668 Report on the Trials of Implements at Reading. 
quantity of hay to deal with. The following Table shows (1) 
the order of the different plots (starting from the bridge near 
the town) ; (2) the estimated extent of each allotment ; (3) the 
estimated quantity of hay on each lot. 
Number 
EXHIKITOKS. 
ICstinifited 
of Plot. 
Acreage of 
Quantity of 
Plot. 
Hay. 
Acres. 
1 
]2 
12 
2 
Champion (Gibbs's) 
5.i 
10| 
3 
Phillips's, Steam-power .. 
6' 
12 
4 
Do. Hand-power 
5 
10 
5* 
Kite 
10 
6* 
G 
14 
7* 
Greening, Hand-power 
8 
1 20 
8* 
Do. Steam-powir .. 
7 
: 9 
Bamlett 
14 
15 
In consequence of the unfavourable weather, Plots 5, 6, 7, and 
8 (marked *) were abandoned, so far as trials of the fans were 
concerned, and the stacks were made up without paying strict 
regard to the limits of the several plots. In Plot 9, the stacker 
made his stack larger than was intended, and an extra quantity 
had to be put into the roof to make it safe. 
As the weather from the 3rd to the 24th of July will be 
frequently referred to, it may be well to draw attention at this 
point to some trustworthy meteorological observations made in 
the immediate neighbourhood. By the kindness of Mr. A. W. 
Parry, Borough Surveyor of Reading, a complete record of ob- 
servations made at the Forbury Gardens, in the town of Reading, 
has been obtained and is appended to this Report (p. 720). It 
will be seen by this Table, that from the 3rd until the 17th 
of the month some rainfall was registered on every day, and 
that from the 3rd day, when mowing began, to the 24th, when the 
last hay-stack was completed, rain fell on 18 days out of the 22. 
Although the aggregate quantity of rainfall was not large (2"1 in.), 
it was emphatically a showery period. But the hygrometrical 
conditions of the atmosphere are all-important as regards hay- 
making. A heavy rainfall may occur, and the effect of it will 
quickly disappear if evaporation be rapid. From the 4th to 
the 22nd — within which period of iG days the work was 
really done — there was never more than 6° difference betweea 
the readings of the icet and dry bulb thermometers. The 
humidity ranged during that period from 67 to 94, complete 
saturation being represented by 100 ; the mean degree of 
humidity for the first 7 days (4th to 10th July) being 72-7, and 
for the next 7 days (Uth to 17th) 78-7. In the column of 
general observations on the weather of the past 24 hours, 5 days 
