonged and careful inspection of all the gates in the yard (and cer- 
tainly they were distributed, to our inconvenience, all over it), we had the gra- 
tification of awarding the prize of ol. to Lord Leigh, of Stoneleigh Abbey, Kenil- 
worth, for a very strong and highh' useful gate. Upon this poiut we desire to 
remark that nearly all the gates we saw were very unscientific in their con- 
struction, the chief suspension-bar being invariably attached or fixed from the 
head instead of the back or hanging style of the gate. 
John Clarke. 
W. TiNDALL. 
Report of the Judges of Implements entered for the Local Prizes, at the Meetin<j 
of the Royal Agricidtural Society, held at Canterbury, 1860. 
There were seven mowing machines selected for trial, which were set to work 
on a piece of level meadow-land, near the Show-yard, in an average crop of 
grass, ill fit order for mowing. 
After having given to the exhibitors full opportunity to develop the peculiar 
merits which their respective implements were stated to possess, the Judges 
selected four machines for competitive trial, both in the grass and in a piece of 
standing clover. 
Ultimately the machine, No. 77, " Wood's Improved," exhibited by W. M. 
Cranston, and the machine. No. 82, invented by J. A. Allen, and exhibited 
by Messrs. Burgess and Key, were closely tested against each other. 
Both machines cut the crops remarkably well ; ant-hills, stones, inequalities 
of the gi'ound, and a crop laid in different directions, appeared to be no hindrance 
to their effective progress, and the draught of the two imi)lemeuts difl'ered but 
little. The Judges considered that, in overcoming the above difficulties and 
ill cutting the clover-crop, the machine. No. 82, had slightly the advantage ; 
that it was more substantial in its construction, especially in the cast-iron gear 
•work, and better adapted to withstand the rough usage to which farm imple- 
ments are liable, and they therefore awarded the prize of 101. to Messrs. Burgess 
and Key. 
Eight reaping machines were ordered out for trial on a light piece of tmripe 
rye, growing on the slope of a hill, and subsequently four were selected for 
competition on the side of a steep bank, in another part of the same field. 
The crop was laid by a heavy roller in various directions, the surface of the 
ground was very uneven, stony, and full of weeds, and ofl'ered a good oppor- 
tunity for testing the mechanical capabilities of the several machines for 
encountering difficulties of the above character. 
