Report on the Trials of Implements at Beading. 
G41 
COXDITIOX APPLYIXG ONLY TO ClASS G. 
The exhibition of the apimratus entered in this Class will not be an absohite 
requirement, but api)liances for the purjiose ah-eady fixed, or which may be 
fixed at farm homesteads, will be eligible to compete. Competitors who cannot 
exhibit their apparatus will, however, be required to send in plans or models 
of their system with a full description of the method. Apparatus of a portable 
character innst be exhibited at the Show. 
These four Classes of Implements were submitted to the ad- 
judication of the same three Judges. Fortunately for these 
Judges, who found their hands pretty full, all the entries in 
Classes 1 and 4 were withdrawn before the time for exhibition. 
It must, however, be considered a matter for regret at a time like 
the present, when the benefit of efficient drainage is universally 
recognised, when the necessity of draining or redraining an 
immense quantity of land has been too clearly proved, and 
when the cost of this work has been so largely increased by the 
high price of manual labour, that the offer of the Society had 
not the result of stimulating the machine-makers to compete for 
the Gold Medal. 
Class 5. 
Straio Compressing and Binding Machine. 
In this Class only one implement was exhibited. The entry 
in the Catalogue was as follows : — 
Stand. No. 267. — John H. Ladd & Co., of 116, Queen Victoria 
Street, London. 
Article 5017- — Straw Compressing Machine ; manufactured by the Exhi- 
bitors. Price 172?. 17 in. by 22 in., variable length, extra strength, iron- 
lined belt, perpetual press, mounted on wheels for travelling. (^For Trial.) 
The machine received the Silver Medal of the Society in 
ij 1881, and a full description of it, by Mr. Coleman, appeared in 
1 the ' Journal ' for that year.* The exhibitors in their prospectus 
' are content to give Mr. Coleman's graphic report as a complete 
exposition of the construction and the action of this implement. 
It will be sufficient to say here that the material to be com- 
pressed (hay, straw, &c.) is fed into a hopper, from which it is 
driven down into a lower chamber by means of a board which 
descends with a blow at regular intervals. As this board is 
withdrawn, pressure is applied by a solid and weighty traverser 
acting horizontally ; the straw or other material is driven into a 
chamber which is fitted with steel springs, and these retain all 
•that is forced beyond them. The size of the bales is regulated 
as to height and width within the limits of 17 inches by 22 
inches, by enlarging or contracting the mouth of the chamber. 
* Vol. xvii. p. C04. 
VOL. XVIII. — S. S. 
