632 Report on the Trials of Implements at Taunton. 
capital, and charging a fair allowance for wear and renewal, it 
would seem that a farmer having 20 acres of cutting would be 
justified in bu\ang a machine : thus — interest, Is. per acre ; 
renewal, 9d. ; repairs, oil. See, Is. Sd. ; 4 horses, 1 man, 1 boy, 
in small fields, to cut 10 acres per day, Is. 9d. per acre = 4s. dd. 
per acre : upon a larger scale with larger fields this item would 
be considerably less. At this season of the year, also, horses 
are not always in so much request upon the farm, and in such 
cases the actual costs would be much reduced. Expedition, 
again, in this treacherous climate, is a great object ; and the 
cut grass is left in a much better state for drying when cut by 
machine than when mown by the scythe. 
On Saturday, July 3rd, the Stewards carefully examined the 
different fields, and arranged the measuring of them. Four of 
them w^ere set out in 60 perches each for the first trials of two- 
horse mowers ; they were old turf-land not generally mown, 
the bottom being dead and soft. The plots had open grips or 
drains running across them ; and the crop was estimated at from 
40 to 50 cwts. of hay per acre. The plots were tolerably uniform 
in point of difficulty, some having more ant-hills on them than 
others, but certainly nothing to prevent practical judges making 
a fair comparison, allowances being made for any such vari- 
ations. In two other fields, the crop was clover and trefoil, esti- 
mated at from 45 to 50 cwts. per acre, very long and much laid ; 
these were set out for the second trials of two-horse mowers; 
and a piece of difficult work, in another field, was reserved for 
their final trial. Two remaining fields of meadow -land, regularly 
mown, and much lighter in crop, from 20 to 30 cwts. per acre, 
were reserved for the one-horse machines ; and in these two fields 
much time was spent in selecting suitable plots as level and 
uniform, and as free from ant-hills as possible, for the dynamo- 
meter tests of all the machines. These arrangements proved to 
meet the requirements of the Judges ; and no alteration was 
made, except in one field, where a small strip of rough land 
covered with stones, and quite impracticable, was by an over- 
sight measured with four or five plots of grass, which the Judges 
at once objected to. 
It may be remarked that, by these preparations, the Judges 
were enabled to concentrate their undivided attention upoa 
their onerous duties. 
The situation of the trial-fields was most conveniently secured 
by the Local Committee, who, in all their arrangements, had 
well studied the success of the Meeting. 
The whole of the machines for trial were arranged inside the 
Showyard for greater safety on Saturday evening. The only 
exhibitors, whose machines were entered for trial, who did not 
put in an appearance, being the Johnstone Harvester Company, 
