640 Report on the Trials of Implements at Reading. 
Mr. W. Burch, Covent Garden Warehouse, St. James Street, 
W.C., exhibited a most useful contrivance for the hen-wife and the 
general public. It is called the Ovifer, or Spring Egg-Carrier. 
The contrivance consists of three elastic steel springs, fixed 
just sufficiently far apart to prevent the eggs from touching each 
other. The egg is pressed into the top, which opens to receive 
it, and then closes firmly round it. When the box is turned 
over, the eggs cannot drop out. No packing material whatever 
is required, and all risk from taint by mouldy hay is avoided. 
It is an established fact that an egg kept on end is preserved 
longer than if it had been laid on its side, especially so if turned 
over once or twice a week, v/hich with this Ovifer would be 
the simplest thing imaginable. This little invention can be 
confidently recommended. 
Before concluding, the Judges would wish to record their 
appreciation of all the arrangements made by the Society in the 
Working Dairy for their convenience and assistance, and also to 
thank the Stewards of the Department, Lord Vernon, Mr. Bowen 
Jones, Lord Moreton, and Mr. R. Neville, for their untiring 
energy and co-operation. 
XXXVIL — Report on the Trials of Implements at Reading. By 
William C. Little, Stag's Holt, March, Cambs., Reporting 
Judge. 
Amongst the Prizes offered for Implements at the Meeting of 
the Royal Agricultural Society were the following : — • 
Steam Dbaixing Machinery. 
Class 1. The most efficient and economical apparatus for exca- 
vating field-drains .. .. .. .. .. The Gold Medal. 
MuKiNG Machine. 
Class 4. The best milking machine, to be tested during the six £ 
consecutive months of the spring and summer of 1883 .. .. 50 
Straw Compressing and Binding Machine. 
Class 5. The most efficient portable straw-compressing and binding 
machine, to be worked in conjunction with a threshing machine 25 
Hay and Corn Drying. 
Class G. The most efficient and economical method of drying Hay 
or Corn crops artificially, either before or after being stacked .. 105* 
* Offered by Martin J. Sutton, Esq., of Reading. 
