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Report of the Senior Steward 
XXXV. — Report of the Senior Steward of Implements at Reading, 
1882. By Lord Veknok, of Sudbury Hall, Derby. 
In looking back to the term of his service during four years, any 
Steward of Implements may well feel regret at the close of his 
labours. 
If hard work and responsibility are often overwhelming, a 
Steward, in common with all the officials of the Society engaged 
in the work of a Show, has the certain knowledge that his 
humblest efforts are directed to the advancement of the largest 
industry of the country. 
He can always rely on the goodwill of his colleagues, and on 
a general support from exhibitors in the maintenance of the rules 
of the Society, which it is his duty to see enforced without 
partiality or favour. 
Each year of exhibition brings a new Steward on the scene, 
who views the operations of the Society from his own stand- 
point. Thus, little by little, a large proportion of the Council 
are enabled to gauge with some measure of exactitude the 
changes necessary in the arrangements of the Show to meet the 
ever altering conditions of agriculture. 
My tenure of office was inaugurated by the Kilburn Show in 
1879, great in its associations, both national and international, 
great in its area, great in its disasters. Ruinous as the financial 
results have been to the Society, there is every reason for 
believing that no agricultural exhibition has so deeply im- 
pressed the public mind with the resources of British agricul- 
ture and with the power of the Royal Agricultural Society to 
enlist them for the purpose of exhibition to the world. 
At Kilburn, in 1879, at Carlisle, in 1880, and at Reading, in 
1882, the rainfall prevented the attendance of visitors, leading to 
serious financial loss at each Show. At Derby, in 1881, the 
weather was all that could be desired ; the attendance and 
receipts were consequently large. 
It has been my privilege at various times to have been asso- 
ciated with the work of the Shows of the Society since 1860, 
when the Show was held at Canterbury, and when for the first 
time I acted as Steward of Implements. 
The first Show of the Society was at Oxford in 1839. At 
the third, at Liverpool, in 1841, statistics were first collected, 
but these were comparatively meagre. 
The Show at Canterbury may thus be said to have occupied 
an intermediate position between that at Liverpool, in 1841, and 
that at Reading, in 1882. 
A comparison of the statistics of these three Shows may be 
