^28 Report on the Exhibition of Implements at Taunton. 
of principle or fashion. The natural impulse of practical men ■ 
would be to declare that the quality of the work done demon- 
strated the principle. Scientific men would be more likely to 
set up a standard of principle, and say that the work must be I 
levelled up to their ideal ; but the Judges, from their training, 
their habits of thought, their instincts, would not be likely to 
sacrifice the real, the useful, to any exalted aimings at thej 
aesthetic or the beautiful. Whatever may be thought indi-1 
vidually as to the trial system, and as to its continuance or' 
otherwise, it is passing strange that " great firms," who have 
taken advantage of it, and have hitherto been only too gladj 
to be " ticketed as first, second, and third," by the Judges ofj 
the Royal Agricultural Society, should now protest against the( 
system and the manner in which it has been carried out, and^ 
issue their protests in the Showyard of the Society under thei 
verv shadow of its wings. 
The Stewards of Implements always have had considerable 
trouble with regard to the awards of the ten silver medals 
which are placed at the disposal of the Judges each year. 
The exhibitors think that the whole of these medals must neces- 
sarily be given away, and that the Council of the Society intend 
that they should be distributed somewhat in a broadcast fashion 
among ingenious and novel adaptations. Frequently the Judges 
themselves do not rightly interpret the " instructions " as to 
awarding them ; and it has happened occasionally that the 
Stewards have had to exercise their power of withholding theii 
consent to awards made in cases where the spirit of the instruc- 
tions has been disregarded. Much dissatisfaction was felt at 
Taunton because of such action on the part of the Stewards, 
and it was difficult to make the exhibitors understand that 
these medals are reserved " as a mark of approval of any new 
principles of construction which the Judges may consider ar 
essential improvement, subject always to the restrictions con- 
tained in Rule 2," which is as follows : — " These medals canno; 
in any case be awarded to any implement included in th( 
ordinary rotation, (1) unless it belongs to the classes for whicl 
prizes are offered at this Meeting ; or (2) the principle on whicl 
the implement is constructed be entirely new, and the imple- 
ment never before exhibited at any of the Society's Shows." I 
is further provided that " no medal shall in any case be awardcc 
to any implement capable of trial until it has been subjecte* 
to such trial as the Stewards may direct." The object whicl 
the Society has in offering these medals, with the above 
recited conditions, is obviously to bring to the front any nev 
invention or principle of construction in implements withou 
the delay that might be incurred in waiting for the orciinar^' 
