Report on the Exhibition of Implements at Taunton. G23 
these brief introductions to the Reports of the various Judges, 
I cannot better terminate them than by saying how mate- 
rially 1 have been assisted : first, by the Stewards of Live- 
stock, who gave me every facility for obtaining information 
which it might otherwise have been difficult to procure ; and 
afterwards to the Judges who, once their labours concluded, 
spared no pains to enlighten me upon points which seemed to 
need any explanation. 
XXII. — Report on the Exhibition of Implements at Taunton. 
By Charles Whitehead, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c, (Senior 
Steward). 
The descriptive Report of Mr. Hemsley upon the trials of 
implements at Taunton relieves the Senior Steward of Imple- 
ments from the necessity of saying much with regard to them. 
His chief duty is now to write something of a valedictory 
nature, to bid farewell gracefully, like the dying swan, to utter 
notes as tuneful as possible. The prominent role has been most 
properly assigned to Mr. Hemsley, whose music, the click of 
the mowing-machine, requires merely a preface — the overture 
to the opera. 
At no place has a more kindly feeling been shown throughout 
to the officials of the Society than at Taunton. The local authori- 
ties did their work thoroughly well, and carried out their 
agreement to the letter. The inhabitants of the town vied with 
each other in decorating their shops and houses, and at no pre- 
vious Meeting has a more enthusiastic welcome been given to 
the Society, or more hospitality shown to the officials connected 
L with it. The Showyard was beautifully situated near the town ; 
i and if the rain had not come in such deluges, and been so per- 
sistent, it is believed that the financial loss would have been 
comparatively trifling. Every one knew that a loss was almost 
certain when Taunton was selected ; but judging from the 
number of visitors who came in on the first half-a-crown day, 
which was beautifully fine, and the intense interest which they 
manifested in the stock and implements, there would have been 
a far larger aggregate attendance than had been thought possible 
if the weather had been moderately good. It was most interest- 
ing and eminently instructive to notice the keen attention of 
the visitors to the Showyard on Tuesday ; the greater part 
of whom, acccording to the information- of one who well knew 
the locality and its inhabitants, were farmers or connected with 
