Report on the Trials of Implements at Reading. 643 
2. The power required to work this implement is not less than 8-h.p., and 
this addition to the power ordinarily required to work a threshing-machine 
appears to us to be fatal to the adoption of this machine for the purpose 
■evidently contemplated by the Society. 
(Signed) Mason Cooke. 
William Little. 
Geo. H. Sandat. 
Mr. Scotson, who acted as one of the Judges at Derby, sug- 
gested to the Secretary of the Society that it would be very 
interesting to try the effect of pressing green half-made hay 
and storing it for a while. He had previously expressed the 
opinion that the close packing would prevent fermentation, and 
that this machine might be valuable to hay-growers by enabling 
them to secure their crops in a greener state, and thus in more 
valuable condition for marketing. The Judges and the exhi- 
bitor were willing, and even anxious, to carry out this experi- 
ment, and grass was actually mown for the purpose, but it was 
necessary to have it in dry condition, and the weather, which 
has so much to answer for in connection with the Reading Show, 
was such that it was impossible to secure dry grass in time for 
a. trial. 
Class 6. 
Hay and Corn Drying Machines. 
During the last six or seven years the growers of hay and corn 
in Great Britain, that is, the farmers, have suffered a very great loss 
from continued wet weather at the very period when their crops 
should have been gathered in. Such things have, no doubt, 
happened frequently before ; but never before in the memory of 
man have so many wet summers and autumns occurred in succes- 
sion ; and the trials and troubles of the farmers have been enor- 
mously increased by the untoward weather which has almost 
invariably prevailed at the most critical part of the agricultural 
year. The injury which corn crops sustain by a wet harvest-time 
has always been appreciated by the British public. Those who 
are old enough to remember the days before Free Trade will call 
I to mind how a single rainy day in harvest had a marked effect 
I upon the corn market, while a rainy week at that season raised 
prices sufficiently to unearth hoards of corn laid by in antici- 
pation of such chances by well-to-do farmers and speculating 
merchants. This country no longer depends upon the home- 
crop of corn, and there is much less speculation and storing of 
corn than there was in the days of Protection ; yet even now 
j the price of corn is sensibly affected by the prevalence of bad 
j weather during harvest. 
But in the case of the hay-crop it is doubtful whether any 
but those who are really interested in the matter have any idea 
2 T 2 
